Khanhoo

Khanhoo, also spelled kanhu, is a non-partnership Chinese card game of the draw-and-discard structure. It was first recorded during the late Ming dynasty as a multi-trick taking game, a type that may be as old as Tien gow, which Emperor Gaozong of Song revised and published in an authorized edition in 1130 for the information of his subjects. The name means watch the pot, and the game is very possibly the ancestor of all rummy games. Sir William Henry Wilkinson, a British sinologist and Consul-General in China and Korea from 1880 to 1918, adapted it to western taste. It belongs to the same family as Mahjong, a related game is Kuwaho or Cuajo from the Philippines, and variants of the Qing version, such as To tom, are still played in China and Vietnam.