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How to play Teks

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:     2 or more people

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PREMISE:

The game is divided into rounds. Each round has two phases: the bet phase (tayaan) and the game phase (tirahan). For every round, there will be a winner of the game phase and whoever wins the game phase, they take charge of the next round like card handling and tossing.

Every player will have a card called a "pamato". This card will serve as representative of his entry into the game. Usually a pamato is chosen by some ad hoc force that dictates that some cards are luckier than other cards. Also player can have more than one pamato but he can only have one at play at a time, which he can switch by saying "palit pato".

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TAYAAN PHASE:

Any player can set the amount of cards as the bet. Though everybody has to agree to it. As a rule of thumb, no bet can be larger than the stash of the player with the smallest number of cards. 

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TIRAHAN PHASE:

After all the players pick their pamato and settle on the bet, the game can begin. "Tira" is the term used to describe the way the cards are cast. There are different ways of casting the cards into the air. But the most basic one is simply putting the teks card on your fisted hand and click the cards into the air using the thumb and the forefinger (see the video). This creates a distinct snapping sound. All the players almost synchronously move their heads to follow where the cards land. Once the cards hit the ground, the card that is flipped upwards is the winner and will collect the bet for that round. In the next round, the winner will be the one to toss the teks cards.

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