Tonk is a kind of knock rummy. Its played with a standard 52 card deck. A picture card counts 10 points, ace counts 1 point and other cards count face value. Players take turns to be the dealer.
Five cards are dealt to each player. The next card is placed face up on the table to start the discard pile, and the remaining undealt cards are placed face down in a stack beside the discard pile to form the stock.
A player whose initial hand contains 50 points must declare “Tonk” immediately and win the game by being paid double of the stake. If your opponent also has 50 points on hand, the hand is a draw and there are no payments. The game then ends and begin the next hand. Otherwise the play continues. A player next the the dealer play first and play according to the following steps :-
1) You have an option to “knock” by placing all your cards face up. You win the stake when you have a lower total point in your hand than other players. You lose double of the stake amount when you have a higher total point. The game then ends.
2) If you do not knock, you draw a card either from the stock or the discard pile. If you want to draw a card from the face down card stock and it runs out, the game ends and who has fewer points in the hand win the stake.
3) You have an option to lay down “meld” which consist three or four card of the same rank, or at least three cards with consecutive rank in the same suit. You can also lay down any card which form meld with melds already laid down by all players. If you can get rid of all your cards, you “tonk” and win double of the stake amount and the game ends.
4) If you do not tonk, you end your turn of play by discarding a card face up on to the discard pile. If you have no card in your hand after the discard, you win the stake and the game ends.