How to Play Conquian (Coon Can)
How to Play Coon Can Conquian is the oldest known game of the Rummy family which is still commonly played. While many card experts disagree on the specific nomenclature of the game and the way it has changed over time, most agree that it (at least the currently played version) hails from Mexico and is still very popular there. Many also believe that another common name for this game, Coon Can, is derived from a mispronunciation by non-Spanish speakers of the games original name Conquian. The game is also known by several other names including Con Quien and CoonCan. This game is also thought to be related to Panguingue.

Conquian is intended to be played by two players using a 40 card Spanish deck. This deck consists of one card of each suit in the following denominations; Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Jack, Queen, King. This deck can easily be formed by removing the eights, nines and tens from a standard 52 card deck. The ranking of the cards in this deck is as follows (from high to low); King, Queen, Jack, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. Note that the Jack and Ace are in direct sequence for purposes of making long spreads (see below).

Determination of seating positions and first dealer can be done in a variety of ways. The most common method is with the drawing of cards, in which the player drawing the lowest card selects his seat first and becomes the first dealer.

After the players are seated the dealer shuffles the cards and deals the hand. He deals out hands consisting of 10 cards, one by one and face down, starting with his opponent. The remainder of the deck is then placed face down in the center of the table. Dissimilar to many other Rummy games, when starting this game, no upcard is initially turned from the stock.

The dealer's opponent (called the pone) then takes the first turn of the hand. He starts his turn by turning up the top card of the stock such that both he and his opponent can see it's face. The player may only take this card if he can use it immediately to make a meld to the table along with other cards from his hand. If unable to do so or electing not to use the card, he then places the card face up next to the stock pile to start the discard pile which ends his turn. If the player melds the card, he must play the meld to the table and then discard a replacement card from his hand. Before discarding on his turn a player may place any legal melds from his hand onto the table in front of himself.

Meld Types in Conquian The allowable melds (called spreads) in Conquian are as follows: Each subsequent turn after the first consists of a player either taking the top upcard or the top card of the stock. If he takes the upcard he must use it in a meld on the table. He may also take it to add it to a meld he already has on the table (called hitting). If he takes the top card of the stock, he must, similarly to the first turn, display it so both players can see the card and either meld it immediately or discard it. If the player uses either the upcard or the top card of the stock in a meld he must discard a card from his hand at the end of the turn. During his turn a player may make any melds (either completely new melds or additions to his own previous melds) to the table he may currently have in his hand but he must do this before discarding, which ends his turn. One important thing to note in this game is that a player never adds cards from the discard pile or the stock into his actual hand. These cards are either used immediately in a valid meld to the table or discarded.

On his turn a player may also re-arrange his own melds to create different melds in order to allow him to play additional cards from his hand. The only stipulation on doing this is that no cards may be taken back into the hand from the table and all melds remaining after the rearrangement must make legal melds.

Forcing: A player may also, on his turn, play a legal card to one of his opponents melds (called a hit). If he does this, the hit counts as his discard for the turn and he does not discard and the hit ends his turn. The opponent, meanwhile, must simply discard one card from his hand to the discard pile, which comprises his turn. This hit card is then considered to be a member of his opponents total melded cards.

Alternatively, if the top card of the discard pile can legally played to a players meld but he declines to take it on his turn, his opponent can call attention to it and demand he do so. In this case, the player must use his turn to take this discard, meld it as appropriate and discard, ending his own turn.

Winning the Game: The game continues in this way alternating turns until one player has 11 total cards melded to his own melds on the table (called going Conquian or Coon Can). The player who does so is then immediately declared the winner of the game. If a player has melded all 10 of his hand cards, he must still draw a card from the stock each turn and either meld it (in which case he wins the hand) or discard it immediately. He may also take an available card from the discard pile and add it to his own melds, winning the game. In Conquian, each deal is considered a complete game. If the stock runs out with neither player having gone Conquian, the hand ends in a draw, the cards are gathered, shuffled and a new game is dealt. The deal alternates between the two players. If game points are being kept, each game won is considered one game point. Winning the next game after a draw game, counts as two game points (or even more if there were multiple sequential draw games prior to the game won).

                     
Variations and Optional Rules

Deck Changes: Some players prefer to remove the Kings, Queens and Jacks from the games vice the 8's, 9's and tens. This is often done by players new to the game or unfamiliar with the somewhat unusual ranking in the Spanish deck. When this modification is done, the ranking of the cards in the deck used for the game is as follows (high to low); 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. Other than the changes in the cards used in the deck, all other aspects are played identically to the standard version of Conquian as described above.

Playing with the Full Deck: Some players prefer to play the game without removing any cards. The rank of the cards in this larger deck is as follows (from high to low); King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. Other than the larger number of cards in the deck and the ranking used to accommodate the extra cards, the game itself is played the same as the traditional version.

Card Trade Conquian: In this variant rule, players have an opportunity to trade cards before the first turn. After looking at their cards, a player may pass one card of his choice, face down, to his opponent. After both players have passed such a card, they then pick them up and add the card to their hand. In all other aspects, this variant is played identically to the standard game.

Three Player Conquian: Over time Conquian has been adapted to allow play by differing numbers of players. In three player Conquian, the same rules as in the standard two player game are used with the following exceptions: Conquian for Four Players: A version of this game has also been developed for play by four participants. The game is played identically to the standard game except for the following differences:
Mexican Conquian: The most popular variant of Conquian as played in Mexico, is somewhat different than the North American version as described above. Mexican Conquian is designed for 2 or 3 players, with the 3 player variant often played under the name Tercerilla. Mexican Conquian is traditionally played using the 40 card Spanish deck, which contains the four suits of swords, clubs, glasses and coins, with one card in the following rank found in each suit; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Sota, Caballo, Rey. If such a Spanish deck is not available it can be created by removing, from a standard 52 card International deck, all cards in the ranks of 8, 9 and 10 leaving the 40 remaining cards to be used in the game. The ranking of the cards as used in this game is as follows (shown from high to low): 1 (Ace), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Sota (Jack), Caballo (Queen), Rey (King.

Determination of seating positions and first dealer can be determined using a number of methods, such as cut for a high card. Once initially determined, after each hand, the role of dealer then rotates around the table in a counter-clockwise direction.

The dealer begins by thoroughly shuffling the deck and then passing it to the player at his left to cut. After the cut, the dealer then begins dealing the cards, starting with the player at his right and continuing in a counter-clockwise direction around the table. He deals the cards one-at-a-time and face down, and continues dealing until each player has a total of eight cards. He then places the remainder of the deck in a face-down pile near the center of the table.

The ultimate goal of the game is meld a total of nine cards, thus winning the hand. The following are the valid melds in the game of Mexican Conquian: Card pass (Cambio) in Mexican Conquian Before play begins, there is a card exchange. Each player thus examines their hand and selects any one card and passes it face-down, to the player to their right. They must pass this card before picking up the card passed to them from the player at their left. The players then add the passed cards to their hand. This pass is called the "cambio".

After this passing of cards, the player to the immediate right of the dealer turns the top card from the stock pile and places it next to the stock pile, exposing it's face. The player then has two options with this card. If he can (and wants to) use this card to immediately make a valid meld, he takes the card and, along with appropriate cards form his hand, places his meld face-up in front of himself. If he cannot or does not want to take this card, the next player in turn has the same options with the exposed card. Each player is thus given the opportunity to take this card, if willing and able. If the dealer also does not take the card, he then turns up the next card from the stock, placing it face-up on top of the previous card exposed. He then has the option to either take this card (which he must meld immediately), or reject the card, leaving it as the top card on the discard pile.

If none of the players accepted that first exposed card, the next turn is taken by the player at the dealer's immediate right. Or, if any player had taken the initial card (and melding it as required), that player would then discard any other card of choice from their hand and the player to the immediate right of that player has the next turn. On these subsequent turns, the rules of play are slightly different.

On the player's turn, he has two options he may take on the turn: The game continues in this manner until one player manages to play a total of nine cards in legal melds to the table in front of themselves. This player immediately becomes the game winner.

In certain situations, another player can force an opponent to draw the top card from the discard pile even if that other player does not prefer to draw that card. Thus, if a player on his turn does not take a discard, however, that card could be legally used to add to an existing meld by that same player, any other player may demand he take the card, which the player must then draw and meld as requested. The drawing player then discards any card as normal. Another situation in which another player can "force" a player is if, any player on his turn, finds that the currently exposed card is a card that another player could legally add to their current melds on the table, the player who's turn it is, can pass that card to that other player, who much then meld it as able and then that player discards. The turn then continues from the next player after the player who was thus forced to take the card and meld it.

If the stock pile runs out, and the game reaches the state in which a player, on his turn opts not to take the discard and there are no cards left in the draw pile to draw, this causes the current game to end in a draw with no winner.

Neeznáá Dah Yíjihí (Navajo Ten): Another variant of Conquian, which is extremely popular amongst the Navajo Indigenous peoples in the Americas is called Navajo Ten (sometimes written as "Navajo Tens" or "Navajo 10" and can be translated as "Neeznáá Dah Yíjihí"). The game is sometimes referred to as Da'aka', however the term Da'aka' is really the Navajo term for almost any game of cards.

Navajo Ten is played by 2 to 7 players and uses a special deck which is formed by adding two 40 card decks together. This is usually creating using the International deck, and thus from two such International decks, all cards of rank 8, 9 and 10 are removed, leaving a large 80 card deck to be used for play.

The role of dealer can be performed using any method, such as a draw for high card. After each hand, the role of dealer rotates around the table in a clockwise direction. Once determined the dealer should shuffle the deck and offer it to the player at his right to cut. After the cut, the dealer then begins distributing the cards in a clockwise direction, starting with the player at his left. He deals the cards one-by-one and face-down, continuing until each player has a total of 10 cards. He then places the remainder of the deck in a face-down pile in the center of the table as the stock pile.

The goal of the game is for a player to be the first to meld 11 total cards and thus deplete his hand. The following are the legal melds allowed in Navajo Ten: To begin the game, the player to the left of the dealer turns up the top card from the stock pile and places it next to the stock pile, exposing the card's face. This player then has two options. If he can (and prefers to) use the card immediately to make a valid meld, he would thus take the card and, along with the necessary cards form his hand, places the meld face-up in front of himself on the table. If he cannot or does not want to take this card he states that fact. The next player in turn also has the same option with the exposed card, to either take and meld it or pass it on to the next player. Each player is thus given the opportunity to take this card, if willing and able. If the dealer also cannot take the card, he then turns up the next card from the stock, placing it face-up on top of the previous card exposed. He then has the option to either take this newly exposed card (which must be melded immediately), or reject the card, leaving it as the top card on the discard pile.

If no player accepted the first exposed card, the next turn is taken by the player at the dealer's left. If any player opted to take that initial card (and meld it as required), that player would then discard any other card of choice from their hand with the turn thus rotating to the next player to that players left. On these subsequent turns, the rules of play are slightly different than that on this first turn:
Rejecting the discard in Navajo Ten
As can be seen in this illustration, three players have rejected the current discard, but the fourth player opts to take it.


On a player's turn, he has two options he may take on the turn: The game continues until one player manages to play a total of eleven cards in legal melds to the table in front of themselves. This player is immediately set as the game winner.

As in many similar versions of Conquian, in specific situations another player may force one of their opponents to draw the top card from the discard pile even if that player does not prefer to so draw that card. Thus, if a player on his turn does not take the discard, however, the card could be legally used to add to an existing meld by that player, any opponent may demand he take the card, which the player must then draw and meld as requested. The drawing player then discards any card as normal. Another situation in which another player can "force" a player to take a card, is if, a player on his turn, finds that the currently exposed card is a card that any other player could legally add to their current melds on the table, the player who's turn it is, can pass that card to that other player, who much then meld it as able and then that player discards. The turn then continues from the next player after the player who was thus forced to take the card and meld it (skipping any intervening player's turns).

If the stock pile manages to run out, and the game reaches the state in which any player, on his turn, opts not to take the discard (because they are unable to use that card in a legal meld) and there are no cards left in the draw pile for that player to draw, this ends the game in a draw, with no player declared the winner.

Trivia: Tonk was such a popular game amongst Jazz great Duke Ellington and his sidemen, it inspired him and fellow songwriter Billy Strayhorn to create a song with the same name, Tonk.
Tonk: Tonk is a fun Rummy game that is played somewhat like Conquian. The game also features several elements of Knock Rummy in it's gameplay. Tonk is also commonly played under the name Tunk. This game is known to have been a favorite of many of the musicians in Jazz great Duke Ellington's band.

Tonk is usually played by two to four players all playing independently and using one standard 52 card deck. The ranking of the cards in this deck used for playing Tonk is as follows (from high to low); King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace.

Determination of seating positions and first dealer is usually done by drawing from the shuffled, face down deck. The player drawing the highest card takes the first choice of seats, the next highest the next seat and so on. The player who drew the highest card of all becomes the first dealer, and thereafter the deal rotates in a clockwise rotation after each game.

The goal in this game, as in most games of the Rummy family is to deplete your hand by melding cards from your hand. There are two legal meld types (also called spreads) in Tonk, as follows: To begin the dealer deals out seven face down cards to each player starting with the player to his immediate left. The cards are dealt one at a time in a clockwise rotation. The deck is then placed face down in the center of the table as a draw pile and the top card of the draw pile is turned up beside the draw pile to start the discard pile.

A Tonk hand After looking at the cards and before the first player has his first turn, any player may declare a "Tonk". A player may do this if he has, in his initially dealt hand, no card lower than a Jack. However a player must make the call of "Tonk" before any player has had his first turn. Any player that, in this situation, legally calls Tonk is instantly declared the winner of the game (the hand is not played out). If game points are being recorded, a player who wins in this way is said to win two game points for each other participant in the game. If multiple players call Tonk, the game is considered a draw and no player wins the hand, with the cards thrown in and the next dealer in turn shuffling and dealing the next game.

The player to the immediate left of the dealer has the first turn, and the turns rotate in a clockwise direction. Each turn consists of several actions taken by a player. He begins by first drawing a card. He may draw either the top card of the discard pile (called plucking the card) or the top card of the draw pile. Either card drawn need not be immediately played to a meld as the player can take the card into his hand. If the player has a valid meld and wants to play it, he can make one or more valid melds to the table. If there are already melds on the table from prior turns (either his own or from other players) he may also add legal cards to those melds. To complete his turn a player discards one card to the top of the discard pile. If a player is able to meld the last of his cards from his hand to the table (called Tonking Out) or discard his last card at the end of his turn, that player is declared the winner of the game. If game points are being record, that player wins two game points for melding every card or one game point for discarding his last card. The next dealer in turn then shuffles and deals the next hand.

On a player's turn, he may, before drawing, Drop. This immediately ends the current hand and the player indicates he is doing this by placing the remaining contents of his hand face up on the table. This is sometimes also called knocking and may also be indicated by the player knocking audibly on the table before laying his hand down. A player would normally do this if they believed the current card point count of unmelded cards in their hand was lower than that of any other players. As such, each card in the deck has a specific point count total, as shown in the following chart:
Card Point Value
2 - 10 Value marked on face of card
King, Queen, Jack 10
Ace 1
If a player does Drop all the players then total the remaining card point values left in their hand. If the player who Dropped did indeed have the lowest count in leftover cards in their hand, he wins the hand. When game points are being recorded, that player wins one game point from each other player in the game. However, if another player has an equal or lower count than the player who Dropped, all players other than the Dropping player earn two game points. In this case, additionally, if one of the other players has a lower count, the opponent with the lowest count earns one game point per other participant in the game. If two other players tie with a lower count, each of those players earns one additional game point per opponent in the game.

If the draw pile becomes exhausted and a player, on his turn, does not want to take the top of the discard pile, the game also ends. All players then display their hands and the player with the lowest total count earns one game point per opponent in the game. If two or more players tie for the lowest point count total, the game ends in a draw with no game points awarded.

Five Card Tonk: A commonly seen variation of Tonk is one in which each player receives five cards instead of 7. Also, in this variant, a player may initially call Tonk if the total number of point scoring cards in his hand equals 50 (this allows the inclusion of 10's in that calculation). In all other respects this game is played identically to standard Tonk. This game is often played by up to five participants.

Wait Rule: As there is often a significant advantage to the first player to be able to play any meld to then Drop, many players use an optional Wait rule. When this rule is enforced in a game, the following additional stipulations are added to the game: Note that this limitation does not apply to that player being able to Tonk Our or otherwise meld all of his cards, as any player may do that on his turn as able. Also, all the wait times are cumulative, such that a player may have to wait many turns before being able to Drop.

Deuces Wild: In this version of Tonk, all Deuces in the deck are considered wild and can thus be substituted for any other card when making a meld. Any meld must contain at least two natural cards to be considered a legal meld. When counting card points, a deuce is considered to still count only two points. Other than the twos being counted as wild cards, all other rules are the same as in standard Tonk.

Tong-Its: Tong-Its (also sometimes written as Tongits), is a Philippine game which plays similarly to Tonk and the game's name seems to also indicate the game is derived from Tonk.

Tong-Its is specifically designed to be played by three players. Tong-Its uses one standard 52 card deck, with the same ranking as in Tonk (from high to low); Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

Determination of seating positions and the first dealer can be performed in a variety of ways with draw for low cards a common method. If two or more players draw cards of the same rank, they should discard and draw additional cards until they have drawn uniquely ranked cards. The players would then take seats at the table in order of cards drawn from lowest to highest. The player drawing the lowest card becomes the first dealer.

The dealer then thoroughly shuffles the deck and offers it to the player at his right. The dealer completes the cut and then begins dealing the cards. He deals the cards, in a clockwise direction starting with the player to his left. He deals one card at a time, with each card face down, and continues dealing until the other players have 12 cards and the dealer has 13 cards. The dealer then sets the remainder of the cards in a face-down pile in the center of the table as the stock.

The dealer begins play of the hand by selecting any card from his hand to begin the discard pile, placing this card face-up beside the draw pile. Play continues in a clockwise direction around the table.

On each subsequent turn, a player can do several things. He begins the turn by drawing a card. He can elect to draw the current face-up card of the discard pile, but, after doing so, must immediately use it in a legal meld on the table in front of himself. If he cannot or does not want to take the top card of the discard pile, he instead draws the top face-down card of the stock pile, adding it to his hand.

TongIts Meld Types After the draw, the player may then opt to make any melds as willing and able. Melds in this game (called a Bahay) are special combinations of cards a player can create with his cards and will play to the center of the table. The following are the allowable Bahay types in Tong-Its:
After a player makes any melds he completes his turn by discarding one card to the top of the current discard pile. Once a player has made his first meld to the table during a game, he is said to have Opened.

The game continues in this manner until one of several events occurs: The value of the cards as found in a player's hand in the event the deck runs out or a Draw is challenged, is as follows:
Card Point Value in Hand
Ace 1
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19 Value Marked on Card
Jack, Queen, King 10
An ongoing Game point score is often recorded for each individual player during several games of Tong-Its. Game Points are thus awarded based on the following criteria:

After some set number of games is played, the player with the highest grand total of Game points is declared the overall game session winner.

Tunk: Closely related in name and play to Tonk is the Rummy game Tunk. The name Tonk is often used to describe both the game with that name and this game, Tunk, as well. As such, the set of rules usually seen for Tonk is described above and the rules often seen for the similar game Tunk is described here.

Tunk uses the standard 52 card deck with the following ranking of cards in the deck (from high to low); King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. All Deuces are considered wild cards and can be used to represent any card in the deck. The game is usually played by 2 to 5 players.

Selection of seating positions and first dealer can be done in a number of methods, with drawing for high cards (using the normal ranking of cards in the game) commonly used.

After everyone is seated and the first dealer is selected, he begins by dealing the cards one by one in a clockwise rotation, starting with the player to his left. He continues dealing until each player has a seven card hand. The dealer then places the remainder of the deck and places it face down in the center of the table as the stock. He turns over the top card of the stock pile and places it beside the stock pile to start the discard pile. The player to the dealer's left has the first turn.

As in most Rummy games, the object of the game is for a player to arrange his hand into legal melds. The legal melds in Tunk are as follows:
A group meld in Tunk As a player creates melds he retains them in his hand not playing them to the center of the table.

To start each turn, a player first draws one card. He may either draw the top card of the stock pile or the top, exposed card from the discard pile. After drawing the card, he then discards any card of his choice from his hand to the top of the discard pile ending his turn. A player may never draw the top card of the discard pile and discard that same card on the same turn, however.

On a player's turn, after drawing, and before discarding that player may opt to "Tunk". This is equivalent to knocking in most other games of the Rummy family. A player may Tunk if the total value of unmatched cards in his hand is five or less. The value of cards for determining this is shown on the following chart:
                    
Card Denomination Scoring Value
King, Queen, Jack 10
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Value marked on card
Ace 1
Although the twos are wild cards in this game, they only score two points for purposes of scoring unmatched cards in a player's hand.

Once a player calls "Tunk", he must then spread his hand on the table, with the melds arranged together separated from his unmelded cards. The other players then, in proper turn, have one last turn. During this last turn a player lays down his own melds. The player may also lay off on the Tunker's melds unless the Tunker's entire hand was melded (no unmelded cards) in which case he may not lay off any cards to the Tunker's melds. A player may never lay off cards on the melds of players other than the Tunker.

After the remaining players have had one last turn the total sum of unmatched cards are added. This total sum of each players' unmelded cards remaining in the hand is added to his score. If any other player has a lower total in unmatched cards then the Tunker, the Tunker doubles the number of points he scored during he hand. When a player's score, at the end of a hand, reaches or exceeds 100 points he must drop from the game. The game continues from hand to hand until there is only one player remaining, who is declared the winner. If the stock reaches the break, in which there are fewer cards remaining in the stock than players in the game, the game ends in a draw with no score occurring for the hand.

Desmoche: Desmoche is a game similar to Conquian that is often played in Honduras. In fact, this game is often titled Conquien, a name very similar to Conquian.

Desmoche is designed for play by 2 to 4 players using one standard 52 card deck. The ranking of the cards in the deck used for this game is as follows (from high to low); King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace.

Determination of seating positions and first dealer can be performed using a variety of methods, with draw for high card very common. Once determined the dealer thoroughly shuffles the deck and passes it to the player at his left for the cut. After the cut, the dealer begins dealing the cards one by one and face-down in a counter-clockwise direction starting with the player to his right. He continues dealing until each player has a hand consisting of nine cards. The rest of the deck is placed face-down near the center of the table to form the stock.

After the deal, each player then selects one card of his choice and passes it to the player to his immediate right. Each player must pass his own face-down card before picking up and adding to his hand the card passed by the player from his left. This passed card is called the Cambio.

A Color hand in Desmoche, an instant win If any player, before or immediately after (but before any player has had his first turn) receiving the passed card, notices that he has any of the instant win criteria he must announce this and will immediately win the hand with no play being necessary for the current hand. When declaring this the player with the instant win hand must also place the hand face up on the table in front of themselves for verification. The following lists these instant win hands: If no player has one of these instant win hands play begins with the player to the immediate right of the dealer and continues in a counter-clockwise direction. On his turn, a player first draws the top card of the face-down stock pile. The card drawn should never be added to the players actual card hand, but rather held in the player's other hand. If the card can be used by that player to create a new meld (and the player wants to create the meld) or add to one of his own existing melds, the player may take the card placing the card face-up on the table in front of themselves and then add other cards from his hand to complete the meld. If the drawn card cannot be used to immediately create a meld, he must place it on the top of the discard pile. If any other player can use this card (and wants to do so) they may immediately grab the card and place it face up in front of themselves. If more than one player wants to take the discarded card, the privilege of taking the card goes to the player who is closes to the current player in a counterclockwise direction from the player who discarded the card. On the very first turn of the hand, the first player on the hand draws a second card if no other player elected to take his first discard. The player then has the same two options with this second card drawn. If no other player takes this second card either, his turn ends. On every subsequent turn by every player, only one card is drawn. The allowable melds in this game are sets and groups: These melds should be played immediately in front of the player, all face up. By custom runs should be displayed in strict ascending order in front of the player and sets should be displayed in alternating colors.

If a player at any time (on his turn or during the discard on another player's turn) takes a discarded card (to complete a proper meld) he must immediately place a card from his hand face-up on the top of the discard pile. As in a player's normal order turn, other players may then elect to take this new card discard by the player taking this last discard. A player may also elect, on his own turn, to take into his hand one of the cards he previously melded to the table in front of himself. He may then use this card in another meld. However, when taking this one card, all his own melds on the table in front of the player must still create valid melds. This is called a Desmoche.

Play continues in this manner around the table until one player manages to meld nine cards on the table and discard his last card. This player is then said to have won the game.

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