Tong-its!

Tongits is a popular Filipino rummy card game. Originating in the northern Philippines, the game was brought to the United States in the mid-90's and was quickly adopted on college campuses. It offered a new alternative to long time favorites pusoy dos and spades.

Anyone familiar with other rummy games such as Gin Rummy or Mah Jhong can easily learn to play Tongits. It is a fun, fast moving game. It encourages players to work together but in the end it's winner takes all.

At Honey's house in the old town or city of Panabo, people are always busy with Tong-its. Almost everybody knows the game, from kids to oldies. Nanay Minyang (Honey's Grandmom) is the known Tong-its leader, it is her past time and she likes it very very much. In fact, she keeps a stack of cards in her room and gave me one to play with... ahmmm technically she did not give it to me but she just lent it to me and Honey so we could have something to play with during our spare time, and I just forgot to give it back so I claimed the cards are mine now. Haha, the reason why maybe Nanay Minyang cried when I last saw her last week haha!

So Tong-its... We played a lot of Tong-its this year. Me and Honey took turns in winning this game but lately, Honey oftentimes surfaced as the winner... but that doesn't mean he is that good, he was just lucky at times ;)