Rule rendition by Joe Celko (71062.1056@CompuServe.COM).
This is a four player game using one set of Chinese dominoes. The goal of the game is to win points by taking tricks, much like a Western card game.
One player is picked by throwing dice to be the banker for one hand. The banker also gets a small puck to put on the table in front of him. The puck can be a simple token, but sometimes it is a stack of two disks riveted in the center with a hole in the top disk that exposes a Chinese character on the bottom disk. Depending on the game the characters may be the points of the compass, or a count of the consecutive times that a player has been banker.
The banker stacks up a woodpile and deals each player a hand of eight tiles. The banker also leads the first trick of the hand, and the winner of each trick leads the next trick. Nothing unusual so far.
A player may lead:
If one tile is lead, then the other players must follow with a tile in the same series (civil or military). If they have no tiles in that series, then they discard a single tile. If a pair is lead, then the other players must follow with a pair. If two pairs are lead, then the other players must follow with two pairs.
If a single tile is lead, then the winner is the tile with hightest total value from the series (civil or military) that was lead. The tile which was played first (the eldest tile) takes the trick in the case of a tie.
If a pair is lead, then the highest pair wins the trick. If two pairs are lead, then the highest pair of all wins the trick.
The pairs are ranked as follows (this scale is also used in other games, such as Pai Gow):
Pair(s) Name 4-2 & 2-1 Supreme 6-6 & 6-6 Heaven 1-1 & 1-1 Earth 4-4 & 4-4 Man 3-1 & 3-1 Goose 5-5 & 5-5 Flower 3-3 & 3-3 Long 2-2 & 2-2 Board 6-5 & 6-5 Hatchet 6-4 & 6-4 Partition 6-1 & 6-1 Long Leg Seven 5-1 & 5-1 Big Head Six 6-3 & 5-4 Jaap Gow - mixed nines 6-2 & 5-3 Jaap Bart - mixed eights 5-2 & 4-3 Jaap Chut - mixed sevens 4-1 & 3-2 Jaap Ng - mixed fives 6-6 & 6-3 6-6 & 5-4 Heaven and mixed nines 1-1 & 5-3 1-1 & 6-2 Earth and mixed eights 4-4 & 4-3 4-4 & 5-2 Man and mixed sevens 3-1 & 4-1 3-1 & 3-2 Goose and mixed fives
The scoring is a bit elaborate, like many Chinese games. Each player starts with a stack of chips.
A player with no tricks pays the winner of the last trick four chips.
A player with no tricks pays the banker four chips for each round that the banker has held the bank. If the winner was also the banker for this round, the trick-less player pays eight chips (four for winning, four for being banker); if the winner was the banks for the last two rounds, he pays twelve chips (four for winning, eight for being banker); etc. When the bank changes, the count starts over with the new banker.
The winners of one trick pay the winner of the last trick three chips. The winners of two tricks pay the winner of the last trick two chips. The winners of three tricks pay the winner of the last trick one chip. The rule is to take the number of tricks and subtract it from four.
A player with more than four tricks subtracts that number from four; he collects that number of chips from the banker.
A player who leads the Gee Joon (Supreme pair) claims four chips from each of the other players.
The banker claims eight chips from each player if he leads two of the following pairs:
Pairs Name 6-6 & 6-3 6-6 & 5-4 Heaven and mixed nines 1-1 & 5-3 1-1 & 6-2 Earth and mixed eights 4-4 & 4-3 4-4 & 5-2 Man and mixed sevens 3-1 & 4-1 3-1 & 3-2 Goose and mixed fives
A player who leads two of the pairs above claims four chips from each player and eight from the banker.