This gambling poker game, popular in the Nevada casinos and Western states, was originally called Panguinge but is now commonly known as Pan. A favorite of Filipinos in California, it is in fact an adaptation of Coon Can. Pan is a house game, though not a banking game. Substantial cash flows to and in the play, and the house takes charge (a chip or so) out of each pot. The pot in Pan, as in Poker, is the sum of the antes put up by all the players, and it is taken by the player winning the hand.

Requirements

From six to eleven 52-card packs, used as one.
The eights, nines, and tens are stripped from each pack, as in Coon Can.
Any number of players; the more players, the more packs are used; seven to nine players make for the best game.
Many houses add to the pack certain extra payoff cards, such as threes, fives, and sevens. Usually the extras are spades.
But when extra cards are used it is essential that the operator tell the players so and tell them how many payoff extras are in play.

Object of the Game. To go pan (rummy) by the player’s melding his entire hand (ten cards) in spreads of three cards or more of the same denomination or sequences of three cards or more of the same suit.
The Deal. After the players have put up their antes the cards are shuffled by the game keeper, who when playing usually deals the first hand, or by the player who was low man in the cut for the deal. (In case of ties in this cut, players cut again until one man is low.) All the players help shuffle the cards, each taking a group of cards and shuffling. Then they are all put together face down on the table, and the player to the dealer’s right cuts the cards.
Now the dealer takes a handful of cards from the top of the pile, and deals to each player, starting with the player at the dealer’s left and going clockwise, ten cards, one at a time. If he hasn’t taken off enough cards to go around ten times, he just grabs another handful and keeps dealing. If he has some left over after the deal, they go back on top of the pack. The deal moves clockwise, to the left.
After any player has gone pan (rummy ), only the cards that have been used are shuffled and cut; then these are put on the bottom of the other cards which haven’t been
used.
Payoff Spreads. Two peculiarities of this game:

Players ante some amount, a chip or more, in the center of the table before the cards are dealt.
Only certain spreads payoff. A player can meld any spread he likes, as in Coon Can, but only the following payoff:

Ace-two-three of the same suit collects a chip from each player. If it is in spades, the sequence collects double. Any other card which extends that sequence collects an extra chip. If that other card is a spade in a spade sequence, it collects two chips.
Jack-queen-king of the same suit collects one chip. If it is in spades it collects two chips.
Threes, fives, and sevens are the only cards which, melded in the same rank, payoff. Three of a kind in these ranks will payoff two chips except in spades, in which case they payoff three chips.
The player is paid an extra chip for each card added to the spread of the same suit and rank. For example, if a player spreads four diamond fives, he is paid off three chips. Three diamond fives (see the three-of-a-kind rule above) are worth but two chips. If the spread is in spades, two chips are collected for each extra card melded. Suppose you spread six spade sevens: then you collect three chips for the first three-loo card spread and two extra chips for every seven over three. You’d get nine chips for that spread. Please note well that up to this time we have been discussing spreads of cards having the same rank and the same suit. Melds mixing the suits come under a different heading.
A payoff spread using three cards of equal rank in three different suits pays off one chip. A payoff spread of four of a kind in different suits pays two chips. A three-card spread using payoff cards but having two of these cards in the same suit does not pay off, an the aficionados call it Kamokee.
When a player goes pan he (a) gets one Chip from each other player, (b) takes the pot, and (c) collects from each player for the points he has melded. In a word, he collects twice for spreads he melds before going rummy .
The Play. Before the leader makes his first play, each player is entitled to play his hand or drop out. If he drops, he loses the chip he has anted. It is often excellent economics, as in Poker to drop out if the hand looks un-promising. After the dealer, who is last to decide, says whether he is in or out of the hand, the leader makes his first play. From then on no player may drop out of the game.
The leader may take either the upcard or the top card of the stock, the play rotating to the left of the leader. He then melds any spreads he can or wants to, collects from each other player if they are payoff spreads, and then discards one card. A player may hit a player to his left, as in Coon Can (we’ll remind you about hitting in just a second), thereby forcing that player to discard a card and lose his pick at his turn of play. The reminder: let’s say a player to your left has before him a meld of three sixes. You have a six, and you decide to lay it off on his meld, which is hitting. That card is considered your discard. But now witness the condition in which you have left your opponent.
The rules provide that no player may have more than ten cards, counting cards melded and cards in, hand. But your hit has given your occonent a total of eleven cards on the board and in his hand. With these eleven, he cannot draw a twelfth; he must reduce his holdings to ten; he is compelled to discard without picking a card of his own.
Additional Rules. A player having melded a spread of more than three nonpaying cards may remove one of those cards (which is called switching) to form another spread- provided the switch does not break the sequence of a long spread. You’ve melded four deuces. You have the ace and three of spades in your hand. Now you may switch the two of spades from the melded spread and with it form an ace-two-three spread. But, a payoff spread cannot be broken up. A player cannot borrow or switch a card from a spread on which he has already collected.
poker strategy . A player should stay if he has one matched set, or five or more combination that would be two-way with one pact (a pair or two cards of the same suit in sequences). Four combinations are a good hand with no more than four players, but dubious with five or more. However, the game is so far a matter of pure luck that many inveterate Pan Players will stay pure luck that many inveterate Pan Players will stay with three combinations in an eight–hand house game.