Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games (68 page)

Cards rank (high to low) 2-A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2, with 2s playing both high and low.

SCORING
A player is out of the game once he plays all nine cards from his hand and the table. The last player holding cards loses.

HOW TO PLAY
All players review their three-card hands and may, if they desire, swap one or more with their face-up cards on the table.

The player dealt the first face-up 3 (if none, the first face-up 4, or 5, etc.) goes first and plays any card (or pair of cards) from her hand, face up, onto a communal discard pile. She then replenishes her hand to three cards by drawing from the stock.

The next player must match the number of cards played with cards of equal or higher rank. If a pair of 5s is played, for example, the following player must follow with another pair of 5s or any higher pair of cards. If he cannot, he picks up the entire discard pile and the next player in rotation starts a fresh discard pile by playing any card or pair of cards.

Once the stock is exhausted, play continues without drawing. If a player starts his turn with no cards (because he played them on the previous turn) and the stock is empty, only then may he play his face-up cards. If any of these cards are playable, they are placed on the discard pile and the turn rotates. If the cards cannot be played, one card goes into the discard pile, which the player must then pick up.

When a player has no more face-up cards, she plays
blind
from her set of face-down cards, simply choosing at random. If that card (or cards, if appropriate) cannot be played, it’s taken back into the hand, along with the entire discard pile. The player must once again play cards from her hand on subsequent turns.

Palace does not have official variations, per se, though it’s almost unheard of
not
to include the following rule variations in modern games:

Any 2 may be played on any card, and any card may in turn be played on any 2.

The discard pile is removed permanently from the game when any 10 is played on it. The same player is rewarded with another turn.

If four cards of the same rank are played, either as a foursome or built up in unbroken sequence on the discard pile, the discard pile is removed from the game, and the same player gets another turn.

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   high
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   medium
   
3. DECKS
   : 5
   

This is the granddaddy of all Rummy games. Invented by the Spanish, Panguingue (or “Pan” for short) flourished in America’s nineteenth-century casinos and gambling halls. Given this gaming legacy, it’s no surprise that Pan is still played for stakes—typically 10 or 25 cents per chip. If you’re familiar with Rummy, you will quickly master Pan, and in doing so reconnect with a game that was once ubiquitous throughout the American West.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS
6 to 9

HOW TO DEAL
You need at least five standard fifty-two-card decks to play (in casinos, eight decks are used). Remove all 8s, 9s, and 10s from each deck, and shuffle them together. Card rankings are (high to low) K-Q-J-7-6-5-4-3-2-A. With so many cards in play, the deck is typically divided into two equal sections: a head used for dealing and a foot that serves as a reserve in case additional cards are needed.

All players start with an equal amount of chips or markers (50 is a good number, each worth 10 or 25 cents) and
ante
one chip into the pot. Dealing in a counterclockwise direction, the dealer gives ten cards to each player, face down, in five batches of two. The dealer then sets the head face down on the table (this is the stock), and turns up the top card, placing it face up next to the head (this is now a discard pile).

SCORING
The objective is to be the first player to meld eleven cards. That’s all ten cards in your hand plus the final card drawn. The winner of each hand collects one chip—plus the total of all
conditions
earned—from all active players, as well as the antes from players who dropped out of the game.

HOW TO PLAY
All players have an opportunity to fold once all cards are dealt. If a player folds, he adds two chips to the pot as a penalty and removes his cards from the table.

For the remaining players, starting from the right of the dealer and moving counterclockwise, each turn consists of drawing a single card from the stock or taking the topmost card from the discard pile, melding as many cards as possible (or none), and finishing by discarding a single card face up onto the discard pile. In Pan, there are special rules for drawing cards.

A card taken from stock must immediately be melded; otherwise it must immediately be discarded (in other words, you cannot add it to your hand).

A card taken from the discard pile may be used only to increase a player’s existing melds.

Players may build only on their own melds. Players may split one meld into two, or borrow a card (or cards) from existing melds to form new melds, as long as all resulting melds are valid. In Pan, the melds are as follows:

Sets are three or more cards of equal rank, from either the same or different suits. Two cards of matching suit and one of a different suit are not a valid set. A same-suit set may be increased only by adding cards of the same rank
and
suit (to the set 4 of hearts-4 of hearts-4 of hearts, only another 4 of hearts may be added). A mixed-suit set may be increased by adding cards of the same rank, regardless of suit (to the set 7 of diamonds-7 of hearts-7 of clubs, any other 7 may be added).

Aces and kings (these ranks are called
non-comoquers
in Pan) may form sets regardless of suit (A of hearts-A of hearts-AK is a valid set)

A sequence is any three cards in consecutive rank and matching suit. In Pan, 7s and jacks are considered consecutive; however,
continuous ranking
is not allowed—ranking must stop at the king (going up) or the ace (going down). You may add to a sequence by adding cards in proper sequence and suit.

CONDITIONS
Certain melds are called “conditions,” and result in immediate payment of chips from all active players. The conditions and payouts are below; note that all 3s, 5s, and 7s are known as
valle
cards; cards of other ranks are
non-valle
cards.

A set of valle cards not in the same suit (e.g., 3 of diamonds-3 of clubs-3 of spades) earns one chip from each player

A set of valle cards in matching suit earns two chips from each player, or four chips if the suit is spades.

A set of non-valle cards in matching suit earns one chip from each player, two chips if the suit is spades.

A sequence starting with an ace or ending with a king earns one chip from each player, two chips if the suit is spades.

When cards are added to conditions, the player collects the value of the original condition for every additional card. And if players create a condition that did not exist before splitting a meld, the player earns chips as if the meld was entirely new.

FORCING
If the top card of the discard pile can be used by a player to build an existing meld, other players may demand that the player draw the card and use it in a meld. The idea is to force the player to make a discard they would not otherwise have made.