Guandan

Guandan is a shedding-type card game that originated in Jiangsu province, China.

Guandan

People play Guandan in Nanjing in 2019
Genres	Mind sport
Players	4
Setup time	30 seconds
Playing time	Dependent on variation or rules
Skills	Observation, Analysis, Memory, Strategies

The game is played by four players, sitting opposite each other in partnerships, and uses two decks of standard international playing cards (including the Jokers) for a total of 108 cards. The basic objective of the game is to play increasingly high combinations of cards, so as to empty your hand before your opponents. In Guandan, a team's score is expressed as a level. There are 13 levels in total, corresponding to the card ranks from 2 up to A (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A). In a Game-based tournament, a team only wins the game if it wins on Level A.

Etymology

The characters in Guandan (摜蛋/掼蛋) literally mean "Throwing Eggs". The second character is a homophone of the character 弹, meaning bomb, which is also suggested as an origin for the game's name. An alternative name for the game is Huai'an Running Fast (淮安跑得快), referencing the city where the game originated.

History

Guandan was invented in Huai'an, Jiangsu in the 1960s. From there, it spread to neighboring cities of Huai'an such as Nanjing in the 1990s. In 2020, it was estimated that there were over 20 million people who played this game in the Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. Certain television channels have specific TV programs for Guandan, and certain websites contain online Guandan games.

Guandan
Traditional Chinese	摜蛋
Simplified Chinese	掼蛋
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin guàndàn
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	淮安跑得快
Simplified Chinese	淮安跑得快
Transcriptions

Rules

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Cards and Player Setting

Guandan is played by four players, who will sit around a square table. The two people who sit opposite to each other will form a team to beat the team formed by the other two. In other words, for a certain player, the two people who sit beside the player will be the player's opponents in this game.

Guandan uses two decks of standard international cards of 108 cards as a total. Therefore, each player will have 27 cards in each.

Card Scores and Types

There are four suits of card types in Guandan: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs with each suit containing 26 cards (2-10, J, Q, K, A, 2 for each). Besides, there are four jokers, two red and two black.

Types

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Single card: Any single card

Pair: Two cards of the same number in any suit, but a black joker and a red joker cannot be a pair.

Triple: Three cards of the same number.

Plate: The plate is a combination of two consecutive triples. For example, three 4s and a three 5s.

Tube: The tube is three consecutive pairs. For example, a pair of 10s, a pair of Js and a pair of Qs.

Full House: The full house is a triple and a pair.

Straight: Straight is five consecutive cards. A can be high or low. For example, an A, 2, 3, 4, and a 5. The top straight is 10,J,Q,K,A

Bomb: Bomb represents a combination of 4 or more cards of the same number. For example, six 8s are a 6-bomb.

Straight Flush: Straight flush is a straight with all cards of the same suit.

Joker Bomb: The Joker Bomb is all four jokers. It is regarded as the largest bomb in the game.

Level Cards and Wild Cards

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Level Cards

The level number of the leading team determines the level cards. The level cards rank above aces but below jokers. For example, if the leading team is at level 6, then sixes are the level cards and rank above A.

Wild cards

The two level cards in hearts are wild. During the round, they can be played as any card, except jokers, to form a combination with other cards. However, they only count as normal, non-wild cards when played as a single card. For example, when the level in the round is 7, the 7 of hearts can make a 4-bomb when combined with three 8s.

Comparison

1. The normal comparison of the cards is from high to low in the order of red joker, black joker, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. It applies when comparing with a single card, pair, triple, tube, plate, straight, bomb, and straight flush. Specially, full house compares the triple in the combination only.
2. Bomb depends on its number of cards. The smallest is a 4-bomb of 2s and the largest is an 8-bomb of aces. However, a 5-bomb of 2s is larger than a 4-bomb of aces. A bomb ranks above: single card, pair, triple, tube, plate, full house, straight. A straight flush is regarded as a bomb that ranks above a 4 or 5-card bomb, except the joker bomb. A bomb with 6 or more cards ranks above a straight flush. Straight flushes rank according to their largest card regardless of suits. The joker bomb is the largest bomb in the game.

Glossary

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English	Chinese	English	Chinese
Reporting Area (R)	报牌区	Single Card	单张
Playing Area	出牌区	Pair	对子
Fold Area	收牌区	Tubes	三连对
Tribute	贡牌	Triples	三同张
Level Card	级牌	Plates	钢板
Free Card	“逢人配”	Full Houses	三带二
Banker	上游	Straights	顺子
Follower	二游	Flush Straights	同花顺
Third	三游	Bombs	炸弹
Dweller	下游	Joker Bomb	天王炸
Double-Dweller	双下游

Playing Guandan

Preparation

For the first round, the deck is shuffled and placed face-down on the table. One of the players cuts the deck, draws a card and flips it face up. If it is not a joker, the players will decide who is going to draw cards first by counting counterclockwise from the player who draws the first card from the top of the pile. The player who draws the last card will open the play.

Playing

Players will play cards in counterclockwise order. The first player can play any type of cards in his or her hand. Then the others will choose to throw higher cards of the same type or a higher ranked combination. Otherwise, the players should say "Pass" and not throw any cards. If the other three players say "Pass", the last player can continue playing cards.

If the player whose turn it is to lead has no cards left, that player's partner leads. The first one to finish playing all 27 cards is called the Banker, and the game continues until three players finish. The second is called the Follower, the third is called the Third and the last is called the Dweller. If a team contains the Banker and the Follower, then the opposing team is called the Double-Dweller.

Reporting

If a player only has ten or fewer than ten cards in his or her hand, he or she must declare how many cards remain in the hand.

Leveling Up

The team with the Banker will level up. They move up three levels if the partner is the Follower, two levels if the partner is the Third and only one level if the partner is the Dweller.

Winning Conditions

In the whole game, a team can win the game if it wins at the A level and the team cannot have the Dweller.

Variations

Variations of the game exist. A version commonly played in New York City requires players to trade cards face up, depending on the result of each round.

• If the losing team consists of a single Dweller, then the Dweller has to exchange their highest card for the lowest card of the Banker.
• If the losing team is composed of a Double-Dweller, then both Dwellers have to exchange each of their highest cards for the lowest cards of the leading team. The Banker takes the higher of the two cards.

Another variation of the game penalizes the leading team by one level if they lose the subsequent round.

Governmental crackdown in 2024

According to an article published in The Guardian on August 24th, 2024, guandan now appears to have fallen out of favor with the ruling Communist party, and it is blamed not only for encouraging a “passive attitude” towards work, but for supposedly encouraging the formation of cliques among party cadres. The report states that «A recent run of articles in the state-run Beijing Youth Daily described guandan as intoxicating and “decadent”, warning that it was “time to control the trend of ‘laying flat’ among all guandan players”. Laying flat (tangping in Chinese) is the term given to a social trend among young people who are rejecting high-pressure jobs for an easier lifestyle, which has alarmed authorities.» The effectiveness of the move, though, remains unclear because of the widespread opposition to this governmental criticism of guandan.