Conquian
Coon Can

Conquian is a two-player game of Mexican heritage, widely held to be the ancestor of all Rummy games. It also goes by the name "Coon Coon".

The Cards

Shorten the pack to 40 cards by removing all the 8s, 9s and 10s.

Cards run in sequence A, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 7, J, Q, K. There is no Ace over King. The Ace equals 1.

The Deal

Each player is dealt 10 cards each, one at a time. The remainder of the deck is left face down with cards slightly spread – the stock.

Objective

The objective in Conquian is to go out by melding 11 cards in matched groups or in suit sequences.

The 11th card is necessarily one drawn from the stock.

Therefore, a player with ten cards melded, even though he/she has none in hand, must continue playing until they can add an eleventh card.

The Play

Unlike so all the games of the Rummy family, in Conquian, neither player ever takes a card and adds it to their hand. Any card taken must be melded immediately.

The Non-Dealer starts by drawing the top card of the stock and turning it face up next to the stock.

The player may then meld it by placing two or more matching cards from their own hand with it.

At the same time, the player may use other cards from his/hand to complete any other melds that may be available.

The player completes their turn by placing their discard in place of the drawn card.

Thereafter, each player will be confronted by a face up card with which he/she has two choices.

May, if able, take the card and meld it with any other melds he/she may have, and finally discard exactly as described above.
Turn the card face down and take the next card from the stock, laying it face up on the discard pile. In this case he/she may meld it and discard OR pass the turn to his/her opponent, who may meld it or turn it down and turn the next card from the stock face up.

Discards, once turned down, remain unavailable for the rest of the game. If no one goes out before the stock is exhausted, the game is a draw.

Hitting

A player in turn may ‘Hit’ a meld of their own by laying a card or cards off against it from his/her hand.

In such a case, the player may “switch” i.e. re-arrange, cards to make his/her meld. That means he can take a card or cards from one group or sequence and meld them with others from his/her hand provided that it doesn’t reduce any group to less than 3 cards, or any sequence to less than 3 consecutive cards.

Forcing

A player may in turn, hit one of his opponent’s melds by laying a card off , the card laid off counting as his discard for that turn.

In this case, the opponent has no choice but to compensate one from his/her hand face up on the table. He/she may do nothing else, the discard ends his/her turn.

There is another way in which an opponent can be forced.

If a player, in turn is able to take the card available to him and lay it off against on of his/her melds, but declines to do so, and simply passes, his opponent may insist he take it, in which case he/she must.