Game Rules

Koum-kan

Two standard decks of 52 cards is used plus four Jokers. Cards in each suit rank, from low to high (excluding jokers):

Ace 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jack Queen King

The first dealer is chosen randomly, and the turn to deal alternates if there are two players, and rotates anti-clockwise if there are more than two. Ten cards are dealt to each player and one is placed face up on the table.

The object of the game is to dispose of all the cards in a player's hand. There are three ways to get rid of cards: melding, laying off, and discarding.

• Melding is taking a combination of cards from your hand, and placing it face up on the table, where it stays. There are two kinds of combination which can be melded: sequences (also known as runs) and groups (also known as sets or books).
  • A sequence or run consists of three or more cards of the same suit in consecutive order, such as 4 of Clubs, 5 of Clubs, 6 of Clubs or 8 of Hearts, 9 of Hearts, 10 of Hearts, J of Hearts.
  • A group, set or book is three or four cards of the same rank but distinct suit, such as 7 of Diamonds, 7 of Hearts, 7 of Spade.
  • A Joker card can be used in place of any other card.
• Laying off is adding a card or cards from your hand to a meld already on the table. The cards added to a meld must make another valid meld. For example to the 4 of Clubs, 5 of Clubs, 6 of Clubs you could add the 3 of Clubs or the 7 of Clubs. You are not permitted to rearrange the melds in the process. For example, 2 of Clubs, 2 of Hearts, 2 of Diamonds, 2 of Spades and 3 of Spades, 4 of 4 of Spades, 5 of Spades have been melded, you are not permitted to move the 2 of Spades from the group to the sequence, so as to lay off the Ace of Spades. The player can lay off a card in the place of a Joker card, for example it can lay of the 3 of Clubs in a 2 of Clubs, Joker, 4 of Clubs combination. In that case the player picks up the Joker and adds it to their hand. A Joker can be layed of on a combination where any other card would be allowed to be laid off. Laying off is not allowed if the player has not yet melded any of their own combinations.
• Discarding is playing a card from your hand on top of the discard pile. You get rid of one card this way at the end of each turn.

Players take turns playing in anti-clockwise rotation. Each turn consists of the following parts:

• The Draw. The Player must begin by taking one card from either the top of the Stock pile or the top card on the discard pile, and adding it to their hand. The discard pile is face up, so the player can see in advance what they are getting. The stock is face down, so if the player chooses to draw from the stock they do not see the card until after they have committed themselves to take it. If the player draws from the stock, they add the card to their hand without showing it to the other players.
• Melding. If the player has a valid group or sequence in their hand, they may lay such combinations face up on the table. Melding is optional; Players are not obliged to meld if they do not wish to do so.
• Laying off. This is also optional. If the player wishes, they may add cards to groups or sequences previously melded by themselves or others. There is no limit to the number of cards a player may lay off in one turn.
• The Discard At the end of your turn, one card must be discarded from the player's hand and placed on top of the discard pile face up. The Discard is mandatory, a player cannot use all cards in melding or laying off, one card must always be kept for discarding at the end of the turn. This means that if the player holds only two cards a combination with the picked up card cannot be form because no card would be available to discard. Only laying off is possible in this case.

Players win an individual hand by either melding, laying off, or discarding all of their cards. Getting rid of the last card in one of these ways is called going out. As soon as someone goes out, play ceases. There can be no further melding or laying off, even if the other players have valid combinations in their hands.

When a player goes out, the other players add up the value of all the cards still remaining in their hands, as follows:

• Aces and Face cards (K,Q,J) are worth 10 points each.
• Number Cards are worth their face value - for example a six is worth 6 points, a four is 4 points, and so on.
• Jokers are worth 25 points.

The total value of all the cards in the hands of the other players is added to the winner's cumulative score.The game continues with further deals until a player or players reach the points target that was decided before the game began. That player or players are then removed from the game, having lost the game and the game continues with the remaining players. When only one player remains with points less than the agreed up target score then that player is the winner of the game.

Thanasis

Thanasis is a game similar with Koum-kan. It has the same rules except for the following:

• A card cannot be picked up from the discard pile, only from the stock.
• A card is turned face up on the table next to the stock pile at the start of the hand. All cards of the same rank are then considered to be Joker cards for that particular hand. For example if the 5 of Spades turns up first on the table after the deal it is put aside and all other cards with rank 5 (seven remaining in total) are considered Jokers and can be used as any other card in any combination. If a Joker turns up it is put back in the stock and another card is turned.
• Melding is not allowed during the hand, a player is only allowed to meld his combinations when doing so they go out, ie they have used up all their 10 cards in combinations.
• There is no laying of due to their being no melding during the hand.
• When a player goes out then the other player's combinations are removed before scoring so only cards that cannot be used in combinations are added up for the player's points.
• The scoring value of an Ace not able to be used in a combination is 1 points

Dynamitis!

Dynamitis is almost identical to Thanasis with the exception that in addition to the cards being Jokers due to having the same rank as the first card turned on the table, all Twos are also Jokers, so there are in total 19 Jokers (8 Twos, 7 determined by the first turned card and 4 actual Jokers). If a Joker or a Two turns up as the first card it is put back and another card turned up.