Tiu-U

Tiu-U (釣魚) — “Catching Fish” — is played with two full sets of Chinese dominoes, for a total of 64 tiles.

Two or three players participate.

24 tiles are dealt equally among the players.
24 tiles remain face down as a draw pile.
The remaining 16 tiles are placed face up on the table — this is the lake.

Example of a deal

Gameplay

On each turn:

The player selects one tile from their hand as bait.
With this tile they must either:
- Capture a tile from the lake (“catch a fish”), taking both tiles into their scoring pile, or
- Place the tile into the lake (if no capture is possible or desired).
After this, the player draws one tile from the deck and must immediately play it in the same way (capture or place it in the lake). That is the drawn tile may not be kept in hand.

Thus, each turn consists of two plays: one from the hand and one from the deck.

Capture rules

As the general rule a player can catch a fish with a bait if they have the same number of spots. For example, [5:3] can catch [4:4] and vice versa.

The exception is the tiles of the Supreme Pair, i.e. [4:2] and [2:1], which can capture each other. Please note, while [4:2] can capture [4:2], [5:1], [3:3] and [2:1], the [2:1] can only capture another [2:1] and [4:2], but not [5:1] or [3:3].

Another exception is the rule that a player can catch three identical tiles that are already in the lake with the fourth tile. Using this rule a player can catch three fish with a single bait.

There is also a rule that a player can simply add their third identical tile to the two already in the lake, hoping to take all three of them with one bait later.

Scoring

After all the tiles have been played, the players count the points. Note that the lake will not necessarily be empty at this point.

All players divide their catch into small fish and large fish.

Small fish are all tiles with less than eight spots. The total number of red spots in a small fish is counted and the total is rounded up to ten (that is, 7 points will be counted as 10, and 11 as 20).

The big fish is all the remaining tiles. Count the number of spots and multiply by two.

The sum of the points of large and small fish is the player’s points.

Example of a Catch, small fish above, big fish below

An example of calculating a catch from a photo. Ten fish are small, with a total of 12 red spots on them, which is rounded up to 20. Six large fish have a total of 56 spots, multiply by two and get 112 points. Total 132 points.

Rules analysis

Scoring in Tiu-U is uneven: large fish are significantly more valuable than small fish. This creates a strong imbalance in strategic value.

The rule allowing a player to add a third identical tile to the lake seems tactically questionable unless additional restrictions exist - for example, a rule preventing individual capture of those tiles.

Tiu-U was recorded by Stewart Culin over a century ago. Unfortunately, Culin’s descriptions are often imprecise. It is possible that some details were omitted or misunderstood. Today it is difficult to verify the original form of the game.

The game Shi Wu Hu (Fifteen Lakes) corrects all the shortcomings of the “Tiu-U” game. Moreover, Shi Wu Hu seems to have a living tradition, unlike Tiu-U.

Sources

Rules on Pagat

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