Zioncheck

Zioncheck is a card game in the rummy family, closely resembling Shanghai Rummy, Contract Rummy and Phase 10 in its structure of sequential hands that each require a different combination of sets and runs to go out. Reference works on card games, including Hoyle's Book of Common Card Games, describe several later games as being built on Zioncheck's pattern, and Contract Rummy in particular is believed to have originated from it, making Zioncheck an important ancestor in the wider rummy-family lineage of Western card games. Play proceeds through a fixed sequence of hands with escalating melding requirements, and players score based on the cards remaining in their hands when a round ends, a structure shared across its many descendant games.