When you are knocked against, it is vitally important that you are able to read and alter your hand for the purpose of laying off to your best advantage. Underknocks do not occur as frequently as gin so you need to be aware of how to handle yourself when you do have an underknock situation. In most cases underknocks are played for deliberately by players who are primarily defensive, and those who play against known knockers. In the latter case, the knockers are deliberately playing for underknocks in the hope of disrupting their opponent’s normal patterns of play. It is all very confusing at times, but it can be the most beneficial part of your game if you know when and how to do it.

The player using this strategy will accomplish his purpose by not knocking his own hand when possible, but by keeping his count to an absolute minimum to always be in a position to underknock his opponent. He also may be deliberately discarding cards which, if used by his opponent for melds,...

When playing for gin, you need to remember that basically a hand does not become what is generally considered a gin hand until there are either nine melded cards, or seven melded cards with matching cards. With a nine melded hand, the hand has a minimum of two gin possibilities and a maximum of nine. The minimum of two and the maximum of nine are considered to be freak hands, and rarely happen, so usually it is somewhere in the middle. Generally a poor hand with nine melded has only three or four ways to go gin, while a good one may have six or seven possibilities.

Example of a three-way gin: 2♣, 2♥, 2♠, 5♦, 5♥, Q♠, Q♦, Q♣, 8♥
There are only 3 cards that can gin this hand - 2♦, 5♠, Q♥

Example of a four-way gin: 6♠, 6♥, 6♣, 7♦, 7♥, 7♠, 10♠, J♠, Q♠, A♣
There are four cards that will gin this hand - 6♦, 7♣, 9♠, K♠

Example of a five-way gin: 7♦, 7♣, 7♥, 4♠, 3♠, 2♠, J♥, 10♥, 9♥,...

In gin rummy, there is an old adage that many people still play by. It is “When in doubt – knock!” In the early play of any hand except if you can go gin, you should knock the first chance you get, when it is the safest to do so. As the hand progresses to the middle and late stages, there are also times that are important for you to knock.

One of those reasons is if all of your matched sets are dead or practically dead. That means that if all or most of the cards you need have already been discarded or are being used in sets that your opponent holds. You should knock, even if you are sure you are going to lose the hand. If you don’t knock, your opponent is sure to go gin and the resultant loss will be greater than if you make a sacrifice knock. The only reason you wouldn’t do this if the resulting knock will cost you the game by the score.

In knocking for any reason, you should always meld your hand in a manner that will afford your opponent the least...

The decision of when to knock, play for gin, or play for the underknock often depends on the condition of the score and on your hand.

If you are on a schneid, then you should knock as quickly as possible. Though you may have a very good hand, you need to remember that your opponent may hold an equally good one. This is especially true if you are behind in points, and you are in the later stages of the game. At this point, he can afford to play for the gin bonuses, but you can’t. Do not take the chance of going for gin now. You need to score first, and then resume the normal risks of playing for gin in the next hand. When the situation is reversed and you have your opponent on a schneid, you have the luxury of playing for a quick knock or going for gin, depending on the condition of your hand.

While getting off a schneid or keeping an opponent on a schneid are the most dominant situations in any game, most hands should be played to win the maximum number of points....

While appraising your hand is important at any given moment in the game, it is especially important as you get down to the end of the hand. There are three general considerations to appraising your hand, especially during the middle and late stages of play. They are:

1. The actual condition of your own hand
2. The condition of the score and the relative value to you when playing your hand for its maximum offensive or defensive possibilities
3. The knowledge that you have been able to obtain as to exactly the condition of your opponent’s hand and what cards he holds.

Both the condition of your own hand and the condition of the score will be factors that are readily visible to you. Therefore, your important determination becomes the condition of your opponent’s hand. The factors that you must take into consideration are primarily:

1. The discards that have already been made
2. The melds that are available to your opponent from these melds

An add-on or a throw-in is any card discarded to your opponent with the full knowledge that it is a card that can be used by him to be added on to an existing meld. That is, if you know your opponent is holding a meld of three 10’s and you discard the fourth 10, this discard is considered to be an add-on.

Add-ons frequently have an offensive value in the fact that they permit you to play the full value of your hand rather than destroying some of your offensive strength in order to hold those cards that are wanted by your opponent. There are many occasions when an add-on to your opponent will, if picked, reduce his hand only by the value of the one additional card that he is free to discard. Whereas the discarding of a total wild card may reduce his hand by as much as 20 points, depending on what he needs. Your opponent may be able to meld two other cards to that one wild card that you discard to him.

Most of the questions related to when or when not to add-on...

When there are about 12 cards remaining in the unused stock and you are approaching the late stages of a hand, you may have to make some choices about which discards you throw. This can essentially change whether or not you win the game or play it to the wall.

If you have to make a choice between a single wild card and breaking a pair, the odds predict that the throw of a single card will be less harmful to you than discarding from the pair. The odds favor your opponent because as the stock decreases, there is a good chance that your opponent is holding the same pair that you have. The single card however could then be an add-on for your opponent and may even force him to break his pair to you. If you break your pair before your opponent does he could either go gin, or you would then be left holding two unmeldable cards which is not good for you. This situation would deprive you of any opportunity of winning the hand, except for the unlikely possibility of an underknock....

Reading your opponent’s hand, especially in middle to late stages of play, is a matter of skill which you need to build up over time. The beginner has virtually no conception at any time of his opponent’s holdings. The good player has a reasonable idea, but cannot eliminate certain cards. By the eighth card played, the expert player has a pretty fair knowledge of what the opponent is holding in his hand. By the sixteenth card, the expert player can practically read the hand card for card and has almost always determined his opponent’s exact hand. This is the point in which you want to get to.

There are various clues and bits of information that help you to read your opponent’s hand, such as his discards, his picks from your discards, your own hand, and his playing rhythm. His discards generally tell you what he does not want as far as the cards are concerned. You will know that when playing against a high knock that if your opponent throws an Ace or two, he does...

When you are down to approximately the last 12 cards, it is considered to be late play in the hand of the game. You should at this point make it a practice to count the number of cards remaining, every single time it is your turn. If it is an odd number it means that you have the extra pick coming. This represents a tremendous advantage to you and should not be relinquished under normal circumstances.

However, when playing a hand to win, you should pick up any discards by your opponent that will get you a meld instead of picking from the stock. In playing to the wall though, it is not wise to pick up an opponent’s discard instead of picking from the deck because that will extend the life of the game, when your most important concern would be getting to the last two cards.

Under certain circumstances, you might pick up a discard that gives you a blocking combination. That means that if you have a safe card to throw and are reasonably sure that the card or cards...

By now, it should be obvious that many gin hands are played on a purely mechanical basis. There are the so called “no-brainers”, in which play ends before any cards are drawn from the stock. Then there are the occasions when hands are completed within the first three to five picks. Such hands obviously require little or no skill at all. Then there are the hands that go past the either pick, and this is where the expert certainly has the advantage. It is called the middle or late play of the hand. This is when specific knowledge and skill are required to win a hand that ordinarily would be lost. These are the hands that are often the difference between winning and losing any given gin rummy session.

The opening plays of the hand require important decisions for sure, but a hand that goes beyond the either pick requires more crucial decision making. The beginner will depend on pure luck as far as his play at this point is concerned. The good player will utilize card...