In today’s games of Gin Rummy, almost 80% of all games played are played in the partnership form of either four or six players. Gin has become much more interesting since the added features of fillips, nuances, and other strategic opportunities arose during the game. It also makes it more challenging than playing head to head contests. The method of playing each hand follows the same procedure that you use when you play head to head, but there are some important differences that can come into play when you are playing in a partnership game.
First, you will always be playing your partner’s hand or hands at the same time as you are playing your own. This simply means that you will have to really know what your partner is doing and be fully aware of how good or bad his hand is, while watching yours.
Second, there is the obligation that a player has to his partner or partners in the fact that he is no longer gambling just for his own money. Also, your partners may be playing for higher stakes then you are, and you must bear some of the responsibility for any of the losses or gains that they experience during the game.
Third, the player in turn is no longer gambling exclusively on his own abilities. You are now gambling on the abilities of your partner as well. The first rule in a partnership game is to be sure that you know everyone playing in the game. This means making sure you know your partner well enough to know that they will not cheat and will play to the ability that you expect in a partner. You also have to be concerned with knowing the other players and making sure they won’t cheat as well since partnership play is the easiest to cheat at in the game of Gin Rummy.
Fourth, the prime fundamental basis of any partnership game is the counts. The scoring in partnership is the combination of plus and minus scores of each individual hand of various partners, and the difference is credited to the side that scores the most points in any given hand.
When you are playing a partnership game you have to keep all of these things in mind. Although the play of each hand is essentially the same, there is considerably more at stake in a partnership game. You don’t want to ruin any chances of your partner winning, anymore than he wants to ruin any chances you have of winning. It is best to play with the same partner time and time again once you learned the way the play. You can use what you know to your advantage and so that you will more consistently win.