Last Updated on April 1, 2025 by The Official Game Rules Team

Conquian is a Mexican card game for two or three players. The first known reference to it is from Mexico City in 1857. In the following decades, it spread to North America, where it gave rise to the whole family of Western Rummy games.

In Mexico, it is usually played with a standard Spanish-suited 40-card pack, consisting of cups, coins, swords, and batons. In North America, it was adapted to be played with a standard Anglo-American 52-card deck, from which the 8’s, 9’s, and 10’s were removed.

This page first describes the modern Mexican game and its popular gambling variant, Paco. Then, we explain the two-player variant played in North America, followed by a double-deck variant known as Navajo Tens, or Neeznáá Dah Yíjihí in the Navajo language.

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How to Play Conquian

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Players, Cards, and Deal

Conquian can be played with two to three players. Some people call the three-player game tercerilla in Spanish.

The Spanish 40-card deck is used, consisting of cards 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-10 (sota {jack}) -11 (caballo {horseman}) -12 (rey {king}) in the suits of swords (espadas), clubs (bastos), cups (copas), and coins (oros).

The deal and play are anticlockwise. The first dealer is chosen by any convenient random method. Afterward, the dealer passes to the right after each hand.

The dealer deals eight cards to each player, one at a time. The remainder of the cards are placed face down on the table to form a stockpile from which cards will be drawn during the game.

Objective and Meld

The objective is to be the first to “go out” by melding nine cards. Cards are melded by placing them face up on the table in front of the owner to form valid combinations. The combinations allowed are:

• Set (or Group): A set of three or four cards of the same rank. A tercia is a set of three equal cards, such as baton-7, cup-7, sword-7. A cuarteto is a 4-card group, such as cups-4, clubs-4, swords-4, coins-4.
• Sequence (or Run): A sequence of at least three cards of the same suit in consecutive order, such as club-4, club-5, club-6. This is known as an escalera in Spanish. In this game, the ace (1) is always low (next to the 2), and the 7 is next to the jack (10), so sequences like 1-2-3 and 6-7-10 are valid, but 11-12-1 is not.

At all times, the meld you have on the table must consist of one or more separate valid combinations. Cards can be moved from one combination to another, but no card can ever be part of more than one combination at the same time.

Gameplay

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The Exchange

Each player looks at their hand, selects one unwanted card, and passes it face down to the player to their right, who picks it up and adds it to their hand. This is known as the cambio (exchange). All players pass their card simultaneously: each player must decide which card to pass and place it face down on the table before looking at the card they receive from the player to their left.

The First Turn

The player to the dealer’s right turns the top card of the stock face up and has two options:

1. To take this face-up card and meld it along with cards from their hand. At least two hand cards will be needed to make up a valid combination along with the turned-up card. If the player hasn’t melded all nine of their cards, they must end their turn by discarding one unwanted card face up.
2. To pass, not melding any cards and leaving the turned-up card to be used by the next player.

If the player to the dealer’s right passes, the player to the dealer’s left has the same two options. If both pass, the dealer has the following options:

1. To take the face-up card, meld it with cards from their hand, and discard one unwanted card.
2. To reject the face-up card and turn over a new card from the stock, repeating the above options.

Subsequent Turns

The next turn is taken by the player to the right of the player who melded the initial face-up card or by the player to the right of the dealer if all three players rejected the initial face-up card and the dealer then either melded or rejected the next card. Play continues anticlockwise until either a player goes out by melding all nine cards or the stockpile is exhausted.

At the start of a player’s turn, they will always have eight cards, some of which may be in melds on the table. The face-up discard pile will be the top card discarded by the previous player or the card turned up and rejected by the previous player. The player has the following options:

1. To take the top card of the discard pile and add it to their melds, rearranging as necessary to keep their combinations valid. If they meld all nine of their cards, the game ends. Otherwise, the player discards one unwanted card face up.
2. To reject the top card of the discard pile and turn over a new card from the stock, either melding it or rejecting it, passing the turn to the next player.

Forcing

Players can sometimes be forced to meld a card:

• If the center card can be added to an opponent’s meld on the table without requiring any extra cards from that opponent’s hand, the current player must give the card to the opponent.
• During their turn, if the center card can be added to the player’s meld without extra cards, the opponent may force them to meld it.

Players can rearrange their melds during their turn, but they cannot meld new cards unless taking the center card.

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End of the Game

Play continues until either someone goes out or the stock runs out. To go out, a player melds the face-up card from the center of the table along with the remaining cards in their hand, resulting in a total of nine cards melded. In this case, they win, and the other players pay them a fixed sIf no cards remain in the stock and the player cannot use the card discarded by their opponent, the game is a draw. This is known as tablas.

Two-Player Game

Conquian can also be played with two players. The rules are essentially the same as above, except each player is dealt nine cards. The game continues as before, with the goal of melding all cards to win.

Variations

In the three-player game, some play that the top card of the discard pile can be used by either opponent, not just the next player. Players must act quickly in this variation.

Other variations include dealing cards in packets, adjusting the number of cards dealt, or using a French-suited deck. Some play with a wild card, yuca, and some also play with a full 52-card pack.