The Gin Rummy Players

       I deal the hand, and the knock card is the 8 of diamonds. My hand is as follows:  My opponent picks up the knock card and throws the 9 of diamonds, which normally suggests that he is filling in a spread of 8s. However, my first thought is that he may be using his 9 as a fisherman, seeking another 9 to be used in a run.  

        I draw the 7 of clubs from the deck and discard the King of diamonds, which is virtually dead. My cards are poor ones for a high knock hand, and I want to break away from high value cards having little chance of developing into melds.  My opponent picks from the deck and throws— the Queen of diamonds! Whether he would have thrown it except on top of my King of diamonds is something I have no way of knowing. In any case, it does not alter the fact that my reasoning was sound on my previous play, and I do not dwell on what might have been but turn my mind to future plays.  I draw the 6 of hearts from the deck.
 
            My discard is the Jack of diamonds. In two plays I have filled in my hand with matching cards.  But to no avail. Although the Jack of diamonds was a reasonably safe throw, my opponent picks it up for a spread of Jacks. He also holds three 8s, and knocks with 6.  I have only my King-Queen-Jack of hearts to meld, and no layoffs, so my opponent picks up a net of 35 points on the hand.  Dropping back to the beginning of the hand, when I speculated that my opponent was fishing for a 9 to fit into a run, it may now appear to you that my reasoning was off base. Not so.

            When my opponent knocked, his turn-down card was a 10. In other words he was holding two Jacks and a 10 matching one of the Jacks in suit. He could have completed his meld with either a 9 to make a run or a Jack to make a spread. Had I given him the 9 he needed, he would have completed his meld two plays earlier.  To date, the cards are running strongly against me and I must play cautiously and try to turn the tide.
Hand Five
 Since I lost the last hand, it is my deal and the turned-up knock card is the 9 of clubs. I hold the following cards:  

           My opponent refuses the knock card, and I pick it up. I am hopeful of a quick  knock and I discard the 8 of spades, fully aware that this is a gamble since it is a wild card. If we were playing a 100 point game, I would hesitate to make this move with my opponent already holding 57 points and would instead discard the 4 of diamonds.

         However, I decide that it is a good gamble, since the unmatched cards in my hand are all low value and should everything go wrong I don’t stand to lose many points.  My opponent picks up the 8 of spades (my just reward for a wild play) and discards the King of diamonds. I pick the Queen of diamonds from the deck and, after moving it around in my hand, discard it.

                  Most of all players love to play the gin rummy game. My opponent refuses the 8 of spades, draws from the deck and discards an 8 of hearts. (He reasons as I had hoped he would, even though unfortunately he did not give me the suit I needed.

The Queen of spades. I consider throwing the 7 of diamonds instead, which is a much safer play. If this 200 point game were in its final stages, chances are I would select the 7 of diamonds to discard. However, since neither of us has yet accumulated many points, I make a less cautious play and discard the Queen of spades. Both it and the 5 of hearts I am holding are wild cards, but the 5 is wilder and lower. The fact that my opponent has already picked up a King decreases the chances that the Queen will interest him. 

              I lay down my two melds of 7-8-9 of clubs and three Aces, lay off my 6 of diamonds on his three 6s, and—as I have the 3 of clubs, 3 of spades and 5 of hearts left—I take a loss in this hand of 7 points.  You wife observe that even though my opponent took the knock card, and in his next three plays picked up a wild Queen and drew a 6 from the deck, he was still able to win only 7 points. 

              Retracing to my evaluation of my cards at the onset of this hand, I saw that if I had picked up the 5 or 8 of diamonds to complete my diamond run (discarding the 8 of spades) and then picked up either an Ace, deuce, or 3 (discarding the Queen of spades), the Ace or deuce would have given me an 8 or 9 knock and the 3 an additional spread for a one point knock after only two plays.  As it turned out, my diamond run failed to fill in, but I picked up a spread of Aces. This is something to stamp in your mind, particularly in the early stages of any hand: Hands have a way of filling in, one way or another; if they fail to materialize as you originally hoped, they may still come through in another manner. By keeping your  strategy flexible and learning to roll with the punches, you can keep the hand working for you rather than slavishly trying to force it into a specific pattern.            

                   Now, after three hands, the cards are running nicely for my opponent. He has picked up the knock card in two of the three hands, and although his throws have generally been on the reckless side, his gambles have mostly paid off. Many a player in my position would be tempted to throw caution to the wind and switch to more offensive maneuvers. But intuition and experience beckon me to stick to my careful play. Things have a way of evening themselves out as the game progresses. Score at the end of the third hand:  Wander 13 Opponent 22