Oklahoma Gin Rules

Oklahoma Ginis designed for up to four players. Unlike other Rummy games such as Kalooki,Rummy 500or TraditionalRummy, Oklahoma Gin is played with only one standard deck of cards without Jokers (52 cards).

Ina 2 player game every player is dealt ten cards. In a three to four player game each player is dealt seven cards. The remaining cards form the deck, and one open card is used as the discard pile.

The object of the game is to form as many melds from the cards in hand. A meld can be either a set or a run.

Apartfrom forming melds, players must try to reduce their deadwood count, orin other words to minimize the values of the cards that do not belong to any meld.

The Play

A turn in Oklahoma is divided into two parts that make up a standard turn, except for the last turn of a hand/game.

1. Drawing from the deck or the top card of the discard pile.
2. Throwing a card to the discard pile.

Thegame can end in one of three ways:

1. Gin - players lay down all the cards in their hand in valid melds, and throw the last card to the knock area. When a player Gins other players cannot add cards to that player's melds.
2. Knock - a player lays down valid melds and has a deadwood count that's equal or lower than ten. In this move as well the player throws a card to the knock area.
3. Undercut - when a player knocks his or her opponents can lay down their melds and also add cards to the knocker's melds (but only to that player's original melds).

For example: a player knocked and laid down.

Theperson playing next added 6H, meaning that the player who plays third will not be able to add 5H.

Through adding cards players can reduce their deadwood count, and therefore are rewarded for keeping the cards that the Knocker needed for his own melds.

The player who's next in line can lay down two melds and has JH and 6Hand two 4s. In this case the opponent can add his cards to the appropriate meld, thus lowering the number of penalty points from 24to 4!

Undercut - if one of the player knocks, and an opponent has a lower deadwood count, that opponent will win while the Knocker will be penalized by 25  points.

If only 2 last cards are left in the deck, the discard pile is reshuffled and used as the new deck.

Thedifference between Gin Rummy and Oklahoma is this: In an Oklahoma game the starting card determines the maximum deadwood a player can have in order to knock. The number is taken from the card's value in penalty points, where face cards (K, Q, J) are worth 10, and a starting ace willset the knock value to "Gin only", making it impossible to have even a single point as deadwood.

Official Prize distribution in Oklahomagames

The winner receives 75% of the pool prize (minimum), and the rest is divided between the other players. Players' win percentage is calculated according to their penalty points and the winner's, as long as they have less than 50 penalty points than the winner.

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