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Q: Do you play Chinese games?
Do ya and what? I know what mahjong is. What is the card games I see?
I taught my mom and sister a Chinese card game while I was home for Thanksgiving. Each person is dealt 5 cards. You try to take 3 cards and make them add up to some number ending in "0" (10, 20, 30). Ace is "1", Face cards are "10". The remaining 2 cards are then added together, but you only use the last digit as a score. So if you had a King and a 7, your score is 7. 9 and 6, your score is 5. 5 and 5, a big fat zero (which is still a better hand than if you can't make any 3 cards sum up to 10, 20, or 30). Biggest number wins.
There's more rules...one person is the "boss" playing against other players. And you get odds on your bets based on your score versus the boss's score. If the boss can't make a hand with 3 cards summing up to 10, 20, or 30....the next player in line gets to be the boss. There's also some oddball "special" hands, just like there are some local "special" Majiang sets you can make. Like most Chinese games, the fun and excitement comes with the betting and winning/losing of money. Alcohol consumption helps too.
I bought my parents a mahjong set for christmas, I'm sure it's still in the box.
The most popular card game is called 斗地主 dou di zhu and practically all Chinese can play it. I don't know if you know the game Big 2? We played that back in the UK and its more or less the same game. I really like it. The idea is to get rid of all the cards in your hand using the hands from poker, singles, doubles, three of a kind, straights, full house, four of a kind etc. There are more hands you can play than we have in poker though, like "airplane" which is two three of a kinds with either two pairs or two singles. Its a three person game and in each hand, one person chooses to be the 大地主 da di zhu, and he goes against the two others in a race to get rid of their cards.
Really easy to learn and I bet thats the game you're seeing everywhere.
I have played mah jong on the occasion -- sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes I do not. It all depends upon the rest of the players -- either playing for blood sport, so to speak, or playing for enjoyment, it makes a big difference.
it's called don't let TEd d Bayer get close keep him on the outside looking in. lol....
I want to buy Chinese playing cards, but can't find a listing for them. Are they called something?
