What is Straight Gin?
In the standard game here you can end a hand by knocking: once the unmatched cards in your hand, your deadwood, count 10 or less, you lay down your melds and discard. Your opponent then lays off what they can on your melds, and the lower deadwood wins the difference.
In Straight Gin there is no knocking. The only way to end a hand is to go gin: after drawing, every card in your hand but the one you discard must form sets and runs. You score the deadwood left in your opponent's hand plus the 25-point gin bonus. Since nobody knocks, there is no laying off and no undercut.
Hands last longer, and the stock can run low. Like every variant here, Straight Gin plays the published stock rule: the last two cards of the stock are never drawn, and if a player discards without going gin when only two cards are left, the hand is dead and nobody scores. In a one-hand game a dead hand is a draw; in a game played to a target, the same dealer deals again.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Gin Rummy | Straight Gin |
|---|---|---|
| Knocking | Standard Gin RummyAllowed once your deadwood counts 10 or less. | Straight GinNot allowed, whatever your deadwood. |
| How a hand ends | Standard Gin RummyA player knocks or goes gin. | Straight GinA player goes gin, or the stock is down to its last two cards. |
| Score for the hand | Standard Gin RummyGin scores the opponent's deadwood plus 25. A knock scores the difference between the two deadwood counts. | Straight GinGin scores the opponent's deadwood plus 25, the only way to score. |
| Laying off and undercuts | Standard Gin RummyAfter a knock, the opponent lays off cards on the knocker's melds; if their deadwood is then no higher, they undercut and score the difference plus 25. | Straight GinThere are no knocks, so there is no laying off and no undercut. Nobody can lay off on a gin hand in either game. |
| End of the stock | Standard Gin RummyWhen the stock runs out, the discard pile except its top card is shuffled into a new stock. | Straight GinThe last two cards of the stock can't be drawn. A discard that leaves two cards in the stock ends the hand with no score: a draw in a one-hand game, a new deal by the same dealer in a longer game. |
| Other options | Standard Gin RummyOklahoma rules, a game to 100 or 250 points and Hollywood scoring can be chosen. | Straight GinStraight Gin replaces Oklahoma rules, since both decide when you may knock. It can be played as one hand, as a game to 100 or 250 points, or with Hollywood scoring. |
History
Straight gin is a recognised variant of gin rummy: players must play until one of them can go gin, and knocking is not allowed. The same game is also known as Gin Only, in which a player has to go gin to go out, and is then played as a game to 250 points.
The stock rule played here is the published one. When the stock is down to two cards and the player who took the third-last card discards without ending the hand, the hand is cancelled, there is no score and the same dealer deals again; some rule sets add that the last two cards may not be drawn. Without knocking, many more hands run the stock down, which is why the rule matters most in Straight Gin.