PANGUINGUE
PANGUINGUE is one of the best games of the Rummy type for a large number of players. It arises from the Spanish game of Conquian, and retains the characteristics of using the Spanish 40 card pack and of play rotating to the right. It gained much popularity in the first half of the century on the west coast of the U.S.A. It is played for small stakes.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS
Any reasonable number may play perhaps six to eight is best, but the poker game can accommodate twice this number.
CARDS
Eight of the 40-card packs are used, making a pack of 320 cards. The 40 card pack is formed by removing from a standard pack the 10s, 9s and 8s. It is possible to use fewer packs, but fewer than five should No-Trumps be used.
The cards rank in the order: King, Queen, Jack, 7,6,5,4,3,2, Ace. Players may remove the Kings, Queens and Jacks instead of the 10s, 9s and 8s, so that the cards are in their natural sequence and there is no need to remember that 7 and Jack are in sequence.
The 320 card pack is shuffled by many hands and amalgamated. Each player draws a card, and the lowest becomes dealer and sits on eldest’s left (this is because the dealing and the play rotates to the right, i.e. anti-clockwise).
The final shuffle before the deal is made by the player at the dealer’s left. It is unusual for all the cards to be used during one hand, and after the first deal the practice between deals is to shuffle only the cards which has been used together with a batch from the unused cards, these going to the bottom of the total pack.
The deal does not rotate the winner of a hand becomes eldest hand for the next, i.e. the player to the left of the winner deals the next hand.
Without holding the whole pack in his hand, the dealer deals ten cards to each player in bundles of five. The remaining cards are placed face down to form the stock. Here again it is usual to divide the pack in two so that the stock is not unmanageable.
The upper part, called the ‘head’ is used, while the lower part, the ‘foot’, is put to one side to be used if necessary.
THE PLAY
The top card of the stock is turned face up to begin a discard pile. Beginning with eldest (the player to the dealer’s right) and proceeding anti clockwise, each player in turn announces whether he will stay in the game or drop.
A player who drops pays a forfeit of two chips. The chips are placed on that part of the stock called the foot, and the player who drops thus says that he is ‘going on top’. His cards are placed face down below the foot, but crosswise, because they do No-Trumps become part of the stock ad must not be used in the hand.
After all who wish have dropped, those remaining, in turn anticlockwise, draw a card either from the top of the discard pile or from the top of the stock. The card from the discard pile can be taken only if it can be melded with immediately.
A meld, usually called a ‘spread’, is either of a group or of a sequence, as in the more familiar Rummy, and consists of three cards.
A group consists of three cards of the same rank, but to be valid there are restrictions as to suits. If the rank is King or Ace (called ‘non-comoquers’) there are no restrictions; any three cards are valid. However, for other hand ranks, the cards must be either all of the same suit or all of different suits.
A sequence (usually called a ‘stringer’) consists of three cards of the same suit in sequence (remembering that a sequence continues from 7 to Jack).
A player may lay down any melds on his turn (if taking the card from the top of the discard pile, he must meld with it, as stated). Subsequently, on his turn, he may add to any of his melds, called ‘laying off’.
A player may lay off on his own melds only No-Trumps on his opponents’. A sequence may be added to by laying off additional cards in sequence. A group of the same suit may be added to by laying off cards of the same rank and suit.
A group in different suits may be added to by laying off cards of the same rank in any suit (this means that such a meld is No-Trumps restricted to four cards only).
A player may take the top of the discard pile in order to lay off on one of his melds.
Certain melds are called ‘conditions’, and a player who makes one immediately collects chips poker from all other players. So far as groups are concerned, certain ranks (7s, 5s and 3s) are called ‘valle cards’ or value cards