A Uniquely Chinese Card Game To Add To Family Game Nights

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Most of us are finding ourselves with a lot more time at home right now. If you’re like me and getting a little sick of binge-watching Netflix you might consider gathering the family for a round of cards. 

One of the best things about my time in China has been the games I have learned here. My love of mahjong is well documented but carrying around a set of tiles is less than convenient so I was thrilled when a friend introduced me to a card game called Dou Dizhu (斗地主). The polite English translation is “Struggle Against the Landlord” but there are more common monikers not fit for a family publication.

It’s a three-person game and rounds happen fairly quickly so it’s ideal for a lazy afternoon or curing a case of the “I’m bored". As with most games, there are slight variations but here is how I learned to play.

The Objective

One player is the landlord. The other two players are the tenants and play as a team. If the landlord gets rid of all of their cards first they win. If either of the tenants gets rid of their cards before the landlord then both of the tenants win.

Note that in this game, the value of cards does not follow the traditional ranking. In Dou Dizhu, the ranking of individual cards is as follows:

a colored Joker > black & white Joker > 2 > Ace (A) > King (K) > Queen (Q) > Jack (J) > 10 > 9 > 8 > 7 > 6 > 5 > 4 > 3

A red card will beat a black card of the same value.

Shuffle the cards (including the jokers) and deal the bottom three from the deck face down in the middle. These are the landlord's cards.

Take the top card and turn it face up. Let another player put the face-up card anywhere in the deck. Deal out the entire deck to all three players. The player that got the face-up card is the first to decide if they would like to be the landlord.

Everyone looks at their cards but does not show anyone else. The person who received the face-up card can decide if they want to be the landlord. If they do they bid 3 points (the highest bid) if they do not they can bid 1 or 2 points and the other players have an option to bid higher until it reaches three. If they bid 1 point and no other player bids for the landlord then the first player must be the landlord but the round is only worth 1 point.

Once the bidding for the landlord is done the three cards in the middle are turned face up for all players to see and are then given to the landlord to put into their deck.

The landlord starts the first trick by laying down any set of cards. Appropriate sets are a single card, matching pair, three of a kind, three of a kind plus any single extra card, three of a kind and a pair (AKA: a full house) a run of 5 or more consecutive cards (ex: 3,4,5,6,7….) or a consecutive run of 3 sets of pairs (ex: a pair of 3’s, 4’s and 5’s together) Note that unlike poker, there is no limit to how many cards you can play in each hand as long as they form some sort of sequence as above.

The next player must lay down the same set of higher value and the following player must lay down a higher value than that. Ex: if I lay down a pair of 4’s and the next player lays down a pair of 7’s and the player after that lays down a pair of queens.

If a player can not lay down a higher set they must pass. When two players pass the last person to play a set wins the trick and may then put down any new set of cards they like. This continues until a player has discarded all of their cards

Special hands: Two types of combos may be played at any time. The first is called a rocket and is four of a kind. Only two things beat a rocket. A higher value rocket (ex: if you play 4 queens but the next player plays 4 Kings) OR a Bomb. A bomb is playing both jokers in one hand and that beats everything.

If the landlord wins they get double points (one set of points from each player). If the tenants win the landlord pays double (a set of points to each player) i.e if the bid was 3 and the landlord wins each tenant losses 3 points and the landlord gains 6. But if either of the tenants wins, the landlord pays each tenant 3, losing a total of 6.

You can play rounds until someone hits a pre-set point value or just play a single round as a stand-alone.

Good luck and have fun!

Images: Canva

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