Alternative names | Pan |
---|---|
Type | Rummy |
Players | 2-8 |
Cards | 440 |
Deck | Anglo-American |
Play | Counter-Clockwise |
Card rank (highest to lowest) | K Q J 7 6 5 4 3 2 A |
Related games | |
Rummy, Mahjong |
Panguingue (pronounced pan-geen-eee), Tagalog Pangginggí, also known as Pan, is a 19th-century gambling card game probably of Philippine origin similar to rummy, first described in America in 1905. It used to be particularly popular in Las Vegas and other casinos in the American southwest. Its popularity has been waning, and it is now only found in a handful of casinos in California, in house games and at online poker sites.
The game is traditionally played using a 440-card deck, constructed from eleven decks of playing cards, removing all eights, nines, tens, and Jokers. In some localities, 5, 6, or 8 decks are used, and often one set of spades is removed.
Each player pays an ante of one chip, called the top. The value of the top sets the value of all pays in the game. Some high-stakes games are played with a two-chip ante, which is called double tops. The rotation of dealing and playing is to the right, not to the left as in most card games. Each player receives 10 cards. Beginning with the eldest hand, each player either folds their hand (going out on top) or agrees to play. The player who folds loses their top. If all but one fold, the final player receives the tops, and the hand is over. Some games by agreement do not use an ante. Players merely pay points called "beans" to players as they play melds onto the board. If the player does not request their beans prior to discarding, the other players are not obligated to pay them.
Players try to form melds. A meld consists of three or four cards of the same rank (e.g., three 6s), or in sequence (3, 4, 5) (sequences are called ropes or stringers). All the cards in a rope must be the same suit, but rank melds require either three cards of the same suit or three different suits. The exception for rank melds is Aces and Kings (non-comoquers) any three of which can form a meld (e.g. two Aces of Hearts and an Ace of Diamonds).
Certain melds are called conditions, and when formed result in the payment of chips to the melder from all active players (those who did not go out on top).
When playing with two players an alternate method of keeping score is to use the "set over" method. Rather than paying beans to each other, each player starts with a stack of beans to their left then they pay beans to themselves as they play melds. These beans are kept with the melds until the end of the hand when they are transferred to the right. The first player to move their stack from left to right is the winner.