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Hoyle's Online and The Rules of Gin Rummy?

What are some of the best online libraries where we can read books online for free, especially reference books? For instance, I'm interested in looking up the rules of gin rummy according to Hoyle.

Dave's Answer:

One of my favorite online sites of this nature is the amazing Project Gutenberg, which has over 16,000 electronic books free for the downloading. In fact, i like the project so much, I actually have an homage to it with my own Intuitive Reading Library.

A quick search at Project Gutenberg for books with the title word 'Hoyle', however, shows that there aren't any matches. Not good.

A bit of Google detective work reveals that "Hoyle's Rules of Games" hasn't had its copyright expire, so in fact it would be quite surprising to find a free copy of it online.

However, that doesn't mean we can't find specific information on the game of Gin Rummy online! I used Google to search for Gin Rummy Rules Hoyle and got oodles of matches, including a useful page at MeggieSoft Games:

"Ten cards are dealt to you and ten to your opponent. The remaining cards form the stock and are placed face down by the table. The top card is turned face up on the table. This card forms the beginning of the discard pile.

"The game progresses with the player or the opponent starting their turn. If this is a new game, the loser of the previous game starts. If this is a new round of an unfinished game, then the loser of the previous round starts. The player who is starting has the option of taking the card from the discard pile. If this option is declined, the other player can elect to take it instead. If this offer is also declined, the first player takes a card from the stock.

"Whether you started your turn by taking a new card from the stock or by taking the card from the discard pile, you continue your turn by determining whether you can, and wish to, "knock", which will signal the end of the current round. In order to knock, you must be able to meld cards from your hand to the table such that you will have ten or less points in your hand after discarding. If you meld all ten cards, you have scored "Gin". You conclude your turn by discarding a card from your hand.

"A round ends when a player has knocked. The other player may then lay down whatever melds they can, and add to the knocking player's melds. They do not take a card before this action, nor do they discard after.

"Successive rounds are dealt and played until one of the players achieves the goal of 100 points to win the game.'

Admittedly, these are detailing how their software program plays gin rummy, but since it's based on Hoyle's rules, these should logically be exactly what Hoyle says.

If you want to dig further, pop over to Hoyle's Links to Game-related Sites, which has plenty to keep you busy digging around for quite a while, and a bit more exploration will probably lead you to Rules of Card Games: Gin Rummy which has some excellent information too.

Finally, don't forget that you can just buy a copy of the book directly: checking on eBay, it looks like you could get a paperback for as little as $0.75

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Comments

Great blog, thanks! I thought some of the other gin rummy fans might find www.ginrummyroom.com informative and useful. Thanks.

Posted by: Kirsten at March 13, 2006 10:21 PM

when someone goes out and can not discard, all the other players get aturn to play, but one player went out also after his turn . the score is the same - who wins?

Posted by: james at July 19, 2006 11:53 AM

James, I'm not familiar with a rule that lets everyone else play out one hand after someone has played out, so I'm unsure what's legal in the situation you outline. I suspect that if you check the Hoyle rules, you'll find that if someone plays out and doesn't need to discard, then the game is still effectively over.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at July 19, 2006 7:57 PM

question: when someone discards, say a 3 of diamonds and there are already 2 other 3's in the discard pile, can you call something and get ONLY the 3's out of the pile even if it's not your turn?????

Posted by: dena at April 8, 2007 12:25 PM

As far as we play, only the person whose turn it is can take anything from the discard pile and if they take more than the topmost card, they must play the bottommost card of the pile they pick up. So, no, you can't take cards out of turn.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at April 8, 2007 12:57 PM

Can someone settle an argument. When playing '500 rummy' as I call it, if a person picks up more than 1 card from the pile and realizes after he picks it up that he made a mistake, and cannot use the last card, what are the consequences? Does he just put it all back and draw from the pile? I say he puts it all back and loses his turn. Anyone know a rule on this?

Posted by: jim at April 9, 2007 12:36 PM

Jim, I guess if you're all friends then you can let them back up and put all the cards back on the stack, but if they do that too often it'd be darn annoying and make me wonder if they were cheating. :-)

Posted by: Dave Taylor at April 9, 2007 12:42 PM

There are a few times we have fought over this. Once, they said they meant to pick up more cards and wanted to go back and pick more up. Another time they picked up too many cards and wanted to put some back. An argument ensued each time. I looked up the rules and it said that you HAVE to IMMEDIATELY USE the card which you pick up. So I say, if you can use the card you pick up to, you have to, even though you would like to change your mind. That seems simple and enforceable. They say they weren't finished the move yet, but I say it is just like discarding a rummy. You suffer the consequences of the mistake. The above question is still unclear though as to whether you can re-do your move when you make a mistake and pick up cards that you CAN'T use. That is where I think you have to lose a turn, but can't find anything to substantiate that. It seems logical that you can't just undo mistakes in rummy.

Posted by: Jim at April 9, 2007 2:09 PM

can you go gin with 2 runs of 5?

Posted by: Leslie at May 3, 2007 9:43 PM

I once learned a game called Rummy 5000 where you use the Jokers and have a varible wild card each hand.Those cards are worth 100 hundred points and the rest have standard value (you play to 5000 points). But I can't remember the rest of the rules I was wondering if you knew this game and it's rules.

Posted by: Rebecca at June 1, 2007 2:55 PM

Adjustment-- Jokers & wilds equal 100 points

Posted by: Rebecca at June 1, 2007 2:59 PM

I think a lot of fun of games like Gin comes from the discussion about the rules beforehand. If you dont compete in tournaments, the most important things are, having an agreement about the rules and having fun!

Posted by: Victor Landsley at October 2, 2007 12:54 AM

Thanks, I was looking for some things about gin rummy. After I read this post I stumbled across RummyTalk.com as well, it's almost too big but if anybody wants to know more then it's a great resource.

Posted by: Adam Whitman at December 16, 2007 10:29 AM

can you play a card from the discard pile and a card from your hand off of anothers straight.

for example:

player 1 has 2,3,4 showing
player 4 drew four cards from the discard pile startig with the 6. he had the 5 in his hand can he lay them down he 5 and 6?

Posted by: sean at March 7, 2008 11:37 PM

when playing 3 or more players, can a player knock out of turn if the card on the discard pile will allow that player to "go gin" and thus winning the hand.
thank you

Posted by: Ron at March 29, 2008 10:22 PM

Ron, I sure don't think so. You have turns in the game and you have to wait for your own turn, even if the card that's up is the one you need. I mean, that's part of the challenge / strategy of the game...

Posted by: Dave Taylor at March 29, 2008 11:29 PM

when you knock and find out you can"t
do you have to leave all cards down
or just the lays and pick up the other
ones

Posted by: richard burley at April 10, 2008 1:13 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!