Gin Rummy

Dad taught how to play Jinrami (Gin rummy? Jin Rummy? Jingramy?) earlier tonight. It's this card game, which mocks the excellence of poker in a way, but perhaps made for those who wanted a game with a bit of strategy and not just pure luck. I have no idea how strategy works with poker, and whether you have a good hand or not, baffles me. Anyway, here's how the game goes:

Preferably, there's four players. You play with 4 decks of cards (no idea why). Each gets 15 cards. And so the game begins. To decide who plays first, each take one card from the deck and whoever gets the smallest number starts first.

When it's your turn, you dispose a card and then draw another one. The aim of the game is to basically finish all your cards. How do you that?

To do that, you'd have to have your cards placed on the table, facing upwards, and to be able to perform that, you'd need a passport. A passport consists of numbers in order of the same suit, and they'd have to be four or more cards. Example: 2,3,4,5 of spades. Or 10,J,Q,K of hearts. If you have than four numbers in order, you're more than welcomed to put em down. It's for your own benefit anyway (The less cards the better, remember?). So once you have a passport, you're able to pair up any threes or more (three being the minimum) of either the same numbers from different or the same suite (doesn't matter) or numbers in order again but from the same suit (like for the passport, but you can have only 3 cards for this one, or more, your choice). You can only do this during your turn. Another way of disposing your cards is by pairing them with your opponents'. Say after laying down your passports and your other pairs, you're left with a 5 of spade and a Jack of diamonds, if one of your opponents have a group of 5'ves that he's put on the table, you can simply chuck your 5 there (it doesn't matter the if it's the same suits or not), and if he also has 8,9,10 of diamonds, you can chuck the Jack there too (must be of the same suit).

So now we know that the aim is to lose all cards and the way of doing them. However there are two ways to win. It's either you game, or you Jin (Gin?). Game is when you have all cards on the table with your passport and disposing your cards one by one. Gin is when you have in hand, your passport, and all other cards are either in pairs or orders of number. For example, you can't have the missing link. Meaning, you can't have one or two cards that doesn't belong in any group. So once you've established that, you can straight away put them on the table and say Gin (Jin?). Usually people will be more eager to put their passport down first rather than accumulating all cards to be able to Gin it. Why? Because, when someone has 'game', the cards left on your hands will be counted and that's your score (the higher your score by the end of the night, you'll become the biggest loser). So you'd want to have less cards on your hands. On top of that, you'd have to add an additional 20 marks (Don't ask me why, game rules). However, if a person Gins, you'd have to double whatever mark there is in your hands. Say if you're left with a 10 and a jack (10+10=20), it'll become, 40. So that's why you won't want to take the chance to Gin by accumulating a lot of cards, unless chances are really good and you can see or predict that others won't be able to Gin before you.

So there you go, a really messed explanation on Gin Rummy. You should ask me in person though. With my hand gestures, you'd understand everything within the first 5 minutes.

ps: It has been my dad's dream to finally be able to teach his daughter how to play Gin Rummy, so that he could have game night on weekends. He tried so many times but I was too densed. And so he succeeded.