COOMA: see ALPS, AUSTRALIAN.
is an adaptation of the old Spanish game of Conquian—derived from the Spanish word Conquien, "with whom." The game was taken over by the Spaniards to Mexico, where it is played at the present time under the slightly altered name of "Conquain." There is no record as to when, or by whom, Coon-Can was in troduced into England. It was first heard of at the Bath club in Dover street in the early years of the twentieth century. The Bath club has been the nursery of various new card games. It was played for a time at the Portland club for high points, but the committee stepped in and decided that it was a gambling game and opposed to the rules of the club, and it was promptly for bidden. It was also played at the Travellers' club in Paris for a short time, but it soon died a natural death there. It has no real pretensions to rank as a scientific card game, but it makes an excellent family game, easy to learn, and requiring no great card skill.
The game can be played by any number of players up to seven, but five is the best number. Two full packs of fifty-two cards are used, with the addition of two jokers. If proper joker cards are not available, it is usual to consider the twos of spades as jokers. A joker may be made to assume the place of any card which the holder of it chooses.
The dealer deals ten cards, one at a time, to each player. He then places the remaining cards, in a pack, f ace downwards in the middle of the table, turning up the top card and placing it by the side of the pack.
The object of the game is to dispose of all the cards in one's hand by forming combinations of three or more of a kind, such as three knaves, or four eights, or into sequences of three or more cards of the same suit, such as seven, eight, nine of hearts, or king, queen, knave, ten of spades, and placing them, face upwards, on the table. This is called "showing down." For the purpose of forming sequences an ace can be reckoned as the highest or lowest card, e.g., ace, two, three or ace, king, queen, but the cards must be of the same suit, it must be a "straight flush" in poker parlance.
When the deal is completed, and the top card exposed, the player on the dealer's left must take into his hand either the exposed card, or the top unexposed card from the pack. If the exposed card is likely to be of use to him in forming any of the above mentioned combinations he will naturally take it. If it is of no use to him he leaves it on the table and takes the top card from the pack. He must take one or the other. After taking in a card, he may at once, if he wishes, show down on the table in front of him any combination, or combinations, such as have been described, that is, any sequence of three or more cards of the same suit, or three of a kind. Lastly, he must discard a card from his hand, placing it, face upwards, on the top of the exposed card, or, if he has taken the exposed card, in place of it. His proceedings must be in the specified order. He must first take in a card, then show down anything that he may wish to, and last of all, discard a card from his hand. After he has made his discard he can do nothing further until his turn comes round again. Each player, in turn, proceeds as described, first taking in either the exposed card or the top card from the pack, then showing down if he can do so, and if he wishes to, and lastly discarding a card, which must always cover up the last card exposed.
In addition to this, any player, in his proper turn, may add to a sequence already shown down by himself or anybody else, any card, or cards, which will continue the sequence at either end, or he may add to three or more of a kind any cards of the same kind which he may happen to hold. If a sequence is shown down with a joker at either end of it, any player, in his proper turn, may move the joker to the other end of the sequence, if so doing will enable him to add any cards to it, but when once a joker has been so moved, its position becomes fixed, it cannot be moved back again.
The game continues round and round in regular rotation, until one player is able to show down all his cards. The game is then over. The player who has got rid of all his cards wins from each of the others the value of the cards which they still hold in their hands, i.e. which have not been shown down.
A joker counts 15 points, an ace counts 11 points, each court card counts 10 points, other cards count their face value. There is only one winner in each game. Losers do not pay the balance of points to one another.
There are many variations of the game, principally turning on the question of "ratting." "Ratting" is when a player shows down some of his cards, possibly only three of them, with a view to decrease his liability, before he is prepared to show down his whole hand. One variation is to allow no ratting at all. Another variation is that no one is allowed to show down less than six cards. Another variation, and probably a better one is that a player may rat at any time, but if he fails to win the game he must add 3o points to his losing score. When one player has ratted, anyone else may show down without penalty. This is the game as played in England. It was very popular for a time, and it is still played in some parts of the country.
See W. Dalton, Coon-Can (1913).