Shi Wu Hu

Shi Wu Hu (十五湖) “Fifteen Lakes” is very similar to the game Tiu-U (please read the rules of Tiu-U first if you have not done so)

It is played with a special deck of paper domino cards, in which there are four copies of each of the 21 domino values — for a total of 84 cards. Domino cards are uncommon in Europe, but in China they are widespread. These cards are long and narrow, each depicting the domino tile it represents.

Since there are four copies of every tile, the usual imbalance between civilian and military tiles disappears. Each value appears exactly four times. I will give a version of a game adapted to the two decks of Chinese dominoes.

The deck known as “Shi Wu Hu” is also used for a trick-taking game in which players aim to win fifteen tricks - hence the name. The fishing game described here uses the same deck, which may cause some confusion.

Paper domino cards

Setup

Two or three players participate.

30 cards are dealt equally among the players.
30 cards remain face down as a draw pile.
24 cards are placed face up on the table — this is the lake.

Gameplay

Play proceeds according to the same basic rules as Tiu-U, with several important differences.

The two tiles of the Supreme Pair cannot capture each other (there is no exception for [2:1]).
[5:5] and [6:4] cannot capture each other, even though both total ten points. (This is related to scoring — “tens” may generate bonuses.)
Three identical cards on the table may be captured by the fourth copy only if that tile can be captured exclusively by itself. This applies only to: [1:1], [2:1], [6:4], [5:5], [6:5], and [6:6]. These tiles can only be captured by an identical tile and no other.

Scoring

Scoring is more complex than in Tiu-U, but also more balanced.

Captured tiles are divided into three categories:

Large fish – 30 points
Medium fish – 20 points
Small fish – 10 points

It is worth recalling the mixed pairs from the game Tien Gow in order to better understand the logic of scoring points.

If the catch contains a Sky tile ([6:6]) and both nines (i.e., both [6:3] and [5:4]), then all tiles with such values are counted as big fish, otherwise - as small.
If the catch contains both tiles from the supreme pair (that is, both [4:2] and [2:1]), then all such tiles count as a large fish, otherwise - as a small fish.
If there are all four elevens in the catch (that is, four tiles of [6:5]), then it is called a Quarter (more precisely, a Jun - 鈞, an ancient measure of weight, close to imperial quarter) and they all count as a big fish, if if they are less, then they are count as small fish.
The same “four of a kind” rule also applies to two more tiles: [5:5] and [6:4].
Middle fish are only tiles Earth-Eight ([1:1], [5:3], [6:2]), Man-Seven ([4:4], [5:2], [4:3]) and Harmony-Five ([3:1], [3:2], [4:1]) – under the same conditions as the Sky-Nine tiles. That is, all three tiles from the group must be present in order for all of them to count as middle fish.
All other tiles count as small fish.
Large fish count for 30 points, medium fish for 20, and small fish for 10.

In addition, there are bonus points. If a person collects:

all 12 tiles from the Sky-Nine group, then he gets additional 300 points.
all Quarters (that is, 3 sets of four tiles of elevens and two types of tens), then gets additional 300 points.
all 8 tiles from the Supreme pair, then he gets additional 300 points.

Note that in the case of “Sky-Nine” group and all the middle fish groups, there is a requirement to have one civilian and two different military tiles to qualify as large/middle fish. This rule is called: one-civilian-two-military.

Settlements are one-to-one, just like in Jie Long. That is, players pay each other the difference in points. There is one nuance - if a player has scored 1000 points or more, and the other player has not, then the difference in points between them is doubled.

Adaptation for Two Standard GuPai sets

Since domino cards are difficult to obtain outside China, the game may be adapted to two standard Chinese domino sets.

Because this reduces the number of military tiles, the following adjustments are recommended:

Replace the one-civilian-two-military rule with one-civilian-one-military (That is, now only one type of military tile is enough to count all the tiles from the group as large or medium fish).
Sky-Nine bonus applies to 8 tiles (instead of 12), which is logical, because there are only 8 such tiles in the set
Reduce the bonus for all tiles of the Supreme Pair to 100, because there are only four of them and it is much easier to collect them.
Dealing is the same as in Tiu-U - 24 tiles to the players, 24 in the deck, 16 face up on the table.

All other rules remain unchanged.

This adaptation remains faithful to the spirit of the original game. Notably, even in card play, some groups sometimes apply the one-civilian-one-military restriction.

Example calculation

An example of a calculation for a game adapted for two sets of Chinese dominoes:

Example of a Catch in Shi Wu Hu

In the photo, the group of [6:6], [5:4] and [6:3] all count as big fish because both tiles are present. Total 30x6=180.
A group of [4:4] and [4:3] are considered medium fish, since there is a “man” and a “seven” in the group. Total 20x3=60. In the version with domino cards, these tiles would count as small fish, since one more seven is missing [5:2].
The tile [6:1] helped to catch [4:3], but this does not make it a middle fish - it is small, plus 10 points.
A set of four [6:5] counts as a big fish. 30x4=120.
A set of two [5:5] counts as a small fish, since there are only two of these tens, not four. So another 10x2 = 20 points.
Sixes [3:3][5:1] count as small fish, another 10x2=20 points.
The catch contains both tiles from the supreme pair, so they all count as big fish. Total 4x30=120 points. In addition, there is a bonus for the fact that all of them are collected +100 points.
Four Earth tiles don’t count as a middle fish because the eight is missing, there should have been either [6:2] or [5:3] (or both if playing with cards) to count as middle, thus they count as small 10x4=40.

Total 180+60+10+120+20+20+120+100+40=670 points.

Sources

Description of an original game in Chinese: https://aloneinthefart.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post_05.html

Description of a Trick taking game on Pagat , in case you’re interested

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