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The classic two-handed card game, played over five deals against the computer. Ten cards each: group them into sets of a kind and runs in a suit, and whatever is left over is deadwood counting against you. Draw, discard, and the moment your deadwood drops to ten or less you can knock and bank the difference — or clear it entirely for gin and a 25-point bonus. Knock too soon and your opponent undercuts you and takes the points instead.
You and the computer each hold ten cards and play five deals. Your goal is to arrange your hand into melds: a set is three or four cards of the same rank, a run is three or more consecutive cards in one suit. Aces are low and count one, picture cards count ten, everything else counts its number.
On your turn you first take one card — either the face-down stock or the face-up discard — and then throw one card away, so you always end your turn back at ten. Cards in your hand that belong to a meld are outlined in green, and the running deadwood total is shown just above your hand.
When the deadwood left over after your discard is ten or less, the Knock button lights up. Knocking ends the deal: your deadwood is compared with your opponent's and you score the difference. If your deadwood is zero, that is gin and you also collect a 25-point bonus. If your opponent's deadwood turns out to be equal or lower, they undercut you and score the difference plus 25 instead — so knocking on a thin margin is a real gamble.
Layoffs are not used here: your opponent cannot attach their leftover cards to your melds, which keeps a deal to a couple of quick taps. If the stock runs down to two cards the deal is washed out with no score. After five deals your running total is your score, so the aim is to knock early and often rather than to hold out for gin every time.
Count what a card is worth to you, not what it is worth on paper. A king that sits in a run is worth nothing against you, while a lone eight is eight points of pure liability. Early on, throw the high loose cards first: they cost the most if the deal ends suddenly, and the odds of ever pairing them are no better than for a low card.
Watch what the computer takes from the discard pile, because that is the only honest information you get. If it grabs a nine, ranks and suits around that nine are suddenly dangerous to throw, and holding a card the opponent obviously wants is often worth a couple of points of deadwood.
Prefer cards that can go two ways. A seven and eight of the same suit can grow into a run at either end, and a pair can become a set from two remaining ranks, whereas an ace-two only ever grows upward. When you must break something, break the option that has the fewest ways left to complete.
Knock early rather than chasing gin. Gin pays 25, but the deals you spend waiting for it are deals where the opponent may knock first and hand you a loss instead. Over five deals, a habit of knocking at seven or eight deadwood usually beats holding out — and it also dodges the undercut, which is the single most expensive thing that can happen to you.