Dou dizhu

History

The class struggle during the Cultural Revolution in China reportedly authorized the peasants to violate the human rights of the landlords who were among the Five Black Categories and Stinking Old Ninth, hence the name dou dizhu. China's Generation Y, who are among one of the most enthusiastic player groups, has no personal experience of the historical class struggle. Nowadays, the name of the game carries no negative connotation. The actual place of origin for the game is in Hubei Province.

Objective

Dou dizhu is played among three people with one pack of cards, including the two differentiated jokers. The game starts with players bidding for the "landlord" (地主) position. Those who lose the bid or don't bid enter the game as the "peasants" (农民) team competing against the landlord. The objective of the game is to be the first player to have no cards left.

Game play

A shuffled pack of 54 cards is dealt to three players. Each player is dealt 17 cards, with the last three leftover cards detained on the playing desk, face down.

All players first review and appraise their own cards without showing their cards to the other players. Then, players take turns to bid for the landlord position by telling the other players the risk stake they are willing to accept.

There are three kinds of risk stakes, 1, 2, and 3, with 1 being the lowest and 3 being the highest. Generally, the more confident a player is in the strength of one's cards, the higher the risk stakes one is willing to bid. In most of the online game rooms, the first bidder is chosen randomly by the system. In reality, players usually make up their own rules as to who gets to bid first. For example, some rules stipulate that the player who gets hearts three is the first bidder. If hearts three is in the "kitty" cards, the first bidder will be the one who gets hearts four and so on.

A player may accept the prior player's bid by passing their turn to bid or one may try to outbid the prior player as long as the prior player did not bet 3 as the risk stake. The highest bidder takes the landlord position; the remaining players enter the Farmer team competing against the landlord. The three leftover wild cards are then revealed to all players before being dealt to the landlord.

The landlord wins if he or she has no cards left. The peasant team wins if either of the peasants have no cards left.

Features of the game

The rules are not complicated; basic knowledge of poker hand rankings helps players get started. However, many of Dou Dizhu's rules are different from Poker and Big Two.

There is an element of luck involved, but what counts is not only luck but also skill of playing and strategy. Poor players with great hands may be defeated by skillful players with poor cards.

Rules

A few fundamental and exceptive rules are essential for understanding the game play of the game. Some rules are structured differently from the other popular card games. Players who have prior experience with other card games, such as poker, and Big Two, often prejudice the rules.

The Rocket and the Bomb

The Rocket and the Bomb are groups of cards that work differently in terms of game play.

Category of hands

The game uses the concept of hands, similar to the hands in poker, except there are more variations and not necessarily consisted of only five cards.

Chinese name literal translations

'Individual card': 单牌

'Hook': 钩 – the jack; the Chinese name is based on the shape of "J"

'Circle': 圈 – the queen, named for the shape of "Q"

'K' – The King

'Tip', 'spear'; or 'pointy': 尖 or 枪, respectively – the ace, named for the shape of "A"

'King', 'ruler': 王 – the joker, named for its dominant position in the game

'One pair': 一对 – two cards of the same rank

'Chain': 顺子 or 单顺 – five or more consecutively numbered cards

'Pairs chain': 连对 or 双顺 – three or more consecutive pairs

'Trio with single card': 三带一 – trio, with an individual card as kicker

'Trio with pair': 三带二 or 三带一对 – trio, with a pair as kicker

'Airplane': 飞机 or 三顺 – two or more consecutive trios

'Airplane with small wings': 飞机带小翼 – two or more consecutive trios, with additional cards with the same amount of trios as kicker

'Airplane with large wings': 飞机带大翼 – two or more consecutive trios, with pairs with the same amount of trios as kicker

'Four with two single cards': 四带二 – four-of-a-kind, with two individual cards as kicker

'Four with two pairs': 四带两对 – four-of-a-kind, with two pairs as kicker

'Space shuttle': 航天飞机 – two or more consecutive four-of-a-kind

'Space shuttle with small wings': 航天飞机带小翼 – two or more consecutive fours-of-a-kind, with additional cards including the same amount of fours-of-a-kind as kicker

'Space shuttle with large wings': 航天飞机带大翼 – two or more consecutive fours-of-a-kind, with pairs with the same amount of fours-of-a-kind as kicker

'Bomb': 炸弹 – four cards of the same rank

'Rocket', 'Nuke', 'King Bomb': 核弹, 火箭, 王炸, respectively – colored joker with black-and-white joker cards

Illegal play with the kicker

Beginners and players who are familiar with other card games with similar but different rules of hand formation and superiority often misinterpret some of the rules that involve the kicker, causing illegal play.

Scoring rules

There are at least four elements that will affect the score in a round (there may be more rules which affect the scores in some regions): bid of the risk stake, the position of the player (landlord/peasant), rocket and/or bomb, no deals played (a.k.a. "spring").

Since there are so many elements affecting score of the game in a round, it is hard to predict how big one will win or lose.

Basic strategy

Four-player

The four-player version of dou dizhu is played mainly in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, including Shanghai. It uses a double deck, including two red and two black jokers – 108 cards altogether. Each player takes 25 cards and 8 cards are left over for the landlord, who plays alone from a hand of 33 cards against the other three players in partnership.

The combinations that can be played differ from those in the three-player game (listed above), as follows:

With wild cards

Another variation of dou dizhu is the edition with wild cards. Like the original settings, after the determination of the landlord, four-of-a-kind will be randomly selected as wild cards. Those can be used to stand for any other cards, except jokers.

Some games even feature two sets of wild cards. The first set would be drawn before the bid for the landlord, then another one would then be drawn out.

Tournaments

In 2005, 117,931 people participated in the dou dizhu online tournament held by GICQ, an online game development and operation company in China.

In 2006, another dou dizhu online tournament, held by VNet.cn, attracted 200,000 players.

In September 2007, YunNanHong held a traditional, offline competition of dou dizhu in Kunming, China, where over a hundred players competed for the first prize.

Dou dizhu tournaments are held in Chinese cities every year, the winners not only receive high prize but also become popular experts in dou dizhu.

Popularity

Dou dizhu was once just a provincial game in China, originating in the Huangshan District and Anhui. Thanks to the debut of dou dizhu online, the game has become more widespread and is now a national game in China. its popularity increased substantially, with players on one system doubling in two years, from around 50,000 players in December 2002 to 100,000 in 2004 and 17,900,000 players being the loyal fans of the casual game while dou dizhu leading the core place in 2005. There are almost 1 million concurrent dou dizhu players on the Tencent QQ game platform alone. It is more popular than other Chinese card games like Chinese poker, winner, and big two.