Gin? Glasses? Is this still about card games? Yes, don’t worry. Catch the Glass is another custom rule, unique to the Gin Rummy Palace! Alongside established variants such as Tedesco Gin or Oklahoma Gin, we have created several great options to open up whole new disciplines of thought in Gin Rummy!
In this lesson, you’ll learn where this idea came from, how it works in the Gin Rummy Game, and how Catch the Glass could change your game strategy.
How Does the Glass Get Into Gin Rummy?
Do you know that feeling when you have a good card combination in your hand and are waiting for the missing card for melding? As you give up hope and discard a card from that combination, of course you draw the very card that was missing the whole time on your next turn.
Now you have no choice but to discard the now unmeldable cards. Hope the discard pile enjoys the meld…
Cheer up! If you play with the custom rule Catch the Glass, you can still benefit from such buried melds!
How Does Catch the Glass Work in Gin Rummy?
Broadly speaking, you may try to fish three cards from the discard pile once per turn, provided they would form a meld – as if you were grabbing a falling glass out of the air before it hits the ground.
You still won’t have a meld in your hand, but at least you’ll have a few bonus points as a bit of consolation.
Note that your opponent gets the bonus points for your glass shards if you are mistaken!
When Can You Catch the Glass?
Once per turn, you can try to get bonus points by catching the glass.
First, you must start your turn by drawing a card. Then you can catch the glass. Other actions that may be available due to custom rules have no specific order.
The important thing is that you play the desired actions, e.g., catching the glass, before discarding or knocking.
How To Catch a Glass
To catch the glass, select the corresponding button at the table in the Gin Rummy Palace.
Then, use the menu to select whether you suspect a group or a sequence in the discard pile.
- If you select the sequence, you must also specify to which suit it belongs.
- If you select the group, you set which rank it belongs to.
If you aren’t so sure after all, you can also cancel catching by clicking on “Cancel” in this display. Then, neither you nor your opponent will gain any bonus points.
By the way: You cannot catch melds that are only available due to other custom rules! It doesn’t matter whether those custom rules are active at your table or not. This concerns cyclic sequences and rainbow sequences.
At the Gin Rummy Palace, you can tell from the symbols near the avatar how many glasses you each already successfully caught or missed.
Looking at Henry’s avatar, you can tell that he also missed one glass this round. But he caught two glasses already, which would give him more bonus points for catching the glass if the round ended now.
Did You Catch the Glass?
Let’s say you’re sure, so you choose to catch the glass!
The game now automatically checks whether there is a meld matching your selection in the discard pile.
Caught it!
If so, the matching cards are shown once face-up to all players, then removed from the discard pile, and set aside. Each card can therefore only be caught once per round.
As a reward, you receive 10 bonus points at the end of the round for every glass you catch. With a bit of luck and, above all, attentiveness, this can add up to quite a few points.
Missed!
If not, a short display indicates that the glass was missed, and the discard pile remains unchanged.
In addition, your overconfidence now gives your opponent an advantage: They receive the 10 bonus points instead of you. This applies separately for each catch attempt per round.
So, you shouldn’t just fish for glasses in the dark at random – it could be costly.
How to Play Gin Rummy With Catch the Glass
You don’t have to wait for the perfect moment here. As soon as you are certain that a meld is lurking in the discard pile, you can catch the glass on your turn. So, if timing isn’t important, what is?
Mastering Observation
In Gin Rummy, there is already plenty to observe in order to scout out the opponent’s hand. However, in order to catch glasses, you need to pay even more attention to the cards discarded face-up.
If you are not yet familiar with the custom Gin Rummy rule Catch the Glass or this type of memory exercise, start by paying more attention to what already comes easier to you. For example, focus either on repeatedly discarded ranks or consecutive cards of one suit rather than both.
Of course, also pay attention to what your opponent draws face-up, as these cards are thereby removed from the discard and can logically no longer be caught.
Points Despite a Bad Hand
No matter who wins the round, the following always applies to bonus points for catching the glass:
- For every successfully caught glass, the catcher receives 10 bonus points at the end of the round.
- And for every missed glass, the catcher’s opponent receives 10 bonus points at the end of the round instead.
So even if a round looks bad for you, you can still collect a few bonus points with the help of caught glasses.
In extreme cases, glass bonuses could even help you win the table despite losing the round. If you have accumulated numerous points in previous rounds, the bonus points from this round can carry you over the table’s points threshold.
Glasses off the Silver Platter!
Any glass you catch can no longer end up with your opponent, as these cards are removed from the discard pile. Of course, this also applies in reverse. So, it’s better not to waste such opportunities.
Furthermore, you can complicate catching glasses for your opponent a bit. For example, if they just discarded the second Queen, perhaps keep the next Queen in your hand a little longer, so that they don’t immediately sense the group of Queens and catch this glass on their next turn.
This approach does not apply, especially to ten-value cards, if everything points to your opponent wanting to knock in their next turn. In that case, better get rid of the high deadwood points! So, as always: weigh things up.
Even More Custom Rules at the Gin Rummy Palace
We have a wide selection of game modifications that you can select via custom rules at the Gin Rummy Palace. To take the Gin game with Catch the Glass even further, we recommend combining it with Oklahoma Gin and Tedesco.
The reason is, Oklahoma Gin extends the play time due to the often stricter gin condition, which will automatically produce more cards in the discard pile. This gives you more opportunities to catch glasses.
Tedesco Gin causes Aces to be discarded more often than in the basic game, which adds a few more meld options to the catchable glasses.
Have fun with your own Gin Rummy experiments, and may your glasses never shatter! If you want to read up some more on the basics of Gin Rummy, take a look at the Gin Rummy Rules and the Gin Rummy Glossary alongside the Gin Rummy Lessons.
