GuPai
Backup site of an original GuPai Wordpress website
This website is dedicated to Chinese dominoes, known as GuPai and in Korea as Golpae. Here you will find descriptions of most currently known games played with GuPai, along with the background information you need to understand and learn them.
If you are short on time, you can start with the Quick Start article.article. Otherwise, feel free to continue below.
The games are divided into six categories: connecting, trick-taking, gambling, solitaire, collecting, and fishing. The articles are organized into six modules accordingly. Most modules include a short theoretical introduction, and all of them contain detailed game descriptions.
You can read the site in order, like a book (that’s how it was designed). In that case, you won’t need to jump between links very often. But you can also read in any order—just keep in mind that some articles may refer to others. The article about the deck composition and traditions is especially important.
Original Ukrainian version can be found here: https://navpil.wordpress.com/gupai/
Introduction
This section is optional. If you are curious about why I started writing about Chinese dominoes, why I find them fascinating, and why I think they are slowly disappearing, you are welcome to read:
Module 1: Dragon
In this module, you will become familiar with the Chinese domino deck and learn several connecting games, which are the closest to Western domino games. The article about the composition of the deck is essential reading.
- Chinese Domino deck composition and traditions
- Generic connecting game rules (Jie Long, Ce Deng and Kko-li-but-i-gi)
- Rules of a Ding Niu - a special connecting game played with a reduced deck
Module 2: Heaven
This module describes one of the most popular traditional games: Heaven-Nine (Tien Gow). It is a trick-taking game and is somewhat similar to Contract Bridge.
Be sure to read about tile ranking and pair hierarchy, as pairs are an important concept not only in trick-taking games but in many other GuPai games as well.
- GuPai symbolism
- Tiles and pairs hierarchy
- Rules: Trick-taking game Tien Gow , Heaven-Nine
- Rules: TienGow variants (Nau Tin Kau, Ancient Tiles, Tien Gow for two)
- Rules: Folk Tien Gow - a popular variant with a shortened deck
- Rules: Mo Hua Hua - usually played with paper dominoes, but also possible with two GuPai decks
- Rules: Bagchen - a complex Tibetian Tien Gow variant with 64 tiles
- Rules: Deer hunt - a Japanese trick taking game
Module 3: Gambling
Although many previous games are also played for money, the games in this section rely more heavily on luck. The most famous game here is Pai Gow, which is still played in casinos today.
If gambling does not interest you, you may skip this section. The main new concept introduced here is the modulo 10 rule for calculating the value of a group of tiles. This rule also appears in some later games.
- Gambling games - general information, modulo 10 rule
- Rules: Pai Gow - also includes a simple family variant
- Rules: Tau Ngau - with two settlement variants
- Rules: Kol Ye Si
- Rules: Da Ling , Playing Zeroes
Module 4: Fish
Fishing games are almost unknown in the West but very popular in the East. Their mechanics may seem unusual at first, but they are not difficult to learn.
Because researching these games was more challenging, this section also includes information about the sources I used. You may want to read about Stewart Culin, who described many of the games in this and the next modules.
- Sources - optional reading about where the information comes from
- Fishing games - introduction
- Rules: Tiu-U , Catching Fish
- Rules: Shi Wu Hu , Fifteen Lakes, including an adaptation for two decks
- Rules: Tsung Shap - Disputing for Tens, including a four-tiles-in-hand variant
Module 5: Solitude
This module describes solitaire games that you can play alone. They are divided into two types: more complex games based on triplets and simpler games based on pairs. The triplets are explained in a separate article.
- Classical triplets explained
- Solitaire games - general information
- Rules: Clearing the Rows - several related games, including Guo Wu Guan and O-Koan
- Rules: Zen , includes basic Xiang Shi Fu game and four rules variations
- Rules: Eight trigrams
- Rules: Games with pairs , including Open the Pagoda, Turtle, Memory and Two Rows
Module 6: Collect
Collecting games are also known in the West (for example, Canasta or Rummy). In China, Mahjong belongs to this category.
All games in this section use combinations that have already appeared in earlier modules. That is why this module comes last.
- Collecting games - general information
- Rules: Kap Shap - two variants and suggestions for rule changes
- Rules: Ho-Hpai - rule suggestions and analysis of both Ho-Hpai and Tok
- Rules: Jjak-mat-chu-gi with suggested rule adjustments
- Rules: Small Mahjong
Addendum
Here you will find descriptions of several games that can be played with Western dominoes or playing cards but were influenced by GuPai. This section is optional.