I collect Pan chips, as well as Poker and Card Room chips. I use to deal the game, but that still is far from making me an expert.

The game has roots from bordello houses in New Orleans, supposedly, that accounts for all the risque terms used in the game. For example,

mucker = person who shuffle and deals cards, rhymes with another word...
pecker = when a hand isn't paid for a valued kondition (see below)
* Gene: notice the spelling of Kondition
bong = highest valued kondition of 3 - 3,5,or 7 of spades
pisser = hand that shouldn't be played, and has almost no chance of winning

similar to 2-3 offsuit in holdem

Each player puts up an ante, called a top. They are placed on top of the block, where the deck is leaned against. Each player then is dealt 10 cards, 5 at a time, starting with the previous winner.

The object is to put 11 cards in valid melds of a minimum of 3 cards or more, similar to gin or rummy. The deck consists of 8 decks with the 8, 9, 10s removed. Therefore a straight can be 7, J, Q. With 8 decks, this can make for some interesting melds. In addition, certain melds are worth konditions, where one value kondition is determined by the chip value. A one dollar kondition is one dollar. Melds are worth from 0 to 4 chips depending on the combination of cards. Therefore hand selection before starting to play is important.

Once a player declares "In", they must play until a winner is declared; the first person to meld 11 cards legitimately. This is one game where cheating is an acceptable practice, although throwing cards on the floor is frowned upon. If a player is caught cheating, the only punishment is to forfeit the hand and must continue to pay all players for their valid konditions, plus s/he must pay back all konditions collected. Methods of cheating are melding cards that aren't valid, discarding one than one card per turn, having more than 11 cards on the "Outs" (when declaring a winning hand). If the player isn't caught cheating, they may keep all their konditions collected.

The winner is paid their konditions again (double) by each player in, and is awarded the tops, less the house drop. In Nevada, players may declare all-in as in poker and continue to play for tops, but are not allowed to collect for any valid konditions, on the other hand, they don't have to pay off any konditions of the other players. In California, especially in Los Angeles, a player must throw their hand in the muck and forfeit the tops if they run out of chips. As in poker, table stakes play.

Pan chips have a long and interesting history. Its rare to find any real Pan chips still in play. I know of only one card room, Garden City in San Jose, CA.
Sahara, Las Vegas has $2 chips only for their pan game, but they don't say pan on them. Most of the younger players don't like the game because it doesn't have much action, it takes too long to complete a hand, and the best hand doesn't always win (yeah, right; ask a poker player who gets rivered by a hand that has no business in the hand).

If you're really interested in the rules and play of the game, I'd be glad to send the Commerce Casino Rule Book for Pan (Los Angeles, CA) to you. Just e-mail me at Lpang@mail.nuc.ucla.edu