Guandan

Guandan is a shedding-type card game that originated in Jiangsu province, China.

Guandan
People play Guandan in Nanjing in 2019
GenresMind sport
Players4
Setup time30 seconds
Playing timeDependent on variation or rules
SkillsObservation, Analysis, Memory, Strategies

The game in played by four players, sitting opposite each other in partnerships, and uses two decks of standard international playing cards (including the Jokers) for a total of 108 cards. The basic objective of the game is to play increasingly high combinations of cards, so as to empty your hand before your opponents. In Guandan, a team's score is expressed as a level, of which there are 13 levels in total, corresponding to the card ranks from 2 up to A (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A). In a Game-based tournament, a team only wins the game if it wins on Level A.

Etymology

The characters in Guandan (掼蛋) literally mean "Throwing Eggs", however the second character is a homophone of the character 弹, meaning bomb, which is also suggested as an origin for the game's name. An alternative name for the game is Huai'an Running Fast (淮安跑得快), referencing the city where the game originated.

History

Guandan was invented in Huai'an, Jiangsu in the 1960s. From there, it spread to neighboring cities of Huai'an such as Nanjing in the 1990s. It is estimated that there are over 20 million people who play this game in Jiangsu and Anhui province. Moreover, certain television channels have specific TV programs for Guandan and certain websites contain online Guandan games.[1]

Guandan
Traditional Chinese摜蛋
Simplified Chinese掼蛋
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese淮安跑得快
Simplified Chinese淮安跑得快

Rules[2]

Cards and Player Setting

Guandan is played by four players, who will sit around a square table. The two people who sit opposite to each other will form a team to beat the team formed by the other two. In other words, for a certain player, the two people who sit beside the player will be the player's opponents in this game.

Guandan uses two decks of standard international cards of 108 cards as a total. Therefore, each player will have 27 cards in each[3]

Card Scores and Types

There are four suits of card types in Guandan: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs with each suit containing 26 cards(2-10, J, Q, K, A, 2 for each). Besides, there are four jokers, two red and two black.

Single card

The single card represents any certain card in the deck

Pair

Pair represents a combination of two cards of the same number. A pair can be two cards with different suits, but a black joker and a red joker cannot be a pair.

Triple

Triple represents a combination of three cards of the same number.

Plate

The plate represents a combination of two consecutive triples. For example, a triple of 4 and a triple of 5 form a plate.

Tube

The tube represents a combination of three consecutive pairs. For example, a pair of 10, a pair of J and a pair of Q form a tube.

Full House

The full house represents a combination of a triple and a pair.

Straight

Straight represents a combination of five consecutive single cards. For example, a single card of A, a single card of 2, a single card of 3, a single card of 4, and a single card of 5 forms a straight.

Bomb

Bomb represents a combination of cards with the same number. The number of cards should be no fewer than 4. For example, six single cards of 8 form a bomb.

Straight Flush

Straight flush represents a straight with all of the single cards of the same suit.

Joker Bomb

Joker Bomb represents a combination of all the four jokers. It is regarded as the largest bomb in the game.

Level Cards

For each round, the winners will level up the team's rank starting from 2. Also, the level number they are up to will be the number of the level cards for the next round. The level cards in the particular round must be smaller than jokers but larger than the other cards. Moreover, any combination with level cards are also becoming larger than that with other cards according to the comparison rule mentioned later.

Wild cards

Wild cards are the heart-suited cards with the value equal to the level of the particular round. During the round, they can be played as any cards (except jokers) to form a combination with other cards. However, they only count as normal (non-wild) cards when played as a single card. For example, when the level in the round is 7, the 7 of hearts can be regarded as a 4-bomb of 8 when combined with a triple of 8. But when played as a single card, the card will only be a non-wild 7.

Comparison
  1. The normal comparison of the cards is from high to low in the order of red joker, black joker, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, (A). it works when comparing with a single card, pair, triple, tube, plate, straight bomb, and straight flush. Specially, full house compares the triple in the combination only.
  2. Bomb depends on its number of cards. The smallest is 4-bomb of 2 and the largest is 8-bomb of A. However, for instance, a 5-bomb of 2 is larger than the 4-bomb of A. Bomb is larger than any following types: single card, pair, triple, tube, plate, full house, straight. A straight flush is regarded as a bomb as well. It is larger than any bomb with a number of no more than 5. Bomb with more than 5 cards is larger than any straight flush. Straight flushes compare whose original straight is larger regardless of suits. Joker bomb is the largest bomb in the game.

Glossary[4]
English Chinese English Chinese
Reporting Area (R) 报牌区 Single Card 单张
Playing Area 出牌区 Pair 对子
Fold Area 收牌区 Tubes 三连对
Tribute 贡牌 Triples 三同张
Level Card 级牌 Plates 钢板
Free Card “逢人配” Full Houses 三带二
Banker 上游 Straights 顺子
Follower 二游 Flush Straights 同花顺
Third 三游 Bombs 炸弹
Dweller 下游 Joker Bomb 天王炸
Double-Dweller 双下游

Preparation

For the first round, after shuffling the decks and placed facing down as a pile on the table, one of the players randomly cuts the pile into two small piles and then draws a card to flip it faced up. If it is not a joker, the players will decide who is going to draw cards at first by counting counterclockwise from the player who draws the first card from the top of the pile. The player who draws the last card will open the play.[3]

Playing

Players will play cards in counterclockwise order. The first player can throw any type of cards in his or her hand. Then the others will choose to throw cards of the same type or a bomb. Otherwise, the players should say "Pass" and not throw any cards. If the other three players say "Pass" for the cards one player throws, he or she can continue throwing any other types of cards. The first one to finish throwing all 27 cards is called the Banker, and the game continues until all three players finish completely. The second is called the Follower, the third is called the Third and the last is called the Dweller. If a team contains the Banker and the Follower, then the opponent team is called the Double-Dweller.[4]

Reporting

If a player only has ten or fewer than ten cards in his or her hands, he or she must declare how many cards in the hands.[5]

Leveling Up

A team will level up when the Banker is in it. There are in total 12 levels to level up from 2 up to A. The team with the Banker could level up by three levels if the other one is the Follower. If the other one is the Third, two levels will be up and if the other one is the Dweller, only one level will be up.[3]

Winning Conditions

In the whole game, a team can win the game if it wins at the A level and the team cannot have the Dweller.

References
  1. "《掼蛋传习》新书发布会暨中国掼蛋文化高峰论坛在南京举行" ["Guandan Exercise" publication conference and Chinese Guandan culture forum holds in Nanjing]. Xinhua (in Chinese). Dec 8, 2020. Archived from the original on January 20, 2020. Retrieved Jun 30, 2020.
  2. "《淮安掼蛋竞赛规则》正式发布" [Huai'an Gudan rules has been officially published]. People's Daily Online (in Chinese). Apr 15, 2017. Retrieved Jun 30, 2020.
  3. "中国掼蛋研究院发布：《掼蛋娱乐规则（中英文）版》" (in Chinese). Mar 20, 2019. Retrieved Jun 30, 2020.
  4. xin, Xu (Mar 27, 2019). "洋气！江苏本土竞赛游戏掼蛋出英文版规则啦" [International! Jiangsu competition game Guandan publishes English version of rules]. China Jiangsu (in Chinese). Retrieved Jun 30, 2020.
  5. Yuanyuan, Yi (Apr 12, 2017). "官方出台新规教你玩掼蛋！还剩10张就要报牌" [Official new rules teach u how to play Guandan! Reporting cards when left ten cards in hands]. Leechee News (in Chinese). Retrieved Jun 30, 2020.
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