How to Play Fan Tan

Objective

Get rid of all your cards before anyone else. Cards go onto a shared layout in the middle of the table, building each suit outward from its seven: down to the ace on one side and up to the king on the other. When you can’t play, you pay, so a slow hand costs you chips.

Setup

Give everyone the same number of chips, around 20 each. Each player antes one chip into the pot. Deal the whole deck, one card at a time, to the left. With most numbers of players some hands are a card short; in most games, anyone holding fewer cards puts one extra chip in the pot to make up for the easier hand.

How to play

The player to the left of the dealer goes first and must play a seven to the center of the table. If they have no seven, they pay one chip to the pot and the turn passes left.

After that, on each turn you may play one card: any seven, to start a new row, or a card that extends a row already on the table. Rows build in sequence by suit. On the six of hearts goes the five, then the four, and so on down to the ace. On the other side, the eight of hearts goes next to the seven, then the nine, up to the king.

You must play if you can. If none of your cards fit, pay one chip to the pot and pass. The hand ends as soon as one player plays their last card.

1. 1Play a seven to start a suit row
2. 2Or add the next card up or down a row
3. 3If you can’t play, pay one chip and pass
4. 4First player out of cards wins the pot

Scoring

Fan Tan is scored in chips. The pot grows from the antes and from every pass, and the winner collects it at the end of the hand.

The first player out of cards takes the whole pot, including the payments for cards left in other hands. The deal passes left, and you can play as many hands as you like.

Variations

Sevens: the same game without chips. In many homes the player holding the seven of diamonds always starts by playing it. Count the cards left in each hand as points and play to an agreed total; low score wins.

Play or Pay: the first player may lead any card, not just a seven, and each suit builds upward in a loop from that rank, going from king around to ace.

Free pass: some tables let you pass and pay one chip even when you could play. Holding back a key card then becomes a deliberate choice instead of a penalty.

Tips from the table

You must play when you can, but you often get to choose which card. Pick the one that opens up a row where you hold the next few cards, not a row that helps everyone else.

Sixes and eights are blocking cards. If you hold the eight of spades and nothing higher in spades, holding it back stops the whole upper spade row. Play your other options first.

A seven you can’t follow up on is often worth playing late, if you have another legal card. Once it is down, every player with cards in that suit gets moving.

Frequently asked