Pan (game)

Pan is a card game of Polish origin played with a small French-suited pack, using only the cards from nine through ace, which gives twenty four cards for two to eight players. All cards are dealt out evenly among the players before play begins. Whoever holds the nine of hearts starts the game by placing it face up to begin a stack, and after that players take turns adding one, three, or four cards of the same rank, as long as the rank played is equal to or higher than the rank sitting on top of the stack. A player who cannot or does not want to play must draw from the stack instead, taking three or more cards from it; if only three cards or fewer remain on the stack, that player must take every card on it except the nine of hearts sitting at the bottom, which stays in play as the anchor card. The goal is to be the first player to get rid of every card in hand, which makes Pan a shedding-type game built on tracking rank sequences and timing draws against opponents.