WELCOME TO GIN TO WIN

We play on the Pogo Club Jungle Gin site - Gimlet Room (Advanced Tab). Our Gin To Win League address is www.myleague.com/gintowin. Please bookmark this page on your favorite places as it is easier to find and you will need the page many times. You will find the Tournament Calendar and the Tournament Registration information on that page - along with the Back Door link - Rules of Courtesy and other League information.

GAME OBJECTIVE
Your goal in Gin is to get your cards into three or four of a kind or to have three or more cards of the same suit in numerical sequence, called melds. And you want to have 10 or fewer deadwood points (cards not formed into a meld or three or four of kinds) in your hand when the game ends. Default Gin is played until a player reaches or passes 100 points. Hollywood Gin is three games of 100 points each played simultaneously.

GIN BASICS
Each player is dealt 10 cards. Of the remaining cards, one is placed face up to begin the discard pile while the rest are placed face down as the stockpile. The non-dealer may take that upturned card or select to pass. If you take the card, you must discard one card from your hand. If you pass, the dealer may take the card or pass. If the dealer also passes, you take a card from the stockpile and discard a card from your hand.

Each player takes a turn choosing a card from the discard pile or the stockpile, each time discarding a card after taking a new one. This continues until one player knocks or declares Gin.

Knocking
If you have 10 or fewer points of deadwood in your hand, you may knock (Oklahoma Gin tells you how many points you can knock with.) Take a card, click on "Knock" and discard a final card. Your cards and your opponent's cards will be placed face-up on the table.

If your opponent has cards in their deadwood that can form melds with your cards or be part of three of a kinds, they will be removed and your opponent will have fewer deadwood points.

Declaring Gin
You have Gin when no deadwood points are left in your hand after taking and discarding a final card. Click on the "Gin" button and discard your final card -- all your melds and your opponent's cards will be placed face up on the table.

Scoring
Each of the face cards are 10 points each, aces are worth one point each, and other cards are worth their face value. When a player declares Gin, they score the total value of deadwood in their opponent's hand plus bonus points. When a player knocks, the points are determined by counting each player's final deadwood points. The knocker's score is the difference between counts, if the knocker has the fewest deadwood points. If the opponent has a lower count, or if the counts are equal, the opponent scores the difference plus bonus points.


TOURNEY TERMS

TD
Tourney Director, the one in charge of the tourney.

HTD
Head Tourney Director. At every tournament there will be a Head TD to supervise and help out when needed.

Admin and Head Admin
These two make the final decisions for the league. TDs and HTDs all report to the Admins. Any disputes will be ultimately settled by the Admins.

Bye
This is where there is an uneven amount of players in a tourney. The person who has the highest ranking is the one who gets the byes. This means that if you have a bye, you will not play in round one, but are automatically advanced to the second round. Do not leave the tourney if you have a bye. You will play your next opponent shortly. In some tourneys, there are several byes, so be prepared to play round 2 right away.

Deadwood
The cards that are extra after you have either a run or a set. They must equal 10 or less in order to knock (unless Oklahoma Gin which will tell you how many to knock with). Face cards are 10, and the other cards are face value. Ace is ALWAYS LOW in our matches.

DQ'd
Disqualified You would be eliminated from the tourney for not following a particular rule, such as knocking in a Gin ONLY tourney.

Gin
When no deadwood points are left in your hand after taking and discarding a final card.

Knock
If you have 10 or fewer points of deadwood in your hand, you may knock. Take a card, click on "Knock" and discard a final card. Your cards and your opponent's cards will be placed face-up on the table.

Meld
Three or four of a kinds (such as K, K, K or 2, 2, 2) or to have three or more cards of the same suit in numerical sequence (such as 2 diamonds, 3 diamonds, 4 diamonds).

Ladder Bux
Ladder Bux is the “money” we use to play in tourneys. When you signed up for the ladder, you should have clicked many of the boxes and received ladder bux at that time. If you need more ladder bux, please ask one of the Admins, HTD’s or Td’s and they will be happy to help you get more bux.

Time Out and Extensions
Extensions rule - if you let the clock run down to zero your opponent should call and extension on you in the lobby (3 extensions allowed per match). After third extension you will be called missing and go on clock for 5 minutes (remainder of 8 minutes allowed to be missing). All extensions MUST be reported to host in lobby or else do not count. A total of 8 minutes per TOURNEY is the allowable time (this also includes any extensions). If your opponent gets booted out of the room, please let the TD know in the lobby that they are gone. The TD will then start the clock. Tell the TD when the player comes back, so the timer can be stopped. If the player boots a second time, the timer starts where it left off. If you were gone 3 minutes on the first boot, you would have 5 minutes for the next boot. It is a cumulative time of 8 minutes per round. Also, if a player is called and is a ladder game or rated game - they have only 2 minutes to report and throw the first card - if they time out they are disqualified - no exceptions.

Spades Bonus
If the upcard in an Oklahoma Gin game is spades, the point value for that hand is doubled. Spades bonus only counts in an Oklahoma game of Gin.

Register/Check-in
To play in a tourney, you must first Register, and/or check-in for the tourney. There are several ways to register for a tournament:

1. First you must LOG IN on the Gin To Win main page. Put your user name and password in the upper right section of the page.
   
2. Next - scroll down to Calendar section - two ways to register for most tours - the easy way is to click the word REGISTER to the right of a time slot. Or you may click on the host's name and it will bring you to the regular registration page.
   
3. The exception to the quick registration are for TOC and Teams - you must click on the host's name for those tournaments and wait for the old registration page to come up.
   

If the TD has already opened the tourney for check-in, when you register, you are automatically checked in. If the TD hasn’t opened it already, once they do, you will need to go back to the Tourney main page, and click on Teams/Check-in. Once you do that by selecting your name from the drop down menu, putting in your password and clicking on OK, you are ready to go play the tourney in Gimlet (Gin To Win).

Need For Ladder Bux
Some tourneys have a “fee” for entering. We use ladder bux to enter tourneys. If at any time you do not have enough ladder bux to enter a tournament, please ask the host to help you. There is always someone available to gift to players. To see if you have enough bux for the tourney:

Please take the time to familiarize yourselves with the main page. Any questions please feel free to ask a host or admin.