Hainline, who played on the PGA Tour in 1961, learned the card game in the early '60s, after a practice round at the Colonial Country Club in Forth Worth, Texas. 'In gin, the good players tend to separate themselves from the field pretty quickly.' 'Sometimes a sucker can end up with all the money in a poker game,' Hainline says. Top players, like John Hainline -a greeting-card distributor from San Francisco who has won more than 30 gin rummy tournaments and is widely considered one of the two or three best players on the planet- say that success at the game depends less on luck than poker does. They play the game of gin rummy with a sophistication, flair and comprehension that could send a stubborn opponent into Chapter 11. They are regular fellows from all walks of life and every part of America. They are contractors, car dealers and liquor store owners. So although most amateurs know the basics (get rid of unmatched high cards, don't give your opponent two cards of the same rank or suit, etc.), few of us would be willing to stake our reputation, or much of our money, on our gin rummy expertise.īut some would. (Some variations allow three or four players.) Like backgammon and checkers, gin rummy is a simple game to learn-my great-grandmother taught me the game when I was six-but difficult to master.

of Cincinnati-derive a disproportionate amount of pleasure from making 'melds,' 'knocking' and 'going out' in this uncomplicated game usually contested by two players. Whether gathered in basement rec rooms or country club dining rooms, millions of us-nearly 27 million, according to a 1996 survey by the U.S. A few years ago, Ingram, a 62-year-old real estate broker from Texas, sat down at a card table in Las Vegas and vanquished 85 of the world's best players in the International Gin Rummy Tournament of Champions. Most of us play for pennies a point.īut most of us are not like Bill Ingram. To most of us, gin rummy is a modest challenge, involving rudimentary strategy that even a child can master. Gin rummy is the card game your grandmother taught you, the game your golf partners play at the 19th hole. America's Clubhouse Card Game Can Sometimes Get Very Serious

Gin rummy game