QUÁN DUÌ

OBJECTIVE OF QUÁN DUÌ: The objective of Quán Duì is to be the first player to collect a hand of 8 pairs.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 6 Players

MATERIALS: A 120 card Dong guan Pai deck (Chinese money cards), and a flat playing surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Rummy Card Game

AUDIENCE: Adults

OVERVIEW OF QUÁN DUÌ

Quán Duì is a Rummy card game for 2 to 6 players. The goal of the game is to collect a hand of 8 pairs before your opponents.

This game has an ante that should be decided upon before playing. At the start of each game, all players ante an equal amount into the pot that is won by the winner of the game. (A winner can be able to claim double stakes so keep that in mind when determining an ante amount).

SETUP

The first dealer is chosen at random and becomes the winner of the previous game for each new deal. The dealer will shuffle the cards and the player to their left will cut the deck. The dealer will then deal themselves 6 cards. Then counterclockwise they will deal in batches of 5 cards at a time to players until all players have a hand of 15 cards (the dealer will have 16).

After hands are dealt the remaining cards are sued to form a stockpile in the center of the play area.

The Cards and Pairings

The deck consists of 120 cards. There are three suits which include Ben, Sou, and Wan. Each suit has 4 identical sets. Each set is composed of 9 cards each. These cards represent values 1 through 9. There are also three special cards called Da Hong, Xiao Hong, and Ba Shu. There is one of each of these cards in the deck.

To pair cards that must fit into one of two categories. These categories are called Dui and Ka.

A Dui pairing is a pair of completely identical cards. A Ka paring is a pair of cards that have the same value in different suits. So a Ben 4 can be paired with a Wan 4.

The three special cards all count as values of 1, and can only be used to form Ka pairings.

GAMEPLAY

The dealer starts the game by discarding one card from their hand. Play proceeds from them counterclockwise but may jump around based on who has priority for the discarded card.  A player always discards a card to end their turn unless they have ended the game to win.

After a card has been discarded players may draw the card in order of priority. The first player to get priority is a player who needs the discarded card to win the game immediately upon drawing it. The second priority is a player who needs the card to complete a Dui pairing, and finally, the player to the right of the previous player will have priority to the card.

If multiple players need the card to form a Dui pairing, the player closes the discarder’s right gets priority. Whenever a player draws the discard for a Dui they must place the completed pairing faceup in front of them before discarding.

If a player out of turn draws the card, then they will discard and play proceeds counterclockwise from them.

If priority is passed to the player to the right of the discarder that player has two options for drawing. They may either take the top card of the discard or they can draw the top card of the remaining stockpile. After drawing a card, if the player is not laying down their hand to win, they must discard a card to tend their turn.

Players do not need to immediately claim a win when they receive 8 pairings they may continue to play to try and receive a double pot.

END OF GAME

The game ends when a player places down a 16-card hand of 8 pairings, they are the winner.

If a player wins with all 8 pairings being Dui pairings, they win a double pot. All players will pay the winner an additional ante.

If the stock runs out the game ends in a draw. The previous dealer will deal the new game.

Amber Crook
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