The expedition into the realm of custom rules at the Gin Rummy Palace continues! Previously, we explored the well-established variants Oklahoma Gin and Tedesco Gin and showed what works differently there.
The custom rule Boasting stands out from these once more: This rule is a Gin Rummy Palace Original! This also means that it’s not yet world-famous, but there is still time.
In this lesson, we look at the idea and functionality of boasting, what to look out for when using this particular rule, and which other custom rules make for a unique Gin Rummy experience.
The Inspiration
How Does It Work?
• When You Can Boast
• After the Announcement
• Knocking and Winning
• Knocking and Losing
• Your Opponent Knocks
• Nobody Knocks
The Inspiration
Boasting brings another strategic component to the Gin Rummy Table!
If you are familiar with the other Palace Games, you may already have guessed it: We were inspired by a well-known element in classic German trick-taking games, the announcements.
You can find the boasting stag – called Hirsch in German – as a popular rule variant in both Skat and Sheepshead. In these two trick-taking games, you aim to win a round in order to pocket the value assigned to the round as points and to avoid negative scores.
There, the stag variant allows you and your fellow players to announce Re, Kontra, and Hirsch as the icing on the cake every round within a certain time frame. These three announcements each increase the round’s value, which means you are competing for higher scores. With higher stakes, the gameplay could become more ambitious!
As we also want to offer you such a game amplification in Gin Rummy, we have devised Boasting! You can use it to conjure up an additional challenge along with the chance to win bonus points in Online Gin Rummy!
How Does Boasting Work?
Let’s start with the short version: You can announce boasting once per round. If you then knock and win within your next three turns, you score bonus points. The longer you wait, the higher the bonus points.
However, only one player may boast each round. Now to the details!
When You Can Boast
If you are playing with the custom rule Boasting, you can no longer just decide to knock between drawing and discarding. Now, you can also announce boasting unless someone has already announced it this round.
By doing so, you announce in a prancing stag-like manner that you are very sure of your victory and will knock within your next three turns. Only if you actually knock and win within this time frame will you receive your bonus points for boasting at the end of the round.
Remember that you cannot knock in the same turn you initiate the boasting.
After the Boasting Announcement
There are four different scenarios that can unfold in your three turns after your boasting announcement.
In the Gin Rummy Palace, the corresponding symbol next to your avatar shows you the boasting turn you are in. You will also see a corresponding speech bubble at the start of each boasting turn.
Knocking and Winning
If you knock and win within the specified time frame, you receive bonus points. The more patience you have, the more bonus points you earn:
| Turn After Your Boasting | Bonus Points at the Round’s End |
|---|---|
| First | 5 |
| Second | 10 |
| Third | 20 |
The bonus points for boasting don’t affect other bonus points. You can find a detailed breakdown of the bonuses on our page on scoring in Gin Rummy.
Knocking and Losing
Imagine you announced boasting, knocked with only two deadwood points on the third turn, and yet your opponent is able to lay off, leaving them with only one deadwood point and an undercut as a result. How frustrating!
But apart from the shame and broken dreams, there are fortunately no consequences in the game. In a boasting undercut situation, no one receives bonus points for boasting.
Your Opponent Knocks
If your opponent rings in the round’s end even though you boasted, nobody receives bonus points either.
Whether this scenario is frustrating or not depends on whether you boasted to secure bonus points or to draw out your opponent. More on this in the sections on accumulating bonus points and bluffing.
Nobody Knocks
If you announced boasting but are unable to knock or are careless and simply forget to knock, this has consequences. Should your three boasting moves pass without you or your opponent ending the round, your opponent will receive 15 bonus points at the end of the round!
Then, it doesn’t matter who ends or wins the round. The bonus points go to the side that didn’t boast.
Effects of Boasting
If someone in your round decides to boast, their opponent will notice; after all, it is an announcement. Therefore, this new situation can influence the ensuing gameplay and decisions.
If You Boast
By boasting, you have given yourself a chance to gain additional bonus points and, at the same time, prevented your opponent from taking the same chance this round.
Now, your opponent has been informed that you can soon end the round and will try to beat you to it or reduce their deadwood as best they can. As mentioned above, you can emerge from boasting without bonus points if your opponent knocks within your three boasting turns.
Such an interruption isn’t necessarily the end of the world. Even if your opponent can prevent your bonus points, you still won’t lose anything. If your boasting prompts your opponent to knock, they will likely end the round with a less optimal hand than planned. They will, therefore, have higher deadwood points and could win by a smaller margin than in a scenario without boasting.
If Your Opponent Boasts
If you take no action, your opponent will probably end the round on one of their next three turns and gain a boasting bonus in addition to any points scored elsewhere. Now, you have to assess whether you can still counteract this.
Thwarting?
If you can knock and thus interrupt the opponent’s boasting, there are no particular advantages or disadvantages. You simply foil your opponent’s bonus points.
Especially if you have low deadwood, it doesn’t hurt to prevent your opponent’s bonus points by choosing to knock.
Sitting It Out?
But with a higher deadwood on your part, holding back is a good idea. After all, your opponent probably boasted because their hand was already suitable for knocking, but it still had room for improvement. If you still have a whopping 10 deadwood points and knock, getting undercut by your opponent isn’t far away. This will give your opponent more bonus points than successful boasting, so your boasting intervention would be to your disadvantage.
Even with low deadwood, there is a case for sitting out: If you have very low deadwood that does not yet allow you to gin, you could aim for your opponent to boast, knock, and lose due to an undercut on your part. Your opponent loses the bonus points for boasting while you gain bonus points for the undercut.
Theoretically, it is possible that your opponent boasts at random, overestimates their luck, or forgets to knock. Although this would give you bonus points, it is rather unlikely. So, don’t regard this as an argument for sitting out and rather counteract it if you have the opportunity.
Don’t Panic!
If you still have higher-value, unmelded cards in your hand, don’t lose your head now. If these cards are part of a promising combination, keep them for one more turn and discard something perhaps of lower value but definitely useless.
Know Your Opponent
If this isn’t the first battle between the two of you, remember the style of play. Has your opponent played very offensively and riskily in previous rounds? If so, they may have overestimated themselves, especially if they knocked very early. In this case, you might be more inclined to sit out than to thwart, for example.
How to Play With Boasting
All of the above-mentioned thoughts naturally have an effect on promising strategies in Gin Rummy with boasting. Here we go!
Offensive Acceleration
If you want to bag the boasting bonus, you should reach a point where you can knock as quickly as possible. This allows you to boast and knock without having to worry about gifting boasting bonus points to your opponent.
This means that you grab more low-value cards and cards that complete or expand your melds. On the other hand, you discard high-value cards. Incidentally, this style of play is offensive Gin Rummy.
If you can knock after the first two turns of the round, your opponent probably hasn’t had time to form melds yet. Under these circumstances, you could knock directly without boasting, as by boasting, your deadwood-laden opponent would know that they urgently need to discard high-value cards before you finish. If you can surprise them instead, they could have more deadwood points left than the highest boasting bonus reaches.
Build up Bonus Points
If you have already made it to the second boasting turn, it may be worthwhile to go for the third. If your opponent hasn’t intervened yet, they may simply not be in a position to do so.
If we assume that you are playing at a table with a point threshold of 100, there is a box bonus of 10 points for the winning side each round. Adding that to the deadwood difference and 20 boasting bonus points, you would have already earned a third of the required points in one round.
That’s particularly advisable if your opponent has not yet accumulated a high score at this table. In such a case, it isn’t critical if your opponent still manages to thwart your third boasting turn and possibly adds the box bonus as well as the deadwood difference to their score.
As the number of rounds progresses and the scores increase, more caution and consideration is advised.
Bluffing With Boasting
Boasting can also be used to deceive your opponent.
Let’s say your round is in the final phase. You are sure that your opponent could already knock and is just waiting for the last card for their gin. Announcing boasting is still a good idea here.
Your opponent will think that you are about to knock and is unlikely to allow you the bonus points. So, they’d rather knock now with some deadwood instead of going gin three turns later.
That’s the better outcome for you. You lose either way, but this way, at least your opponent misses out on the gin bonus.
A Counterexample
If you need two or three different cards to be able to knock with your hand, it is very unlikely that you will draw those exact cards in the three boasting moves.
In situations like this, it’s better to stay away from the boasting button!
Combine Boasting With Other Custom Rules
For a very special boasting mix and a new gaming experience, we recommend adding the custom rules Tedesco and Rainbow Sequences online at the Gin Rummy Palace.
Then you have to handle the exciting boasting mechanics, Aces are more dangerous, requiring a slightly different approach to melding and collecting, and thanks to the Rainbow Sequences, some crazy melds are possible, making it more difficult to observe your opponent.
It’s a tough one, but it’s also a lot of fun! Give it a try in Gin Rummy online! You can find out even more about Gin Rummy in our Gin Rummy Lessons and Gin Rummy Rules.
