Fan Tan, a new member of Stokes’ family of board games, is rapidly growing. It originated in Italy, but has now become popular worldwide. It’s played in a similar way to Chess but with seven cards rather than five. It is also known as Seven-Card Stud (or Seven-Card Scrabble). It is still widely played as an official game in many countries. It is second in popularity in Europe after Chess.

It is typically played between two players, known as partners. Each player holds seven cards. Players alternately turn to face each other and choose to move their card(s), or stay in their corner. When a player gets to move his card(s) forward, he must also discard a card from his hand, unless it is his partner’s turn and he has moved all his counters ahead of his partner.

Fan Tan is similar to traditional Chinese gambling games like Black, White, Rummy and Chamomile. The goal is for all players to collect pairs of cards at the end of the game, called a ‘level’. The winner is the last standing player. Fan Tan is a game that requires at most four players to win. One must lose the pot. For a seven card game, however the minimum number is six.

Fan Tan also has a nine-card variant. This variation lets players alternate piles with cards, one pile consisting of sevens and one of diamonds. Players who have rolled more than seven cards will not be able to choose which pile they will receive their winnings. Likewise, players who have rolled a single diamond will not be able to choose from any pile. In traditional Chinese gambling games like Fan Tan, the purpose of winning is always to be the first player to put forth an action that brings about the quickest combination. Fan-tan however, is about getting the most combinations, no matter how many players you are.

In regular Fan Tan, the goal is to get as many sets of sevens as possible. This variant allows players to alternate stacks of cards, one stack of sevens and one stack with diamonds. Players who have rolled multiple sevens cannot choose which pile to get their winnings. Players who have rolled at least one diamond can’t choose any pile. In a seven-card game, the regular rule is that you get to keep the cards you already won. You can keep any cards revealed in fan-tan. If you win a lottery ticket, the winning card will be kept secret and revealed only to the person who purchased it.

You must remove your shirts when you participate in fan-tan games. It is imperative that players expose both their shirts as well as their pants when participating in fan-tan games. The “lottery” ticket is known by all those who have rolled it. It is important that you always have a shirt, and a pair or pants, when playing seven card games.

Participating in a seven card game of fan tanning requires that you remove all clothes except your shoes. Because so many of these types of gambling games require that you expose your bodies, this rule is almost certain to be broken. Once you’re done with your roll, you need to expose your clothes once more, but this time only one shoe. After you’ve done this and everyone has rolled their eyes, you can announce to the room that it’s a new deck and give away a new one. If anyone sees it, they will need to get a new shirt to replace the one that was exposed.

Fan Tan can either be played with a 52-card deck or a seven card draw. Each player will receive two cards from each of the seven-card draws. If played with the standard 52-card deck, players can place any number of cards on the table, regardless of the numbers on their actual hand. If the game is played with a seven-card deck, players are limited to placing two cards face down in front of each other. The “low card”, or the final card, along with the three high cards from their respective draw piles can be placed face up by the players. The game ends when everyone has drawn a card.