In real life, players usually make up their own rules as to who gets to bid first. In most of the online game rooms, the first bidder is chosen randomly by the system. Generally, the more confident a player is in the strength of one's cards, the higher the risk stakes one is willing to bid. There are three kinds of risk stakes, 1, 2, and 3, with 1 being the lowest and 3 being the highest. Then, players take turns to bid for the landlord position by telling the other players the risk stake they are willing to accept. Each player is dealt 17 cards, with the last three leftover cards detained on the playing desk, face down.Īll players first review and apprise their own cards without showing their cards to the other players. The peasants win if one of them removes all their cards first.Ī shuffled pack of 54 cards is dealt to three players.

The landlord wins by removing all their cards first. The objective of the game is to be the first player to have no cards left. Those who lose the bid or do not bid enter the game as the 'peasants' ( 农民) team competing against the landlord. The game starts with players bidding for the 'landlord' ( 地主) position. The actual place of origin for the game is in Hubei Province.ĭou dizhu is played among three people with one pack of cards, including the two differentiated jokers. Nowadays, the name of the game carries no negative connotation. China's Generation Y, who are among the most enthusiastic player groups, has no personal experience of this specific overt class struggle (compare with the covert contemporary property bubble). The class struggle during the land reform in the 1950s after the Chinese Communist Party took over China encouraged peasants to take up arms against the landlords, hence the name dou dizhu. See also: Mass killings of landlords under Mao Zedong People playing card games in the street in Nanjing, China Less popular variations of the game do exist in China, such as four-player and five-player dou dizhu played with two packs of cards.

Players can easily play the game with a set of dou dizhu playing cards, without the suits printed on the cards.

Suits are irrelevant in playing dou dizhu. It is one of the most popular card games played in China.ĭou dizhu is described as easy to learn but hard to master, requiring mathematical and strategic thinking as well as carefully planned execution. 'fighting the landlord') is a card game in the genre of shedding and gambling. Landlord, fighting the landlord, dau dei zyuĥ4 17 for each of the two 'peasants' and 20 for the 'landlord'ĭou dizhu ( simplified Chinese: 斗地主 traditional Chinese: 鬥地主 pinyin: dòu dìzhǔ Jyutping: dau 3 dei 6 zyu 2 lit.

Two 'bombs' in the game four twos, and a pair of jokers

Shanghai card game strategy