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Gin Tips & Strategies
Are you a Gin player wanting to spiff up your game? Take some time to browse the following tips, tricks and techniques to improve your playing style. Beginners to intermediate players will benefit from expert strategies included below. Maybe you are a world class Gin player, maybe not, but our hints can help you enjoy your game even more.
Do you have your own copy of Championship Gin All-Stars? Try a free trial of this popular game title, available for Windows, Windows Mobile/Pocket PC and Palm OS devices. Our interactive tutorial and five different skill levels make game play enjoyable and challenging for beginners and experts alike. Read the following tips, then try out what you learn when you play your copy of Championship Gin All-Stars!
Tips for Getting Started with Championship Gin All-Stars:
- Use the Difficulty menu to quickly set the "intelligence" of your opponents with five levels of difficulty.
- Adjust game speed and other options in the Settings menu.
- Click on the trickcard to quickly show the last trick played.
- Try all Game variations, or make your own!
- Play the Gin101 tutorial to improve your game.
- Get hints and undo bad plays, or disable practice options to resist the temptation!
- Change the look of your game with free skins and art selections.
- Partner or opponents frustrating? Throw a pie at them!
- Track your improvement with detailed history and statistics.
Ten Golden Rules:
Read these top 10 strategies for strategic game play!
Courtesy of GamesGrid.com.
1. Play to knock
As quickly as possible, develop a hand consisting of melds, a triangle, and a knock cache. When you hit one of the four cards needed to create a meld from the triangle, you can knock.
When playing Oklahoma, you should evaluate this rule based on the knock card; the closer to ten it is, the more applicable the rule.
2. If you're going to knock, knock!
If you are not playing to gin, knock as soon as possible. Every delay gives your opponent a chance to beat you to the knock. This is the most commonly violated rule in gin rummy (as well as in life generally).
3. Always pick up a meld
If your opponent's discard makes or increases a meld in your hand, pick it up. This improves your point count and brings you closer to the goal of knocking. Of course, you must weigh this rule appropriately if you have a possible draw-to-gin.
4. Don't pick up strays
If your opponent's discard does not make or increase a meld in your hand, don't pick it up. Your odds are better picking from the stock.
5. Don't help your opponent
If you know that a card will make or increase one of your opponent's melds, keep it in your hand. An exception occurs when the only choice is to give your opponent a new meld.
6. Don't try to help your opponent
If you think that a card might make or increase a meld for your opponent, keep it in your hand. If you have a choice of discards, choose the one with the fewest number of hits.
7. Throw the big bombs early
If you start with four (or more) unmatched 10-point cards in your hand, start discarding them immediately, regardless of the combination chances. It is good to keep one high-card triangle early on, but if it is still unfilled after six or seven draws, start discarding it safely. More points are lost more quickly by disregarding this rule than by any other failing.
8. Sweep the floor
This is an extension of rules (1) and (3). If you consider your knock cache a meld, then it is prudent to pick up a discard to fill it.
9. A tie is better than a loss
In the end game, thoughtful play is extremely valuable. You have more information about your opponent's hand, and can calculate the odds of any discard filling their needs. For the last few draws, your goal is to prevent your opponent from winning the hand. Win if you can, but play your discards completely safely.
10. An undercut is better than getting ginned
If you are faced with the choice of the risk of an undercut on your knock or the risk of discarding a card that gives your opponent gin, knock. Your opponent is more likely to gin than they are to undercut, and the loss when they gin is much greater than the loss when they undercut.
Now you've read all the tips and tricks that will help you become an expert Gin player, so pick up your copy of Championship Gin All-Stars and test your skills! Play at five different skill levels and keep track of your game using the detailed statistics option. Once you've mastered Championship Gin All-Stars, the games have just begun! Championship Gin is available for Windows, Windows Mobile/Pocket PC and Palm OS platforms today!
