Gin Rummy Stars Guide (Warning Its Tough)

I just finished Gin Rummy. Its pends at level 35 (requirement says level 45). Took me three days of playing quite a lot. I used to play poker full time so I was able to pick up on the game quickly. But I would like to share some tips for anyone who is brave enough to try it

There are free chips you can collect. Here is a site (I didn't know that until now, oops)

https://www.freegamespins.com/card-games/gin-rummy-stars/

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- Ace is always low. Besides runs and sets its usually the next best thing to keep

- You will usually want to get rid of your big cards unless a large part of your hand is coordinated bigs

- Pay attention to what cards they pick up. The more you can remember what they are discarding, what they are uninterested in and what they pick up the better youll be able to make decisions

- Most of the time you'll want to draw from the deck - unless of course you can pick up an ace, a card that makes a run, set or goes well with at least 3 of your cards. Small cards like two and three are worth considering picking up. When you pick up from the drawing pile they are watching this and will likely not toss another card that goes with it. If they discard something that kind of goes with your hand, but not well enough you can likely safely discard something close to it. For example say they play a 9 of hearts. And you have a 9 of spades and jack of hearts but not much else to go with it. You can discard your own 9 or the jack depending on other plays made

- If you know your opponent needs a particular card then hold onto it. If they are the one to knock at the end you will have the opportunity to play that card on their set/run

- Don't be afraid to knock. My knocking vs gin % was near 90%. You'll want to check your opponents knock vs gin % so you know what type of player they are and you can adjust. Some people go for gin the majority of the time. If your opponent plays like me and knocks a ton you can sometimes catch them big by baiting them to knock when you are sitting on a pretty hand already. I probably knocked slightly too much overall but I was comfortable with knowing where I was at. If you knock and have equal or more points than your opponent you are gonna give them 25 points which is pretty substantial. The earlier it is in the game the more it makes sense to knock. Low cards become really valuable for this strategy. Sometimes youll have a tough decision of whether to break up your hand (cards that go together) to save low cards or not. I think something like 75/25 knock to gin is ideal

- King and Queen of the same suit looks better than it is. Its the equivalent of a King and Jack or a Queen and a Ten since Ace is only played as low. Often I would get rid of big cards even when I started with a pair or two in a run. But Id be more likely to keep something like King of Hearts, Queen of Hearts, King of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds because you have 6 total cards you can hit to make a set or run

- If its your turn to go first and there's a small card, youll likely want to pick it up even if it goes with nothing else. This will give you the opportunity to discard one of your uncoordinated bigs. Ten through King are all worth the same amount (10 points) so throw whichever coordinates the least. In general Kings are the best card to discard because you can't make runs with QKA.

- Make sure your hand is always in order. There is a button to do it automatically. If you knock or your opponent knocks but your cards are out of order they won't be counted properly

- At 250 my opponents were quite bad. They often discarded aces. 500 was noticeably harder. 1000 is where I grinded most of my games once I had built up to 10000 chips. Youll want about 4000-5000 chips to play at 500. I didn't play the 2500 level until I had 70k chips. Ill explain how I got so many later but most likely youll play at 1000 and below

- You win card packs, which help you complete albums. You can turn your spare cards in every 12 hours for coins/pack. Youll most likely only be able to finish the first four albums at most- You can get 10,000 chips for inviting someone. I didn't do this but consider it if you need chips

- There are tables that run daily contests. If you can afford to play at one then go for it, and go hard. The majority of the chips I won came from getting first place in the contest out of 400 people. I got 50,000 chips for this. When you lose it still helps you progress in the contest

- You start with barely any chips. Its gonna take some early luck. Before the daily spin and the every 4 hour bonus you start with like 1,000. Grind at 250 until you have 4000-5000 at least.

- You have to win more than 50% of your matches because you get back less than x2 what you pay on a single star table. Tables with 3 stars means you can lose three times the buyin or win slightly less than three times the buyin. This makes progressing past the 1000 buyin really difficult because the 2500 buyin is a 3 star table

There is so much more I want to say strategy wise. But hopefully this unorganized list of tips contains something helpful for you. Sometimes people talk shit in the game like saying "nice move" "lol" "thanks" when you play cards they need or they beat you. Try to stay level headed and don't worry about their talk. Sometimes you are just gonna get bad hands and lose. There is definitely skill involved - but a lot of games will be decided by luck. Stay cool and calm. If you find an opponent that is making mistakes like discarding aces early or not paying attention to what you pick up then try to rematch them. I found some players willing to lose 3-5 games in a row. If your opponent has a good win record then play someone else next game. You can check their overall wins to losses by clicking on their avatar. This is the same place you check their knock-gin %.

Okay thats it for now. I might add more strategy and tips later