When to Knock and When to Go For Gin

In Gin Rummy, when discussing low up-cards which mean low knock points, you need to look at many different aspects before you decide whether to knock or go for Gin. There are several questions which you should ask yourself before you decide if you have reached the point of getting the amount of points you need to knock. You need to follow the official Gin Rummy Rules.

Suppose you get your three-card runs reasonably early, at a three or two point knock, and your tenth card is an Ace or a Deuce, the question becomes whether or not you should play for Gin. With an Ace up that decision is obviously made for you, and with a 2 or 3 up that decision is based primarily on what the up-card is and if you needed it, and how early in the hand it is. You also have to look at how many cards can Gin you, and how many cards has your opponent taken. Ask yourself if your opponent seems to be throwing out very wild discards and if there is the complete absence of several denominations of cards in the discard pile. The very fact that you think your opponent may be close to Gin often tells you to forego your Gin play and go down in a purely defensive manner. At a low knock you should not fail to go down because you are afraid of being undercut, since this is most unlikely with such low knock cards. If you continue to play for Gin you must do so out of optimism and not out of fear.

One more question to ask yourself is how the immediate available discard looks to you. You also may want to figure out your future discarding in general in case your Gin cards fail to appear quickly. The need to decide whether to knock or to play for Gin actually come up very frequently whether or not you have a low knock card. When it?s late in the hand, and you know your opponent must be down pretty low, the Gin bonuses loom even larger in proportion to the few points we expect to pick up. Here is an example of this situation in Gin Rummy:

The 2? is the up-card and after the fifth draw you find yourself with this hand ?
9?, 8?, 7?, 9?, 8?, 7?, 4?, 4?, 4?, 2?, A?. Normally this is a hand on which the Gin bonuses would intrigue you. Five cards are available to Gin you, and the 2? and the A? are fairly safe discards. However, these other factors may exist. You know your opponent has 10?s because he took one and the sequence in that suit wasn?t possible, so at least one if not both the 10?s to add to your run will never appear. Also, you took up the 7? from the discard pile after another 7 had been discarded. So your opponent will never give you the 6? if he even has it or gets it. If he has or gets it, he?ll undoubtedly try to amass other 6?s to go with is, which means your chances of getting the 6? are cut down in half. So now your hopes for Gin are thoroughly diminished to not much more than the fourth 4. This is a situation in which you should knock for 1 instead, settling for the box and whatever points you get from your opponent. Since it is early in the hand you may get a lot of points.

That is what you must do each hand to figure out if you should Gin or knock. Be discerning and thorough in your investigation into the basic facts of why you should knock or go for Gin. Always think about your Gin Rummy Strategy.