How to play Gou Ji

The aim, the teams and the deal

Gou Ji is a Chinese card game from Qingdao. Six people sit in two teams of three, alternately: the host, guest 2 and guest 4 against guest 1, guest 3 and guest 5, so every seat has opponents on both sides. Four packs of 54 cards make 216, and each seat is dealt 36. You see your own cards and never anyone else's, your team-mates' included. Turns go round in seat order, from the host to guest 1 and on up to guest 5.

The aim is to be first out of cards. The hand goes on until one seat is left, or ends at once if one side takes the first three places. The seat straight across from you is your Dui Men, and it is always an opponent: the host faces guest 3, guest 1 faces guest 4, guest 2 faces guest 5. With four packs there are four copies of every card, so it is easy to be dealt two 3s of one suit, and when a hand starts fresh, the first seat dealt a pair of them leads. Otherwise the big loser, the seat that came last in the hand before, leads.

Gou Ji card game rules: sets and ranks

Jokers are the top, Red above Black, then the twos, then ace, king, queen, jack and 10, and 9 down to 3 at the bottom. You play one card or a set of equal ranks, such as 5-5 or 9-9-9. The next seat must beat the previous play with a higher set of the same size, so a pair answers a pair and three cards answer three. Equal rank never beats: a pair of sevens does not beat another pair of sevens.

The rules for jokers and twos

Twos and jokers are wild. They can join any set, or make a set of their own. A two takes the rank of the cards it joins, so 6-6-2-2 and 6-6-6-6 are the same and neither beats the other. A set of wild cards beats any set of natural cards of its size, so 2-2-2 beats K-2-2, and a set of twos can only be beaten by the same number of jokers.

Jokers are stronger. A set containing Black jokers can only be beaten by a higher set with at least as many Reds as it has Blacks, so A-Black-Black falls to 2-Red-Red and not to 2-2-Red. A set containing a Red joker cannot be beaten at all, but it has to beat the set on the table before it can be played: 7-7-Red does not go on 7-7-7, because equal rank never beats.

Taking a turn, with an example

The leader plays any set. Going round, each seat must beat it with the same number of cards or pass, and a pass stands until the cards are cleared. When everyone but the last to play has passed, that trick is over and the last to play leads again with a new set. Seats with no cards are skipped. Try a set the rules will not take and the table does not send it: the Play button stays dimmed and the line under your groups says why, whether it is too low, the wrong size, an equal rank or short of Red jokers.

A short example, the one the staged hand plays. The host leads 4-4. Guest 1 passes: a pair can only be answered by a pair, and a pass is always allowed. Guest 2 plays 9-9, which beats it but is not high enough for a duel, so guest 3 is next. Guest 3, guest 4, guest 5 and the host all pass, and guest 2 leads again.

The gou ji: a duel with the seat across

Five tens, four jacks, three queens, two kings or two aces, wild cards counting, are high enough to start a duel. So is a set made only of wild cards, and so is any set with a joker in it. A set with a Red joker cannot be beaten, so nobody is asked and the trick closes.

Otherwise the table stops going round and only your Dui Men may answer, even if they passed before. They beat it or pass, and the two of you trade blows until one passes. The other leads. Say you lead K-K and your Dui Men still has cards: nobody else gets a turn, and if they pass you lead again. If your Dui Men has already gone out, there is no duel and play goes round the table as usual. In our opinion that is the fun part, and the risk: a duel you cannot win hands the lead to your Dui Men.

Going out, and catching the wind

Play your last cards and you are out, and your place is fixed. Others may still beat those cards. If nobody does, the next seat that still has cards leads. That is called catching the wind. If your last cards were high enough for a duel, only your Dui Men may answer. The hand ends when one seat is left, or at once when one side takes the first three places.

Scoring, tribute and revolution

Places score points for the side. First out earns 4, second 2, third and fourth nothing. Fifth costs the side 2 and sixth costs 4, and the two sides always mirror each other. A side whose three seats take the first three places has swept the hand, and the score doubles: 12 to minus 12, not 6.

After an ordinary hand the seat that came sixth pays its two highest cards to the winner, who sends back any two, and the fifth pays one to the second. After a sweep each loser pays one to the seat across. The table does the paying. After every deal each seat presses Play this hand, and a seat holding no 2 and no joker may declare a revolution instead: everything is dealt again, with no tribute. A seat holding all four Red jokers pays no tribute.

Your first hands: what we would try

This is our opinion, not Pagat's. Get rid of your low singles and pairs, the 3s to 7s, early, because they are hard to use later. Keep your twos and jokers for answering, since a wild set beats any natural set of its size, and hold a Red joker for a duel or your last set, because nothing beats it. And keep count while playing: there are 16 copies of every rank, so once most of the higher ones have gone by, a high set of yours is hard to beat.

How a match ends, how long it takes, and what we left out

A match is a run of hands, which Pagat calls games. The host picks how many, 3, 6 or 12, six being the usual choice, and the side with the higher total wins. A tie plays one extra hand. We measured the computer playing all six seats: a hand took about 87 plays and 35 passes, which is roughly ten minutes at six seconds a play, so six hands is about an hour at the pace of the computer. A real table of people runs longer than that, because people stop to think and to talk and the computer does not.

The rules are Pagat's, by John McLeod and Tony Hellman with help from a regular player. Regional rule sets differ, and we left out Shao Pai, Rang Pai, free order once four seats remain, tribute waivers, role swaps and showing hands. The menu page says what we chose where Pagat is silent.