Gaming tiles from Singapore

[Gaming tiles], 32c. Anon. 

The tiles in their box. 

Some years ago, I saw a set of gaming-tiles from a Mahjong shop in Singapore. The tiles were extremely peculiar. The proprietor was ignorant about their function, and the objects themselves seemed very old. I nonetheless bought them, and they have been a mystery ever since. 

The box contained 32 tiles. The design of the tiles resembled the ones used for mahjong, but the similarities ended there. 

The complete deck

The complete 'Deck' contained 32 tiles, engraved on long, thin pieces of plastic. This sort of shape is typically associated with Chinese dominoes. But it had radically different subjects. As mentioned above, it had mahjong-like pips with ranks from 1 to 10, plus three 'Court cards', indexed in large Roman letters. The result is a sort of single-suited deck.

The Pips (1)

There is an unequal number of copies of each subject, as you can see here. There are two copies of the ace, the 2, 3, 4,5, 6, and 7 have three copies each. The 8,9 10 and courts again have two copies. 

The Pips (2)

The 7, 8, 9 and 10.  Up to the 8, the arrangement of pips agrees with those in mahjong tiles. The Nine and 10 diverge.  In mahjong tiles, the pips for the Nine are arranged in 3 rows of three. In this deck, they are arranged 5,4. The Ten is absent in a mahjong deck, so our engraver has arranged it 6,4

Three of the six courts. Note the large roundel that shows their rank. 

What sort of game is played with this deck? We can speculate. Counting was clearly an element in the game. But how the numbers were used is another open question. Why are there some cards with two copies of each, and others with three? A game like black-jack is a likely candidate. But the uneven distribution of cards would make the deck awkward to use for such a game. . There are Seven subjects that have two copies of each card (A, 8,9,10, J,Q,K), and Six subjects that have 3 copies of each (2,3,4,5,6,7)

Rank	Number of copies	Total
Ace, 8, 9, 10 Jack, Queen, King,	2	14 cards.
2,3,4,5,6,7	3	18 cards
Total number in deck -----------------------------------------		32 cards

Another possibility is a 'comparison' game, like Daun Tiga or Koo Kiew. The relative scarcity of high-ranked cards in the deck might make these games more challenging. 

The other three courts. 

The game might also have been played with English playing-cards, as the inclusion of the courts suggests. Three of the courts have a blue "Index", and the other three have this painted in red. Does the difference in coloring mean the color of the cards was significant in the game, or is it merely the maker wanting to introduce variety? 

The tiles. 

I do not think the set is incomplete. The tiles fit the box provided perfectly. The distribution of the ranks seems unlikely to be resulting from chance. But if it is not chance, what is the rationale? We can only speculate.


If any reader has more information on what these tiles are, or what game is played with them, the author will be most grateful.

Daun Tiga, or three cards-- part 2

" Daun tiga 'lei "
For part 1, see here 
Walter William Skeat's monumental Malay Magic: An introduction to the popular religion and folklore of the Malay Peninsula is a survey of the customs and folklore of the Malay Peninsula. To give an idea of the expanse of the work, here are some chapter headings "Crocodile folklore" "Funeral prayers" "Birth ceremonies". It was published in 1900.

The book contains two separate accounts of this game. The first and longer account was written by Sir W.E. Maxwell, the second by Skeat himself. Maxwell's description was previously published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic society.  Both descriptions are fairly patchy. They appear to be more concerned with the customs and rituals surrounding the game, than the game itself.

Both authors agree that there are regional variations in the game. Maxwell gives the version played in Perak. Skeat gives the version played in Selangor.

Play
  The cards are shuffled, and the player to the right of the deler cuts them. The player who cut the cards looks at the bottom card of those he lifts. If he thinks the card is lucky, he accepts the cut, and puts down the cards he lifted. The dealer reunites the deck. He then cuts and looks at the cards as before.
 Three cards are dealt out to each player.
Two stakes are deposited by each player, the Kepala ( head) and Ekor ( tail). The Ekor is usually of greater value than the Kepala.
 The cards of the players are then compared against the dealer. [Presumably, players whose hands rank higher than the dealer are paid out, and vice versa. Maxwell does not describe the process of payouts, other than the following detail--]
  If the dealer has one of the hands called Tĕrus (see below), and the player holds a less valuable hand, both Kepala and Ekor are taken.
 If players please, they may bet amongst one another, instead (or in addition to-- the book is unclear) of betting against the banker.

  Scoring 
The hands are ranked according to the point-score assigned to them. If the point-score exceeds 10, then ten is deducted from the total points to give the final score.
Malay Magic does not tell us the exact system of points, apart from saying "A Knave, ten and nine is a good hand" From this, one can assume that the scoring system is similar to the one in Dobree.

The following hands are known as Tĕrus. These hands outrank all other hands.

Three Aces, called Sat Tiga
Three Courts, called Kuda or Naik Kuda ( Three Horses -- A.L)
A hand with the value of Nine
A hand with the value of eight.

In Perak, a hand of three threes is considered bad luck. Whoever is dealt such a hand throws it out. Here's Maxwell:

"A Hand of three threes, being Nine, is really a good hand, but it is considered a propitation of good luck to throw it down ( without exposing it), announcing that one is buta ("out"-- literally "blind" A.L.), in the hope of getting good luck afterwards"

Any player who holds a score of exactly 30 is said to be out, unless he holds three court cards.

In Selangor, the hands considered as Tĕrus are slightly different:

Three Aces, called Tiga Sat
Three threes, called Tiga Jalor 
Three 10s, called Tiga Puloh ( Puloh = Puluh = Ten-- A.L)
Three Courts, called Tiga ankong 
A hand with the value of Nine
A hand with the value of eight.

Reading both accounts, one gets the idea that Dobree's game is a simplified version of the version found in Malay Magic. In Malay Magic, the contract of Long is obligatory. Apart from that, there are few differences between the games. 

The whole book may be seen here: 

https://archive.org/stream/malaymagicbeingi00skeauoft#page/486/mode/2up

Daun Tiga ,Pa gow (打九) or Sam Cheong ( 三张) -- Part 1

This game seems to be a farily popular game. It is fairly frequently met with in books on Malaya. The description in this article is based on Dobree's Gambling games of Malaya.
In a second post, I will investigate an account of the game found in Skeat's Malay Magic,  A book published about 50 years earlier. It bears several interesting differences from the game discussed here.

*** *** ***

Dobree gives three names for this rather simple game: Sam cheong 三张 (three cards), Pa gow 打九 (beating Nine), or Daun Tiga ( three leaves in Malay). It bears some similarities to the game of "Koo Kiew" featured on this blog earlier http://anthonylesq.blogspot.sg/2017/01/koo-kiew-che-jiu-chinese-gambling-game.html  In both games, players compare the value of their hands against a banker, and there is an emphasis on collecting cards of the same kind.

This game is played with an ordinary anglo-american deck of 52 cards, but Dobree states that the game may be played with mahjong tiles. The game with majhong tiles is described at the end of this post.

Play
  Up to 17 people can play at this game, but bystanders can also bet on the players of the game.
  Prior to play, a banker is selected. Dobree tells us that this is done by dice.
  The cards are shuffled. Three cards are dealt to all players, face down.
  Without looking at the cards, Players then stake the amount they please.
  Once all the stakes have been placed, the cards are revealed.
  Players whose hands score lower than the banker lose their stakes. Players whose hands score higher than the banker are paid a dividend equivalent to the stakes, also keeping their original stake.
  If there is a tie between a player and a banker, no money passes between them.
  The turn of banker passes anticlockwise, to the next player, each deal. But if the banker loses to all the players at one deal, he may repeat another deal as a banker.

Scoring
1) A Three-of-a kind beats all other hands.
2) The three-of a kinds are ranked as follows:

3 Aces ( Highest)

3  Twos

3 Threes

(...)

3 Nines

3 Tens

Any 3 Picture cards ( lowest)

The suit of the cards is irrelevant in all of these combinations. 

3) For hands other than three-of-a-kind, a point score is assigned to each, ( Much as in Koo kiew). The Hand with the higher point score wins.
4) The cards score their numerical value ( i.e. Ace scores 1, Two scores 2, Ten scores 10), but the picture cards score Zero.
5) If a hand's score exceeds 10 points, only the last digit is considered. So a score of 15 reckons as 5, a score of 11 reckons as 1, and a score of 29 is reckoned as a 9.
6) However, if a hand's score adds up to 10 or 20, in both cases, the score is reckoned as a 10, not zero.
Note: In some versions of the game, a score of 10, 20 or 30 scores Zero instead of Ten.


Additional Rules : "Long"
Dobree describes an additional "contract" in this game. This contract hinges on the player's hand having a score of 8 and above. In the terminology of the game, this is called "Long".

If a player wishes to engage in this contract, he places two stakes, instead of one. These two stakes don't have to be equal. Let's call them the first and second stakes. Play between the banker and the player proceeds as usual, but with the following extra rules:

1) If the Player's cards Long, the banker pays out for both stakes.
2) If the Player's cards does not Long,  ( i.e, score less than eight) , but still beats the banker's hand, only the winnings from the first stake is paid out.
3)  If the banker's cards cards Long, and beat the player's cards, both stakes are taken.
4) If the Banker's cards do not Long, but still beat the player's cards, only the first stake is taken by the banker.

Dobree does not tell us what happens when either the banker or the player has a three-of-a-kind. These are my suggestions for dealing with such cases.

5) If the player has a three-of-a kind, and beats the banker, only the winnings from the first stake are paid out.
6) If the player has a three-of-a-kind, but loses to the banker, both stakes are taken.
7) If the player's cards "Long", but the banker has a three-of-a kind, only the first stake is taken

CASE 1: Banker, hand with score 5; Player, hand with score 8.
In this case, banker pays out both stakes.
CASE 2: Banker, hand with score 5. Player, hand with score 6.
In this case, banker pays out only first stake.
CASE 3: Banker has a three-of-a kind, Player, a hand of 9:
In this case, Banker takes only the first stake. ( rule 4)



Play with mahjong tiles

Neccessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. So, the ingenious gamblers of Malaya have invented a way of playing this game with a set of mahjong tiles. ( See http://anthonylesq.blogspot.sg/2012/09/mahjong-anon.html for a description of the structure of the mahjong deck)

Instead of a full set of 144 tiles, only 52 tiles are used. This reduced tileset is made by extracting the number tiles, ( one to 9)  from the suit of tens of thousands, bamboos or coins.
The 10s, Jacks, Queens and Kings are replaced by the "wind" tiles. The 10s correspond to 東, the jacks to 北, the queens to 西, and the kings to 南, as you see above.

This substitution can be done, because the suits do not matter in this game. Such a deck can alo be used to play at games like blackjack, where the suits also don't matter.

For the second part , describing the game around half a century earlier, see Here