Dou dizhu

Dou dizhu (simplified Chinese: 斗地主; traditional Chinese: 鬥地主; pinyin: dòu dìzhǔ; Jyutping: dau³ dei⁶ zyu²; lit. 'fighting the landlord') is a card game in the genre of shedding and gambling. It is one of the most popular card games played in China.

Dou dizhu

斗地主
Two "bombs" in the game; four twos, and a pair of jokers
Origin	Chinese
Alternative names	Landlord, fighting the landlord, dau dei zyu
Type	Shedding-type card game
Players	3
Cards	54; 17 for each of the two "peasants" and 20 for the "landlord"
Deck	French
Play	Counterclockwise
Playing time	Around 5 minutes
Chance	Easy
Related games
Big two • President • Zheng Shangyou

Dou dizhu is described as easy to learn but hard to master, requiring mathematical and strategic thinking as well as carefully planned execution. Suits are irrelevant in playing dou dizhu. Players can easily play the game with a set of dou dizhu playing cards, without the suits printed on the cards. Less popular variations of the game do exist in China, such as four-player and five-player dou dizhu played with two packs of cards.

Culture

See also: Mass killings of landlords under Mao Zedong

People playing card games in the street in Nanjing, China

The class struggle during the land reform in the 1950s after the Chinese Communist Party took over China encouraged peasants to take up arms against the landlords, hence the name dou dizhu. China's Generation Y, who are among the most enthusiastic player groups, has no personal experience of this specific overt class struggle (compare with the covert contemporary property bubble). 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 do not 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. The landlord wins by removing all their cards first. The peasants win if one of them removes all their cards first.

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 real life, players usually make up their own rules as to who gets to bid first. For example, some rules stipulate that the player who has the three of hearts is the first bidder. If the three of hearts is in the "kitty" cards, the player who has the four of hearts is the first bidder, 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 extremely 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 cards 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.

• Individual cards are ranked. Colored Joker > Black & White Joker > 2 > Ace (A) > King (K) > Queen (Q) > Jack (J) > 10 > 9 > 8 > 7 > 6 > 5 > 4 > 3.
• Suits are irrelevant. Players can play the game with all the suits erased from the cards.

The Rocket and the Bomb

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

Special Category	Description	Example	Special Note
Rocket	Red Joker and Black Joker	Red Joker + Black Joker	It can beat everything in the game.
Bomb	4 cards of the same rank	3-3-3-3 (the lowest ranking Bomb) 2-2-2-2 (the highest ranking Bomb)	It can beat any other category and individual card except Rocket or another Bomb with a higher rank.

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.

• Compare only the same Category. A player can only beat the prior hand using of the same Category but not the others. Note that this means that the ordering of the rows in the following table is not relevant to gameplay.
• Compare only the Chains with the same length. Beat the prior hand using the same number of cards is a basic doctrine which only the Rocket and the Bomb may violate. For example, although both 9-10-J-Q-K and 3-4-5-6-7-8-9 are Single Chains, 9-10-J-Q-K cannot beat 3-4-5-6-7-8-9, nor vice versa.
• Compare the rank in the Primal cards only. The Kicker's rank is irrelevant to the comparison.
• Jokers and 2 are non-consecutive cards. Colored Joker, black-and-white Joker, and 2 cannot be used in any of the Primal cards of the Chains since they are not traditionally considered as the consecutive cards sequentially next to the Ace. Examples of illegal Chain: 2-3-4-5-6, 2-2-2-3-3-3 w/ A-A-7-7, K-A-2 + B&W Joker + Colored Joker

The longest chain possible column is only applicable to a hand with twenty cards, which the landlord possesses after seizing the three leftover wild cards.

Category			Description	Example
Primal	with (+) kicker	Chain		Lowest rank and/or shortest chain	Highest rank and/or longest chain possible
Solo	—	—	Any single card	3	Red joker
Solo	—	Chain	≥ Five consecutive individual cards	3-4-5-6-7	3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A-2
Pair	—	—	Two matching cards of equal rank	3-3	2-2
Pair	—	Sisters	≥ Three consecutive pairs	3-3-4-4-5-5	6-6-7-7-8-8-9-9-10-10-J-J-Q-Q-K-K-A-A-2-2
Trio	—	—	Three-of-a-kind: Three individual cards of the same rank	3-3-3	2-2-2
Airplane	—	Chain	≥ Two consecutive trios	3-3-3-4-4-4	10-10-10-J-J-J-Q-Q-Q-K-K-K-A-A-A-2-2-2
Trio	Solo	—	Three cards of the same rank with a solo as the kicker	3-3-3 + 4	2-2-2 + any solo
Trio	Solo	Airplane	≥ Two consecutive trios with each carries a distinct individual card as the kicker	3-3-3-4-4-4 + 5 + 6	J-J-J-Q-Q-Q-K-K-K-A-A-A-2-2-2+ any 5 solo
Trio	Pair	—	Full house: Three cards of the same rank with a pair as the kicker.	3-3-3 + 4-4	2-2-2 + any pair
Trio	Pair	Chain	≥ Two consecutive trios with each carrying a pair as the kicker	3-3-3-4-4-4 + 5-5 + 6-6	Q-Q-Q-K-K-K-A-A-A-2-2-2 +any 4 pairs
Bomb			Four-of-a-kind. Four cards of the same rank without the kicker is called a bomb, which defies category rules, even beats four with a kicker.	3-3-3-3	2-2-2-2
Four	Dual solo	—	Four-of-a-kind with two distinct individual cards as the kicker	3-3-3-3 + 4 + 5	2-2-2-2 + any 2 solo
Four	Dual pair	—	Four-of-a-kind with two sets of pair as the kicker	3-3-3-3 + 4-4 + 5-5	2-2-2-2 + any 2 pairs

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

Bomb

炸弹 – four cards of the same rank

Nuke, rocket or 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.

Illegal play	Example	Correction
Rank of the kicker = rank of the primal cards	Trio chain + solo is 3-3-3-4-4-4 + 3-K	When one is using any kicker attached to primal cards, the kicker cards cannot be the same card rank of any primal cards used.
Dual pair = four of a kind	Four-of-a-kind + dual pair: 3-3-3-3 + J-J-J-J	Dual pair must consist of two sets of pairs of different ranks, such as 3-3-7-7, not four-of-a-kind.
Rocket = kicker cards	Four + dual solo: 3-3-3-3 + colored joker + black-and-white joker.	Only one of the jokers can be used as a kicker card in a single or dual solo kicker.

Scoring rules

The basic mechanism is a betting one; the winner (or winners) take(s) money (points, whatever) from the loser(s). Moreover, the game may be seen as a pair of bets, each one between one of the peasants and the landlord. If the landlord wins, they collect money from each of the peasants, and if the landlord loses, they pay money to each of the peasants.

The bidding (one, two, or three) determines the initial stake, and gameplay can trigger two different categories of multiplier:

• Rocket and/or bomb. Each rocket and bomb dealt by each player doubles the score in a round.
• No deals played a.k.a. spring. If both peasants do not play any cards, or the landlord does not play any cards after their first hand, the round's score is doubled.

Example

Consider a round involving players A, B, and C. A passes, B bids 1, C passes, A bids 2, and B and C pass. A is now the landlord, for a base stake of 2 units. Gameplay proceeds, and turns out to include one bomb and a rocket, but all players get to play multiple times. In the end, player C goes out first. The initial stake of 2 is doubled twice (once for each rocket/bomb), so the landlord, A, pays 8 points to the peasants, B and C. Player A will have -16 points, and B and C will have 8 points.

Basic strategy

• A player can deal with an unrelated or useless card by making it the kicker card.

• Rocket and bomb are the ultimate weapons in the game. If either of them is in one's hand, one should make full use of it when time comes. If players do not possess high confidence in winning, they may think twice about dealing a rocket or bomb, because once the dealt, the risk stake of the round will be doubled (players will either win or lose double) with each rocket or bomb dealt.
• Peasants must co-operate to fight against the landlord. For example, since the two peasants come after one another, the first peasant might play a low single card if the second peasant has a sole card left.
• Bid high for landlord with the best hand. If a player has the best hand, bidding high for the position of landlord enables him to win a bigger pot.

Variations

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:

• Single card attachments are not permitted
• Nor are there four-with-a-kicker categories
• Bomb: four- or five-of-a-kind
• Rocket: six-of-a-kind
• Missile: seven-of-a-kind
• Sky explosion: eight-of-a-kind
• Nuke: four jokers (the greatest hand in four-player dou dizhu; can beat anything. If the landlord have the four jokers, he or she could claim for having them. Once claimed for the 4 jokers on hand, the 4 jokers could be used separately. By doing this, the landlord could also choose winning without playing. )

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, Yunnan province, 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, Zheng Shangyou, and big two.

Year	Popularity in China	Source
2002	50,000 players	GICQ(ourgame.com)
2004	100,000 players	GICQ(ourgame.com)
2005	17,900,000 players being the loyal fans of the casual game while dou dizhu leading the core place.	Chinese Online Game Research Report in 2005 made by iResearch
2006	+1,000,000 online player play it concurrently	Tencent QQ game platform in China
2008	roughly 1,450,000 online players per hour in Tencent QQ game platform	Tencent QQ game platform in China
2008	roughly 76,000 online players per hour in GICQ	GICQ

External links

• Rules of the game at the Wayback Machine (archived 2015-11-27)