Playing Gin rummy online with other people, step by step: the code, the seats, the table rules, and what happens when somebody drops out.
Gin rummy is played by exactly two, so a multiplayer game is you and one friend. Open a table — the host needs a free account — and send the six-character code or the link from "Copy link". Your friend chooses a name and sits down as a guest, with no account and nothing to install.
In the lobby the host chooses how long the game is, 100 or 250 points, and your friend sees the choice as it is made. The game starts when both of you are seated and the host presses start.
Your own ten cards, the top of the discard pile, and how many cards are left in the stock. Your hand is never sent to the other player's browser, so there is nothing to see over anybody's shoulder. The site works out your deadwood as you play and tells you when you are allowed to knock.
When somebody knocks, both hands are laid out, the loose cards are laid off onto the knocker's melds, and the table shows the score: the difference in deadwood, plus 25 for gin or for an undercut.
After each hand both hands stay face up so you can see what the other player was collecting. The next hand is dealt once both of you have pressed "Ready for the next hand".
When one of you reaches the target, the winner collects 100 for the game and 25 for every hand they won, and the match is over.
If a page closes or a connection drops, the table waits twenty-five seconds before doing anything. After that the site plays the missing player's hand so the game can go on, and gives the seat back as soon as they open the table again. Pressing Leave in the middle of a game hands the seat to a bot for good.
No partner at hand? The host can add a bot to the second chair in the lobby instead. A table nobody plays at for six hours is cleared away.