Basic Defense in Gin Rummy

Gin is an interesting card game for a lot of reasons, one of which is that you can play both offense and defense against your opponent.

Being a poker player, I was not accustomed to playing "defensive" cards. But, if you want to win Gin matches, playing defense is a must.

Here are a couple of basic defensive ideas in Gin:

• Any middle range "wild" card can be used to complete one of six potential melds your opponent may be trying to build. For example, if you throw the 7 of diamonds, your opponent may be holding: 8-9d, 6-8d, 5-6d, 7h-7c, 7h-7s, 7c-7s.

  The idea is to use your cards, your knowledge of what's been thrown into the discard pile, and what you know about your opponent's hand to throw the card that is least likely to complete a meld for your opponent.

  Sometimes you will know that a card is completely safe to throw (perhaps your opponent has just thrown the K spades, and you hold the K hearts Q hearts. The K heart is a safe throw.) Other times, you'll know what hands your opponent can not have, but there is still a risk involved.

• Use your hand to find safer cards to discard. Suppose you hold [7c-8c-9c-8d]. You now know that you opponent might be able to use the 8d to complete a run, but the odds that he is sitting on a pair of 8's is lower. The only pair of 8's he can have is the 8s-8h, so he might be able to use your discard to complete one of four melds, instead of one of six.

  By using your knowledge of the cards he can't have, you can throw less risky cards into the discard pile.

• Use your opponents discard (or an up card your opponent passes on) to find out more about their hand. If your opponent discards the 5 clubs, you know for sure he does not have the 6-7 club combination. He isn't collecting fives either. And, he surely doesn't have the 3-4 clubs combination.

  You can use this kind of information to find safer discards in your hand.

• As the game wears on, your knowledge of what is already in the discard pile can be used to find cards in your hand that you can discard safely. If the Jack of Hearts has been discarded, and two Queens have been discarded, the Queen of Hearts is a completely safe discard.

  The longer the hand goes on, the more information is available to you. So, cards that may have been "wild" earlier in the hand can become safer discards later.

If you approach the game of Gin as a race to the finish, and never pay attention to what is safe or unsafe to throw, you won't be a long-term winner. You want to get where you are going (either a knock or a gin) without helping your opponent get there faster.