John Hainline

Winner of more than 20 tournaments, and consistently in the top 10 of most events, John, with his wife and partner Lily Ann, are dedicating themselves to creating a new level of tournament excellence. He is widely considered to be one of the two or three best players on the planet.

John's passion for excellence and competition began with golf, and he was in fact, a P.G.A. golf pro for 20 years. Lily Ann is a former teacher and educator. Now with gin rummy being played on the Internet, and more and more players getting introduced to the game, John and Lily Ann feel the time is right to bring to the game and gin rummy tournaments a new era of excellence.

The World Series of Gin Rummy™ has been approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to Lily Ann and John Hainline.

John Hainline’s view

Being a famous gin rummy player, John Hainline also loves poker and said that poker can’t compare with the challenge of Gin. Gin game depends far less on luck than poker does. John feels there are a lot of poker players who are also Gin players. They go back and forth between two games and they all agree that Gin is a better game as it has a larger, predominant factor.

John Hainline was one of the few players who had more wins than losses against another gin rummy and poker legend — Stu Ungar.

The photographic memory made him one of the greatest gin rummy player in the world. Stu Ungar also won the World Series of Poker three times. Ungar, who is more known for his poker feats, considered himself a better gin rummy player, once saying: “Some day, I suppose it’s possible for someone to be a better No Limit Hold’em player than me. I doubt it, but it could happen. But, I swear to you, I don’t see how anyone could ever play gin better than me.” Stu Ungar was found dead in November, 1998 in a small  Las Vegas motel. Many believed at the time that Stu Ungar was the victim of drug abuse.

Although Gin Rummy is a simple game to start playing, it’s a difficult game to play consistently well. Knowing just some simple game basics like getting rid of unmatched high cards and not giving opponent two cards of the same rank or suit — are hardly sufficient to play the game on a good competitive level.

Each year land-based Gin Rummy tournaments with big cash prizes are in Las Vegas Riviera Hotel. 2006, the organizers expected that 300-400 of the world’s finest gin rummy players will compete for the top title.