“Duzi He" 笃子胡-- A Chinese playing-card game

Having featured the playing-cards of Nantong, I shall now describe a game played with them. My main sources are the Chinese Baidu and Wikipidia articles , along with Hu Baishen胡柏生 and Du Guoyuan杜国元's  book Nantong long-cards-- Talking about Dazihe (Nantong Changpai-- Hua shuo dazihe 南通长牌-- 话说搭子和). published by The People's literary and artistic publishers  (dazong wenyi chubanshe) 大众文艺出版社. This book will be referred to as H&D.

  The game goes under several names. The Baidu article calls it“Duzi Hu" 笃子胡. H&D call it Dazi hu, 搭子和. This is the name used in Rugao city, also in Nantong.

Equipment: One deck of Nantong playing-cards. Readers without access to such cards can substitute a Mahjong set, or use ordinary playing cards, as explained below

Players This is a game for four people. However only three play each hand. The player who deals the cards sits out. The dealer for the first round is selected by lot. H&D suggest using four playing cards, Ace, 2, 3, and 4. The one who gets 4 will become the dealer, and sit out. The player who drew the ace is the "Banker" 庄家. He plays first, followed by the players who drew the 2 and 3. The deal then rotates counterclockwise.

Deal The cards are shuffled and dealt. The banker is dealt 23 cards, the rest of the players are dealt 22. Once the deal is completed,  The next two cards of the stock are turned up. These are the 将牌, literally "General cards" . The cards are examined.

1) If the General cards are both "Generals", i.e:
  a: The Nine of strings
  b: The white flower
  c: The Red flower
  d: The Thousand children
Then this is called " Double Big General"
2) If the The general cards only contain One "General" , and one other card, then this is called " Big General"
3) If None of the general cards contain Generals, this is called "Small general"

Melds with these cards affect the scoring [...] 

Declarations: The players first inspect their hands. If they contain either
   a) A four-of-a-kind
   b) Sufficient General cards to make a pong or Gong [ see "Melds" ] with the turned up general. E.G. If a 5 of coins was turned up as a General, and a player's hand contains two 5 of coins, He can declare them, and receive extra points.

The former is called 撂龙 Liao Long, the latter  起插 Qi Cha  if it is a pong, or 合子 He Zi  if it is  gong.

Play.  The game is much like mahjong.

The "Banker" inspects his hand, and chooses to discard a card. [or declare a meld] The second player then draws a card from the stock, [declare any melds], and then discards another card. The card discarded does not have to be the same as the one drawn. The process repeats itself, until someone has successfully melded off his hand. This is called 胡

Players can "Pong", but cannot "Chow" [BD]

Melds. 

These melds are similar to that in Mahjong. [H&D]

1) 搭子 tazi /Stacks, also called 顺子 Shunzi / "Smooth"
A "Run". Three cards in sequence, belonging to the same suit. 7,8 and 9 of strings; 4,5,6 of Myriads are examples. The 1,2 and 3 of coins is a special meld, called 文钱Wenqian - “Cash". This meld [...]

对子Duizi  Pair--
Two cards identical and suit and rank. Self-explanatory.

2 )刻子Ke zi ” Cut ones" and 坎 "Kan" -- "Pong" 
In Mahjong, called a Pong. These refer to three cards, identical in suit and rank. E.G.  Three 5 of coins, or three 7 of strings.  Three cards of the same rank, but different suits are not considered a meld. The player can gain the cards by drawing from the stock. If he has a pair of cards, and another player discards the third card, a pong can also be made
A Pong involving the General cards is called 底插-- Di Cha


杠--Gang "Gong"
A four-of-a-kind. Can be obtained through drawing from the stock, or having a pong, and another player discarding the fourth card.

Scoring table:

The column headed "Meld" describes the meld. Each meld is split into two rows. The top row shows what the cards score if they are normal cards; the bottom row if they are General cards. Each of the columns that intersect it show the score each meld obtains, depending on the situation with the General cards.

Meld	Cards	Small Gen.	Big Gen.		Double Gen.
			Not a Pair	Pair	Not a Pair	Pair
碰Peng “Pong” As in mahjong, a three-of-a-kind, produced by capture.	Nom’l	2	4	8	8	16
	Gen’l	4	8	16	16	32
坎 Kan: As above, but present in hand[dealt] , or created by drawing	Nom’l	4	8		16
	Gen’l	8	16		32
打杠 Da Gang “Gong”.  As in mahjong. Can be created by extension of a pong	Nom’l	8	16		32
	Gen’l	8	32		64
提子Ti zi : As gong, but created by drawing	Nom’l	16	24		48
	Gen’l	12	48		96
起插 Qi Cha A Kan, involving the general cards, found in the hand when first dealt.	Nom’l	24		32		64
	Gen’l			64		128
撂龙 Liao Long : A four of a kind [gong] present at the hand when first drawn	Nom’l	16	32		64
	Gen’l	32		128
底插 Di Cha A Kan, involving the general cards, formed by drawing from the stock at play	Nom’l			24	48
	Gen’l			48	96
合子He zi When a player has a pair of cards, that is identical to the general card turned up, that is present at the start of play	Nom’l	64
	Gen’l	128
三龙会齐 San Long Hui Qi  :A Pong, kong, Ti, cha, or kan that involve the red flower, white flower or 1000 children.	和值翻双Score doubled.

The Jokers of the Nantong Deck. 

Play with jokers: Most Nantong decks come with five jokers.  The Jokers are not strictly necessary for play,and are not usually used. They function exactly like "Flowers" in mahjong. If a player is dealt jokers, or receives them from the stock, he exposes them, and draws replacements from the stock. He also gains bonus points. If the jokers are turned up as the general cards, then the scores are doubled. "The jokers can only be used when all four players agree to do so" [H&D]


Winning 

Play ends when a player has successfully melded off his entire hand, or when the stock runs out. A completely melded hand has 23 cards, consisting of a pair of identical cards, plus a number of melds. It can be done one of three ways

1:清胡 Qing Hu  "Clear game" : One pair , and Seven runs.
2 飘胡 Piao Hu  “Fluttering game" : One pair, with the rest of the cards being melded either as"Cut ones", or as "Cash", or some combination of both. [BD]
3: 塌子胡 Ta Zi Hu "Collapsed game" : One pair, plus some combination of runs and trios. 

If the stock is exhausted without anyone melding off their hand, the game also ends. The hands of all the players are exposed, and the scores of each player reckoned. Such a situation is called 黄牌 Huang2 pai - Yellow cards, or 谎牌 Huang3 Pai -- Lying cards.

Scoring
The score of the winner's hand is tabulated according to the table above.
If the player has a "clear game" [i.e. no special combinations or multipliers...


Substitutes:
If the reader has access to a set of mahjong tiles, he can easily adapt them to this game. This is done by removing the winds, flowers, and if desired, all but five of the jokers

  A substitute can also be made using four decks of western playing-cards.  Remove the court-cards of all the suits. Remove the suit of hearts, both courts and pips. Do the same for the remaining 3 decks. The ace to Nine are used to replace the 1-9 of each of the three suits . The Tens of each suit replace the  White Flower, Red Flower and Thousand Children. Add jokers if desired.