How to Play
Ft. Worth Gin is a 13-round card game. Each round has a different wild card. Form melds, shed your hand, and go out before your opponents — lowest total score wins.
The Goal
Score the fewest points across 13 rounds. The player with the lowest total at the end wins.
What's a Meld?
A meld is a set of cards you lay on the table. There are two kinds:
Spread
3 or 4 cards of the same rank, like three 7s or four Kings.
Run
3+ cards in sequence of the same suit, like 4♥-5♥-6♥ or 9♣-10♣-J♣.
See the Melds
A Spread is 3 or 4 cards of the same rank. Here, all four 7s form a valid Spread meld — the highlighted cards are laid on the table.
Wild Cards
Each round has a different wild rank, rotating through all 13 ranks from Aces to Kings. Wild cards can substitute for any card in a meld.
Wild Card by Round
Hover any round to see its wild card. Round 1 wilds are Aces, Round 2 wilds are 2s, and so on through all 13 ranks.
Your Turn
On your turn you do two things, in order:
Draw one card — take the top of the discard pile or draw from the deck.
Then either lay melds on the table, add cards to melds already down, or just discard one card to end your turn.
Stealing Wilds — if you are already laid down, you may steal a wild card from any meld on the table by swapping in the natural card it represents. You must hold that exact card to make the swap.
How a Turn Works
Step 1 — Draw
Take the top card from the discard pile (face-up) or draw blind from the deck. You must draw exactly one card.
Going Out
When you can arrange all your cards into melds with one left to discard, you 'go out' — that ends the round. Everyone else scores the point value of the cards left in their hand (deadwood).
Scoring
The player who goes out gets a bonus subtracted from their score. Everyone else adds up their deadwood:
Quick Tip
Don't rush to lay your melds early — once they're on the table, opponents can steal your wild cards by swapping in the natural card. Sometimes it's smarter to hold and go out all at once.