Nylon-ppong or Nairong-ppong [나이롱뽕] is a Korean traditional Hwatu rummy game for 2-6 players which combined some elements of Mahjong into other traditional rummy games played with Tujeon like Dongdang-chigi [동당치기] or Jjeok [쩍].
¶ The Cards
All 48 cards of a Hanafuda/Hwatu deck are used. No jokers are included.
You must be familiar with the Korean month sequence to play the game.
¶ Gameplay
¶ Setup
Each player receives 5 cards. Remaining cards are placed face-down to form a draw deck.
The starting player of the first round is randomly decided. From the second round onward, the starting player is the player who received the most penalty points from the previous round.
In case of a tie, then the starting player is randomly chosen between the tied players.
¶ Player’s Turn
In each round, turns move counterclockwise, starting with the starting player.
- At the start of a player’s turn, they draw a card from the draw deck.
- If 6 cards in their hand compose a valid combination, the player can end the round immediately and jump to the scoring.
- If not, they discard a card from their hand into the discard pile and end their turn.
If a player cannot draw because the draw deck runs out of cards, the round ends.
Some players do not immediately end the round when the deck runs out and instead reshuffle discarded cards into the deck once or more.
¶ Ppong (or pong)
A player with two cards in hand of the same month as the card on top of the discard pile can, instead of drawing a card from the draw pile, call ‘ppong’ [뽕] or ‘pong’ [뻥], and discard those two cards from their hand. They must still discard a card from their hand afterward to end the turn.
Some players allow calling ‘ppong’ out of turn. In this case the player who called ‘ppong’ discards a card as usual and play continues to the next player from the player who just called ‘ppong’.
If a player goes out (discards all cards in hand) by calling ‘ppong’, the round ends immediately.
¶ Stop
Any player with only 2 cards in hand (after calling their first ‘ppong’) can call ‘stop’ and end the round before drawing a card if their sum of the month numbers in hand is equal to or less than the predetermined limit (usually 5 or 10).
Some players allow stopping the round only when there is at least 1 other player who called ‘ppong’.
¶ Scoring
At the end of each round, all players get penalty points equal to their hand sum.
For example, 
is treated as 1+1+2+3+8 = 15 penalty points.
- If the round ends by stop, and the player who called ‘stop’ does not have the lowest scoring hand (ties not allowed), that player gets additional 30 or 50 penalty points.
- If the round ends by going out with ‘ppong’, the player who discarded a card right before ‘ppong’ is called gets additional 30 or 50 penalty points.
- If the round ends by claiming a 6-card combination in hand, that player ignores the penalty point calculation and instead scores equal to the combination’s value.
¶ End of Game
The game ends after a predetermined number of rounds. The player with the least penalty points wins.
¶ Combinations
| Name | Value | Composition |
|---|---|---|
| Three pairs 또이또이 [ddoi-ddoi] |
0 | Three pairs from three different months      |
| Two triplets 또이또이 [ddoi-ddoi] |
0 | Two triplets from two different months     |
| Four and pair 4장 또이 [nejang-ddoi] |
-50 | A four of a kind of a month and a pair of another month      |
| Straight 스트레이트 |
-Sum | 6 cards of consecutive months     Example: This straight’s value is -(3+4+5+6+7+8) = -33 points. |
| 10 or less 십부족 [sib-bujok] |
-100 | 6 cards with sum of 10 or less |
¶ Optional combinations
| Name | Value | Composition |
|---|---|---|
| Four of a kind 4장 [nejang] |
0 | A four of a kind of a month and any other two cards     |
| 66 or more 대빵 [daeppang] |
-100 | 6 cards with sum of 66 or more |
Some players use ‘60 or more’ instead of ‘66 or more’.
Some local players use different names for some of the combinations, like ‘Minus’(마이너스) instead of ‘Straight’, and ‘President’(총통, chongtong) instead of any ‘Four of a kind’ combinations.
¶ Optional Rule: Concealed triplet
Concealed triplet (자연뽕, jayeon-ppong) is a common optional rule in Nylon-ppong.
If a player has a triplet and a pair in hand, and the card on top of the discard pile is the same month as the pair in their hand, they can go out immediately by calling ‘ppong’, discarding the pair, and then exposing the triplet.
Since the round ends this way, practically the player can just expose their entire hand instead of discarding the pair and then exposing the triplet.
Some players allow a player with only a concealed triplet in hand ending the round as well.
Scores of concealed triplets are ignored during scoring. This can possibly make the total score of a player with 5 cards lower than a player with 2 cards, increasing the chance of failed stop penalty.
Some players do not ignore scores of triplets during scoring.