How Many Cards Are Dealt in Gin Rummy?

Each player gets 10 cards, and one card goes face up

Use one standard 52-card deck with the jokers removed. The dealer shuffles, the other player cuts, and the dealer deals:

1. 10 cards to each player, one at a time, face down, starting with the opponent.
2. One card face up next to the deck. This is the upcard. It starts the discard pile.
3. The other 31 cards are set face down in the middle. This is the stock.

That uses 21 cards from the deck: 10 + 10 + 1. Add the 31 in the stock, and you are back to 52.

Here is the deal, laid out with real cards

You hold 11 cards only in the middle of your turn

Every turn starts by taking one card, from the stock or the discard pile, so for a moment you have 11. Then you discard one and are back to 10. When you knock, you discard face down, so you always show 10 cards.

This is why people sometimes remember gin rummy as an “11-card game.” In the standard rules, nobody is dealt 11.

The non-dealer is dealt first and plays first

Cut or draw cards to choose the first dealer; low card deals. After that, the winner of each hand usually deals the next one. Some families just take turns, which is fine.

The non-dealer gets the first card of the deal and the first chance at the upcard. If they don't want it, the dealer may take it. If both pass, the non-dealer draws from the stock, and play goes back and forth from there.

In one variation, the non-dealer gets 11 cards

Pagat describes a less common way to deal: the non-dealer gets 11 cards, the dealer gets 10, and no card is turned face up. The non-dealer starts by discarding one card, and the dealer then plays as normal. The stock is the same size either way. If you play this way, agree on it before you start.

The stock lasts until only 2 cards are left

You won't draw all 31 stock cards. When only 2 cards are left in the stock and the player who just drew discards without knocking, the hand is over. It is a draw: nobody scores, and the same dealer deals again.

With 3 or 4 players, it is still 10 cards a hand

Gin rummy is a two-player game at heart. With three, the dealer deals 10 cards to each of the other two and sits out. With four, the players pair off into two separate two-player games, each with its own deck and its own deal of 10 each. See gin rummy for 3 or 4 players.