Tonk
The rummy-style card game. Draw, spread, discard, knock. The same free chips, the same machines.
Tonk
The rummy-style card game. Draw, spread, discard, knock. The same free chips, the same machines.
How the game works
The goal
Be the first to empty your hand. Three players, seven cards each.
Your turn
DRAW takes the top of the deck. TAKE grabs the top discard. Tap cards in your hand, then press the button: three cards lay a spread (PLAY SPREAD), one card extends a spread (HIT SPREAD) or goes on the hit stack (HIT). DISCARD one card to end your turn.
Spreads
Three of a rank, or three in a row of one suit. Lay three, then add more one card at a time. Aces play high or low.
The hit stack
It opens with one up-card. Add a card of the same suit, one rank higher or lower. Once it starts going up or down it keeps that direction, and an Ace kills it.
Scoring
Every card is one chip, 200, whatever its rank. Empty your hand and each opponent pays you one chip for every card still in theirs. If the deck runs out first, the player with the fewest cards wins and everyone else pays them one chip per card left. If two tie for fewest, the lower cards win (an ace counts low); only hands that match card for card split the pot.
Best spreads
| Same rank Three of a kind; the fourth can be added later. | K♠♠K♠K♥♥K♥K♦♦K♦ |
| Four of a kind All four of one rank - the fourth added to a set. | 9♠♠9♠9♥♥9♥9♦♦9♦9♣♣9♣ |
| Same suit Three in a row; more can be added at either end. Aces play high or low. | 4♥♥4♥5♥♥5♥6♥♥6♥7♥♥7♥ |
| Run of three The smallest spread you can lay. | J♣♣J♣Q♣♣Q♣K♣♣K♣ |
| The hit stack Opens with one up-card. Add the same suit, one rank higher or lower; once it goes up or down it keeps that direction. An Ace kills it. | 8♣♣8♣ |
Chips
Two tables, one chip each: the purple 200 at the regular table and the gold 1,000 at the High Roller table. Either buy-in sits in the rack as twenty-five chips, and there is never any change to make.
Every card left in a hand costs one chip, whatever its rank. When a hand ends the chips you see slide across the table are the real count: one per card, from each opponent's rack into the winner's. The rack, the pot and the number on your plate always add up.
At the table
Free chips every day you come back. A slot machine, a lottery ticket and a mystery box sit beside the table, and a savings jar fills a little every time you win a hand. Chips are play money: no cash value, nothing to cash out. For adults 18+.