Desmoche (played in Nicaragua as conquién, with slight variations) is a popular rummy card game usually played for small stakes which closely resembles other games in the rummy family, like Conquian and gin rummy, more than poker. It was probably devised in Nicaragua in the first half of the 20th century.
Rules
Object
The object of desmoche is to play, in either runs or sets, exactly ten cards on the table. The game is played by 2, 3 or 4 players with a standard deck of 52 playing cards.
Deal
Any player may start out as the dealer, which then rotates from round to round in a counterclockwise fashion. The player on the dealer's right may cut the deck before the dealer deals the cards face-down starting with the player on the right and continuing until each player receives nine cards. Cards that are not dealt remain in the deck, which is placed in the middle of the table and used throughout the remainder of the game.
Play
After players are dealt nine cards each, but before play begins, each player chooses one card from their hand and passes it face down to the player on their right. The "Cambio" (also known as "exchange", "pass" or "trade") can be a crucial factor in deciding one's hand.
If any of the "automatic win" specifications (available below) have been met either before or after the Cambio, the player with the winning hand must declare they have won and place their cards face up on the table for the other players to confirm the automatic win.
Otherwise, normal play begins.
The player to the right of the dealer begins play by drawing a card from the deck, being careful not to place that card into the cards already in their hand. If the player can make use of the card to create a meld, they do so by placing the card on the table in front of them and adding the cards from their hand to finalize the meld, all cards in the meld must be face up. If the card cannot be immediately used, it is placed face up in the discard pile. If any other player can use that card to create a meld, they can then play it face up on the table in front of them. If more than one player can use the card, the first player in counter-clockwise order from the player who discarded it gets to take it.
If no one can use the first card drawn, a second card is then drawn by the same player to the right of the dealer. Each player only draws one card before the next person's turn for the remainder of the game.
Each player is to always maintains nine cards in their possession. This includes both the cards in the player's hand and the cards which have been played face up on the table. If a player uses a card from either the deck or the discard pile, in order to maintain a count of nine cards the player must "pay" for this card by discarding a card from their own hand. Once a player discards a card that no one can use, play continues to that player's right, regardless of whether any other player's turns seemed to have been skipped.
The only time a player will have more than nine cards is when they have won, at which time they will have exactly ten cards.
If no player has played ten cards face up on the table by the time the final card has been discarded from the deck, there is no winner and, if playing for money, the bet for the next game is added to the current pot.
Whether there is a winner or not, the player to the right of the previous dealer is now the dealer, and play continues.
Much like Poker, game play ends when a player is out of money or simply no longer wishes to continue playing.
Melds
Melds in desmoche must contain a minimum of three cards. They can be runs of the same suit (i.e. ) containing three to ten cards, or sets of three or four cards of identical rank (i.e. ). After a player has played a meld on the table, it can be added to by cards in that player's hand or by any cards that are discarded by a player that will continue the meld.
The highest run allowed is J Q K, a meld of Q K A is not allowed. A 2 3 is the smallest run allowed, but is often considered the highest valued run (see Bonuses below).
Sometimes players enforce strict rules for laying down melds, in which a player is disqualified if their cards are not arranged in the correct order. Runs must be placed in ascending order, like and not . Sets must be played with suit color alternating, i.e. not .
A player performs a desmoche, which the game is named for, by taking a card from any of their face up melds to use in another meld, but only as long as all melds that remain on the table are still valid melds (i.e: can be used to desmoche an to create a new meld of because is still a valid meld).