Use a standard 52-card deck (no jokers)
Each player is dealt 10 cards
Place the remaining deck face down as the draw pile
Turn over the top card of the deck to start the discard pile
Choose who goes first (commonly by drawing for high card)
On your turn, draw 1 card from either the draw pile or the top of the discard pile
After drawing, form sets and runs in your hand
You may knock or gin when your hand meets the requirements
Discard 1 card face up to the discard pile at the end of your turn (unless you go out with gin/knock as part of the turn rules you follow)
A set is 3 or 4 cards of the same rank
A run is 3 or more cards of the same suit in consecutive rank
Face cards count as 10; Aces count as 1
Number cards count as their face value
Knock condition: your total deadwood (unmatched cards) must be 10 or less
Gin condition: you have no deadwood (all cards are in valid sets/runs)
To knock: declare “knock,” then reveal your hand
The opponent reveals their hand after the knock
If the opponent has gin, the round ends with the opponent scoring a gin bonus
If the opponent does not have gin, compare deadwood totals to determine the winner
If you go gin: declare “gin,” reveal your hand, and score accordingly
If you draw from the discard pile, you still discard 1 card at the end of your turn
Continue play for multiple rounds until a player reaches the target score (commonly 100 points)
Total points are based on deadwood differences and bonuses for gin and/or undercut, according to the scoring rules you choose to use