COON CAN

In the U.S.A. Coon Can is known as Double Rum. It is no bad name for it because it is a variation of rummy played with two packs of cards shuffled together with two Jokers.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS

The game may be played by any number of players up to eight; each plays for himself.

CARDS

Two identical packs are used, with two Jokers, making a pack of 106 cards. Ace can rank either high or low, and the Jokers are wild.

Ten cards are dealt face downwards to each player. The rest of the pack (the stock) is placed face downwards in the centre of the table, and the top card of it is turned face upwards and placed alongside it to start the discard file.

THE PLAY

The object of the poker game is to get rid of all the cards held, by melding them face upwards on the table, either in sets of three or more of the same rank, or in sequences of three or more of the same suit, the Ace either high or low but No-Trumps round-the-corner. A Joker may be used to represent any card that the holder chooses.

Each player, beginning with the one on the left of the dealer, plays in turn. He is under no obligation to meld, but he must take into his hand either the top card of the stock or the top card of the discard pile, and discard a card to reduce his hand to ten cards.

If he chooses to meld he must do so between drawing a card and discarding one, and as well as melding, at the same time he may add cards to melds that he has already made, and to those of his opponents.

A joker may be moved from one end of a meld to the other, provided the online poker player has the natural card to replace it. If , for example, a sequence is: ♠ 6, 7, 8, Joker, a player who holds a ♠ 9 may play it in place of the Joker and transfer the Joker to represent the ♠ 5. Once moved, however, a Joker cannot be moved a second time and a player who holds a ♠ 5 cannot play it in place of the Joker and place the Joker elsewhere.

Nor can a Joker be moved if it is in the interior of a sequence, as in ♠ 4, 5, 6, Joker, ♠ 8. The Joker cannot be replaced by a ♠ 7. When a Joker cannot be moved it is customary to place it crosswise, as a reminder to the other players.

The game is won by the players who is first to meld all his cards. The remaining players pay him the same number of units as the pip value of the unmelded cards left in their hands a Joker counting 15, an Ace 11, the court cards 10 each, and all other cards their pip values.

It rarely happens that the stock will be exhausted before the game has been won. In this even the game continues and the players draw cards from the discard pile, discarding a different card to that drawn. If this proves  insufficient to finish the game, the pip values of the poker rank hands are counted and placed into a pool to be scored by the winner of the next hand.