Play knock rummy against the computer for free

Knock Rummy in Games by Zaweba lets you play rummy against the computer for free, offline and without an account. It's a two-player game: build sets and runs, keep your deadwood low and knock before the computer does. First to 100 points wins.

Rummy suits a computer opponent well. There's always someone ready for a hand, and you can play at your own pace, taking as long as you like to decide which card to throw.

The rules of Knock Rummy

Each turn, draw a card from the stock or take the top discard, then throw one card away. Sets are three or four cards of the same rank. Runs are three or more cards in sequence in one suit, with the ace low. Those are melds. Everything else in your hand is deadwood, and it counts against you: picture cards count 10 and aces 1.

You can knock when your deadwood is 10 or less. The other player then lays off whatever cards they can onto your melds, and whoever has the lower deadwood scores the difference. Going gin, with no deadwood at all, earns a 25 bonus. So does an undercut, where the player who didn't knock ends up with the lower count. First to 100 wins.

To play, click the stock or discard pile to draw, click a card to discard it, and drag cards to reorder your hand. Knock Rummy is on the Cards shelf.

Playing a stronger hand

Sort your hand as you go. Dragging cards into sets and runs makes it much easier to see what you need and what's genuinely dead.

Throw high deadwood early. A stray king or queen costs 10 if you're caught holding it, so unless it's part of a likely meld, it's usually the first thing to go.

Watch what the computer picks up. If it takes a discard, it probably wants that rank or something next to it in the same suit. Avoid feeding it cards that fit.

Knock when it's right, not just when it's allowed. Knocking with 10 deadwood is legal, but if you suspect the computer is close to gin or has a low count, you risk an undercut and a bonus against you. Sometimes waiting a turn or two for a lower count is the better play.

Think about lay-offs. When the computer knocks, any of your cards that fit its melds can be laid off. Keeping cards that extend common runs can save points.

Where it fits in the app

Knock Rummy sits on the Cards shelf of Games by Zaweba with 12 other card games. If you like playing against computer opponents, Broken Hearts and Wild Eights each give you three of them. If you'd rather a game on your own, there are patience games from Classic Patience to Open Cells.

Every tile shows how many times you've played, your wins and your best score. Scores are kept for each game and mode in a file in your settings folder and never leave the PC. Esc pauses a hand whenever you need a break, and F1 brings back the rules if you forget how the bonuses work.