Dou Dizhu

How to play

Everyone is dealt seventeen cards and three are left face down. You bid one, two or three for the landlord’s seat: whoever bids highest takes those three cards and then plays alone against the other two, for the number of points they bid. If all three pass, the cards are dealt again.

The landlord leads. Each player in turn must beat what is on the table with the same shape and the same number of cards, or pass. If both other players pass, the table is cleared and whoever played last leads again with anything they like. The first player to empty their hand wins the hand for their side — so the two peasants win together even if only one of them goes out.

Suits do not matter. The order runs 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A 2, then the black joker, then the red joker.

What you may play

1. 1. Single — any one card
2. 2. Pair — two of a rank
3. 3. Triplet — three of a rank
4. 4. Triplet with a single — three, plus any one card
5. 5. Triplet with a pair — three, plus any pair
6. 6. Straight — five or more in a row, up to the ace
7. 7. Pair run — three or more pairs in a row
8. 8. Airplane — two or more triplets in a row
9. 9. Airplane with singles — one spare card for each triplet
10. 10. Airplane with pairs — one spare pair for each triplet
11. 11. Four with two singles — four of a rank plus two other cards
12. 12. Four with two pairs — four of a rank plus two pairs
13. 13. Bomb — four of a rank, alone — beats every ordinary play
14. 14. Rocket — both jokers — nothing beats it

A bomb beats every ordinary play and a bigger bomb beats a smaller one. The rocket — both jokers together — beats everything, including every bomb.

Scoring

The winning side scores the bid. The landlord wins or loses twice as much as each peasant, because they are playing two people at once. Every bomb and every rocket played in the hand doubles the stake, by either side — so a hand that started as a bid of two can easily finish worth sixteen.

A spring — the peasants never getting a single card down — doubles it again, and so does an anti-spring, where the landlord only ever led once. The result panel shows the arithmetic rather than the total, because that is where every argument about this game comes from.

Modes

Learn

Every legal play is named as you pick it up, and a hint is always there. Nothing is recorded.

Standard

You and two opponents who hold their high cards back and count.

Expert

Opponents that keep control of the lead and know when the landlord is nearly out.

Daily

Five hands, and everyone gets the same cards today. Reloading will not change them.

The opponents

They judge a hand by how few separate plays it would take to empty — which is what actually wins this game — by how much of it takes the lead back, and by how close each other seat is to going out. The two peasants help each other, but only from what everybody can see: which cards have been played, who passed on what, and how many cards are left in each hand.

Learner

Plays its cards more or less as they come and will beat its own partner.

Steady

Holds its high cards back, lets its partner win a trick, and counts what has gone.

Expert

Keeps control of the lead, plays to its partner and knows when the landlord is nearly out.

The levels differ in how tightly they hold their twos, jokers and bombs, and in how often they play something other than their best idea. They never differ in what they are allowed to see.

A few things worth knowing

• What wins is going out first, not holding good cards. A hand of seventeen that empties in six plays is far stronger than one that empties in nine, however high the second one is.
• Twos and jokers are worth holding because they take the lead back, and having the lead is what lets you dump a long straight. Spend them and you are playing whatever the table decides.
• As a peasant, the count on the landlord’s hand is the whole game. Once they are down to two or three cards, stopping them matters more than emptying your own hand.
• A bomb doubles the stake for both sides. Playing one to win a trick you did not need can turn a small loss into a large one.

Privacy and local play

Your table, your settings and your record are stored on this device and nowhere else. There is no account, no sign-in and no gameplay request to any server. The reset button clears this game’s data and leaves every other Zerdly tool alone.

Questions

Is this gambling?

No. The scores are points on your own device and there is nothing to buy, deposit, cash out or wager. There is no payment of any kind anywhere on Zerdly Interactive.

Can the computer see my cards?

No, and not as a matter of care. The only thing an opponent is ever given is one seat's view of the table, and that object has no field for another player's hand — not an empty one, no field at all. The same is true of the message sent to the background worker that does their thinking.

Do the two peasants cheat by sharing their hands?

No, and this is the part of the game most implementations get wrong. Partners are the easiest thing in the world to make play beautifully by showing them each other's cards, and it is invisible from the outside — the bots simply seem good. Here a peasant's view deliberately excludes their own partner's hand, so any cooperation you see is built from what everybody at the table can see: what has been played, who passed, and how many cards each seat has left.

Which house rules does this table use?

Straights and pair runs may run up to the ace, and never include twos or jokers. A four-with-two is an ordinary play rather than a bomb, and its spare cards may not be a pair of jokers. An airplane's spare cards may not include a bomb, and only the triplets are compared. The Help drawer lists all of it, because the game is played differently in different places.

Can I reload to get a better hand in the Daily?

No, and not because it is forbidden. Each hand of the Daily is dealt from the date and that hand's number, so hand three is the same fifty-four cards however you arrive at it. Even a redeal after all three players pass is part of the sequence, so everybody who reaches it gets the same one.

Is anything sent to a server?

No. The rules, the shuffle, the opponents, the sounds and your saved table all run in your browser. There is no account, and clearing this game's data leaves every other Zerdly tool untouched.

More Zerdly Interactive

• Texas Hold'em Poker — Play chips, side pots and every hand explained afterwards.
• Dominoes — Draw dominoes against an opponent that cannot see your hand.
• Backgammon — The doubling cube, the bar and an opponent that plays the race.