How to Play Conquian (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.

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:

Long Spread:
Short Spread:

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:

Each player receives eight cards in the deal to start the game.
The deal, play and rotation of the deal is all performed in a counter-clockwise rotation.
A player wins the game by being able to meld nine total cards of his own melds on the table in front of himself.

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:

Each player is dealt seven cards total to form their initial hand.
The rotation of the deal, turns of play and movement of the deal all occur in a counter-clockwise rotation.
A player wins the game by melding a total of eight total cards of his own melds on the table in front of himself.

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:

Run:
Book:

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:

On any turn that a player plays a new spread to the table, they must wait at least four more turns before being allowed to drop.
If a player adds a card to another players meld, the player who originally played that meld to the table cannot Drop at their next turn. This includes adding to your own melds on the table. Thus, if you add one or more cards to your own melds, you cannot Drop on your next turn.

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:

Three of a Kind
Four of a Kind
Four of a Kind - Secret
Straight Flush
Escalera

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:

A player manages to play the last of his cards. He can do this by creating new melds or extending melds already on the table (either his own or other players'). He can also deplete his hand by discarding his last card of the hand, after playing all other cards in the hand to valid melds. Playing all of one's cards is called Tong-Its. An opponent's meld is called a sapaw. Once a player manages to thusly deplete his hand in this way, the game ends with this player instantly declared the winner.
On his turn a player may call a "Draw". A player may only do this if he has made at least one full meld to the table on the current hand. In addition, no other player can have added any cards to any of his melds since his last turn. To do so, on his turn (before drawing) he simply calls "Draw". When this occurs, each opponent in turn can then either drop or challenge the draw. A player who does not yet have any complete melds on the table must drop, he does not have the opportunity to challenge the draw. A player with no melds on the table is said to be burnt. If all players drop, the player calling for the Draw is immediately declared the winner. However, if one or more players Challenge the Draw, the points for all cards remaining in those players hands are totaled. The player with the lowest count is declared the winner (which may or may not be the player who originally called for the Draw). If there is a tie between two players in the count, the challenger wins.
The deck runs out. When the last card from the stock has been draw, the game ends after the player who drew that card completes his turn. Players with no complete melds on the table are automatically disqualified and must drop. All players who do have at least one valid meld on the table then do a count of all cards currently remaining in the hand, and the player with the lowest total is declared the winner. If two or more players tie for the lowest count, the player, of those who tied, who last drew a card from the stock is declared the winner.

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:

For winning a game by calling Tong-It, a player earns 3 Game Points per opponent and each opponent loses three Game points.
For winning a game (but not with a Tong-It), a player earns one Game Point for each opponent in the game. Each opponent similarly loses one Game Point.
If a player calls Draw and if any player challenges, the player wins 3 Game points for each player who did not drop. Each opponent who did not drop similarly loses three Game points.
For each Ace the winner has in hand or has used in creating his own melds, the player earns one Game Point per opponent in the game. Each opponent loses one Game point for each of these Aces.
If the game ends (not counting if the game ends by the draw pile running out), a player who is Burned loses one Game Point, and the Winner of the hand earns one Game point.
For each set of four equally ranked cards that the player holds in the hand or has melded face-down to the table (secret meld), he earns three game points to each other player in the game. Each opponent similarly loses three game points for each of these secret melds.
If a player manages to win two games consecutively, he earns two Game points and each opponent loses two Game points.

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

Group
Sequence

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

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:

Peladia
Cuatro Cuerpos
Color

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:

A Set is a collection of three or more cards of the exact same rank (such as 5 of Clubs, 5 of Spades and 5 of Diamonds).
A Run is a collection of three or more cards in sequence and all of the same suit (i.e. 5, 6, 7, 8, all of Hearts).

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.