Tongo

File:Tongo, Change of heart.jpg

The tongo wheel in Quark's Bar

File:Tongo cards, Change of heart.jpg

Tongo cards

You may also be looking for the Catullan named Tongo Rad.

Tongo is a strategic Ferengi game that is a combination of cards and roulette and is played with two to eight players. The object of the game is to win by acquiring as much wealth as possible.

On a given turn, a player may "confront", "evade", "acquire", or "retreat". Each venture has a "risk" amount, a "buy" amount, and a "sell" amount, where the risk amount is equal to the sell amount minus the buy amount. Other possible actions a player may take include "indexing the margin", "indexing the exchange", "leveraging the buy-in", and "converting reserves". (DS9: "Change of Heart")

Possible tongo hands include a "full consortium" and a "total monopoly" (the latter being higher than the former). (DS9: "Change of Heart")

According to Jadzia Dax, the key to tongo is "to confront when you're sure you're in a better position than the other players. And if your cards match the roll of the dice, you win." (DS9: "Meridian") According to Quark, tongo is more than just "number-crunching"; they have yet to create a computer that can master the intricacies of the game. (DS9: "Change of Heart")

A Global Tongo Championship is held each year on Ferenginar. As of 2373, Zek had won the tournament for 27 years in a row. He also played it for fun. (DS9: "Ferengi Love Songs", "Profit and Lace")

Miles O'Brien once played tongo against a Ferengi privateer and a Romulan mercenary. (DS9: "Change of Heart")

Quark was on a 208-game winning streak over a month-long period during mid-2374 when he beat Jadzia for his 207th victory, causing Worf to lose a bet with O'Brien for a bottle of scotch whisky. O'Brien enlisted Julian Bashir to help beat Quark and end his streak, but Bashir failed when Quark distracted him with talk of Jadzia and Worf's recent marriage to chalk up his 208th victory. (DS9: "Change of Heart")

During his association with Gaila, when he believed he might be killed, Quark made a gift of his tongo wheel to Jadzia. (DS9: "Business as Usual")

In early 2375, Quark suggested that letting Worf beat him in a game of tongo would be a great battle and would enable Jadzia to enter Sto-Vo-Kor. O'Brien told him it would only be enough if he had to "carve his way through a hundred Jem'Hadar to reach the table." (DS9: "Image in the Sand")

Later that year, Quark wanted to play tongo in Vic Fontaine's lounge, although since the holoprogram was period specific he was unable to. (DS9: "What You Leave Behind")

Background

Early Jim Martin tongo design

The script for "Rules of Acquisition" states that Tongo can be best described as a cross between poker, mah-jongg, and craps. There were never any "official" rules established; in an interview on StarTrek.com, Armin Shimerman mentioned that the lack of rules caused continuity problems in terms of which cards were important and how many were dealt. [1]

In Spanish, the word "tongo" is used to refer to cheating in a sporting competition; to "throwing the game". In slang used in Argentina and Uruguay, the meaning is extended to many kinds of scams, lies, or trickeries.

External link

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