Tong-its

Tong-its, also spelled Tongits or called Thong, is a three player rummy card game that is especially popular in the Philippines, played with a standard fifty two card deck and sometimes with joker variants added. Its rules closely resemble the American card game Tonk and it also shares some similarities with the Chinese tile game Mahjong. The exact origins of Tong-its remain unclear, though it likely developed from the 1930s American game Tonk, possibly introduced to the Philippines by American military personnel during the 1940s. The game grew dramatically in popularity through the 1990s across the Philippines, particularly in Luzon and the surrounding regions, and remains a common social and gambling card game there today.