Dou Dizhu
Dou Dizhu ("Fight the Landlord") is a three-player climbing game from China.
One player bids to be the landlord and plays alone. The other two are
peasants and win or lose together. Suits never matter. The first player
to empty their hand wins the deal.
The pack
A 54-card pack: the French 52, plus a black joker and a red joker. From low
to high the ranks are
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A, 2, black joker, red joker.
The deal
Each player receives 17 cards. Three cards stay in a face-down kitty.
One seat is chosen at random to open the first auction. After that, the
opening bid rotates to the next seat each deal.
The auction
The opening bidder may bid 1, 2, or 3, or pass. Each later bid must be
strictly higher. A bid of 3 ends the auction at once. Otherwise it ends when
every seat has answered. The highest bidder becomes the landlord, the kitty
is turned face up, and the landlord takes those three cards before leading.
If everyone passes, the cards are thrown in and dealt again. A thrown-in
auction is not a scored deal.
The play
The landlord leads any combination. Each following player must play a higher
combination of the same kind and the same length, or pass. A pass does
not stop the next player from beating the trick.
Two passes in a row clear the trick. The player who played it leads again,
and the new lead may be any kind.
The deal ends when a hand is empty.
Combinations
You choose the pattern by naming it, then clicking the lowest card of
its main run. A straight, a pair chain, or an airplane then asks for its
length. Wings are added one rank at a time after the body is on the table.
Two of a rank. Jokers are never a pair
Three of a rank, then one kicker
Three of a rank, then a pair of another rank
Five or more consecutive ranks. From 3 through Ace only — a 2 or a joker cannot sit in a run
Three or more consecutive pairs, 3 through Ace
Two or more consecutive triples, 3 through Ace, with no wings
An airplane, then one single wing per triple
An airplane, then one pair wing per triple
Four of a rank, then two single kickers. They cannot be both jokers
Four of a rank, then two pairs of different ranks
Four of a rank, played alone
A bomb beats any combination that is not a rocket, and a higher bomb beats a
lower one. The rocket beats everything, including a bomb. Nothing beats the
rocket.
When the cards you played can also be read as a stronger pattern of the kind
you named, the table keeps that stronger reading.
Scoring
The stake starts at the winning bid (1, 2, or 3).
•
Each bomb and each rocket doubles the stake.
•
A spring doubles it again: the landlord goes out while neither peasant
has played.
•
An anti-spring doubles it again: a peasant goes out while the landlord
has played exactly once.
The landlord wins or loses twice the stake. Each peasant wins or loses the
stake, the other way. The three scores sum to zero.
The match
In the lobby, play a fixed number of deals (5, 10, or 20; 10 is the default)
or race to a point total (25, 50, or 100; 50 is the default). Thrown-in
auctions do not count toward a deal limit. The highest score at the end wins.
A tie shares the win.