Gin rummy books?

[WhiteWolf]

Can anyone recommend some good books on gin rummy strategy? Or any other resources?

Thanks,

The Wolf

[Warren Whitmore]

No stratagy but "The gin game" was a fun movie to watch.

[benkahuna]

Yeah, my dad kills me in that game. I want some help.

Play gin like Stu Ungar would be pretty sweet. He was supposed to be the best gin player ever.

[WhiteWolf]

MagicNinja has some good info over on this thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=3495121&page=0&view=colla psed&sb=5&o=14&fpart=1), but he says he's also having trouble finding good info.

No one here has any good gin books recommendations?

[playersare]

"gin rummy: how to play and win" by Sam Fry got pretty good reviews, and it's only $4 new on amazon.

has to be halfway decent in order to stay in print since 1978.

[WhiteWolf]

Yeah, I saw that one... looks good, and the price is sure right!

Thanks,

The Wolf

[npc]

[ QUOTE ]
"gin rummy: how to play and win" by Sam Fry got pretty good reviews, and it's only $4 new on amazon.

has to be halfway decent in order to stay in print since 1978.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have reviewed Fry's book as well. IMHO, it's fine for beginners, but offers little in the way of deep insight. Understanding this book will definitely make it less likely you'll embarass yourself, but it won't make you Stu Ungar.

The main reason for this post is to address the issue of the book's publication history. The fact that it's still in print and its low cost are part and parcel. The book is published by Dover. Their plan of attack is to take out of print books whose authors no longer will receive royalties (either because the work is in the public domain, or the author has waived royalties because keeping the book in print is more valuable than the money) and sell them cheap.

That doesn't mean that any Dover books aren't good books. Generally, I really respect their quality, especially in the sciences. However, keeping a Dover book in print isn't as impressive as, say, keeping a book continuously in print through a more mainstream publishing house such as Pearson or Simon and Schuster or someone like that.

[SamIAm]

I wanted to bump this old thread to ask if anybody's read the more recent Gin books out there. Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=br_ss_hs/002-2489808-8310468?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&keywor ds=gin+rummy&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go) has plenty, but I don't know if any are any good.

I bought the Fry book ($4.25 incl. s/h /images/graemlins/smile.gif), so I'm probably looking for a more advanced text. I'm sure the "Talking Gin Rummy Handheld Game" would make for good company on lonely nights, but I'm looking for something a little more ... academic. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005LBYB.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

-Sam

[Lanzalot]

I recommend "Gin Rummy at its Best" by George Fraed. It is on the second page of SamIAm's Amazon link. Very good book, learned alot from it.

[Rob-L]

One just came out a few weeks ago. I don't know much about it. Go to this page and look at the week of JUNE 9-11 2006.

http://www.gamblersbook.com/pages/modify/newbooks.stm

[Wolf44]

In her Backgammon boutique http://www.flintbg.com/boutique.html, Carol Joy Cole offers

Gin Rummy: A Predator's Guide, by Michael Sall for $200.

I have no idea what makes this guide so special that it´s worth 200$.

[Lax67]

I play Gin quite a bit and before I discovered poker this was my favorite card game. I too looked for books on gin, but found that the ones I did find were pretty basic and offered little in terms of advancing my play or thought process about the game. I wouldn't expect to find a book that treats gin the way TOP treats poker. I just don't think that gin is that complicated. I'm interested to hear if others think differently.

The main skill you'll need to develop is memorizing, or keeping track of, the cards that your opponent picks up and/or discards. For example, if your opponent dumped two red queens, but picked up the queen of clubs, you can safely assume he's completed a run or going for one. Another example would be if you have 6h 7h, needing the 5h or 8h for a meld, and you've seen your opponent pick up two fives. Chances are your 5h is dead and killing the low end of your run. Pretty simple stuff, mostly deductive reasoning and intuition. I think once you develop this skill you can read your opponent's hand quite easily and make the appropriate plays.

You should also "count outs" when playing. Going back to the above example the 5h and 8h are outs. But let's say you also have an 8c in your hand giving you two to a run and two to a meld of 8 for a total of 4 outs. Picking up the 7c to match your 8c will give you another two to a run and more outs (6c 9c). So in other words, look to add outs and collect cards that are coordinated, which gives you more ways to put melds together. However, you should always opt to finish melds, rather than create more for the sake of adding outs.

You also want to put melds together quickly and knock early if you think your opponent hasn't put much together.

Those skills, thorough understanding of the rules (and variations), and lots of playing time is all you really need. As far a Stu Ungar, I have no idea what made him so good at gin. I would guess that he had excellent recall and could read his opponent's hands very well.

I hope this spurs some discussion, I'd like to read what others think.