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Sixteen Basic Principles To Win
Do you feel prepared now to return to the gin rummy wars, well armed and ready for battle? If you’ve been able to absorb everything written here, I can promise you some pleasant surprises when you go back to the game table. For some of you, if you are already very experiences gin rummy players, the contents of this book may result in modifications of your game. For others the effect may be much more radical: it may mean doing a lot of things exactly the opposite of the way you’ve been doing them through many years of “playing at” gin rummy. If you’re a novice, you’re particularly dear to my heart—you are in a unique position to learn the game correctly from the beginning, if you apply the lessons you’ve learned, you. have every chance of moving quickly up to the expert class.
Whichever category you belong in, what follows is important to you. This is a review of my basic guides to good gin rummy playing. You should commit these guides to memory. Until you do, read them over regularly. They will serve as a refresher on what to keep in mind when you’re playing the game. The guides listed here are a nutshell condensation of the points I have been making. Earlier in the book I explained the reasons for them, illustrated how they work in actual practice in the course of a rummy games, and tested your ability to apply them in the series of questions posed in the previous chapter. Now for your handy reference, here they are in summary form: my sixteen basic principles of good play.
1. When the deal has been completed, always count your cards to make sure there has not been a misdeal.
2. At the beginning of each hand, check the game score and note carefully the knocking card. These are two important factors in determining how you should play the hand.
3. Study your opponent. Observe his style of play, how he sets his cards in his hand, his pattern of throwing discards, how much he speculates. Be confident but not overconfident, and never underestimate your opponent.
4. Keep your opponent off guard by varying your pattern of play and rearranging your hand from time to time, and avoid any mannerisms that will give your opponent valuable tips about your own play.
5. As a general practice, don’t speculate by picking up discards that will not complete a meld in your hand.
6. Never discard a card you have just picked up until you have placed it in your hand and shifted your cards around.
7. Don’t be afraid to discard an add-on card to a meld your opponent is holding if it is the logical play to make at the moment.
8. Don’t be afraid to break up meld possibilities—or even melds—if it will assure you of safe discards or if it will otherwise serve your interests. This is especially true when the combinations you break are of high face value, since you may at the same time be able to build your hand along more favorable lines.
9. Avoid getting caught with a blocked hand— that is, a hand built around melds that are blocked at one or both ends, which give you little or no chance of knocking or going gin.
10. Never forget the importance of layoffs, which often can enable you to undercut your opponent. Proper play can provide you with layoffs you may not even be aware of.
11. Pay close attention to the cards that are discarded; your ability to remember them can mean the difference between winning and losing.
12. With few exceptions, always knock at the first opportunity.
13. In a gin hand, don’t be afraid to break away from a meld if necessary in order to avoid a risky play that could give your opponent gin.
14. Don’t gamble on reckless plays simply be.. cause you are near the bottom of the deck. It may be wiser to try for a draw rather than make a rash move and throw the hand.
