''Zi pai'' (; also ''pao fu zi'' or ''pao hu zhi'' [] in different dialects) are Chinese playing cards that are popular mainly in the southern part of Mainland China, especially in Hunan and Sichuan. It is also known as .

Description

These cards originated from

Leshan Leshan, formerly known as Jiading or Jiazhou, is a prefecture-level city located at the confluence of the Dadu and Min rivers in Sichuan Province, China. Leshan is located on the southwestern fringe of the Sichuan Basin in southern Sichuan, abou ...

, Sichuan during the middle of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

and then spread outwards to other parts of southern China. The special deck has two series of cards numbered from one to ten. One series of cards features numbers written in an "ordinary" style (), while the other series of cards has numbers written in a "formal" style (). Every card is quadrupled to bring the total to 80 cards. Numbers 2, 7 and 10 are printed in red, and all others are printed in black. Some decks may have extra cards that act as

wild cards ''Wild Cards'' is a series of science fiction superhero shared universe anthologies, mosaic novels, and solo novels. They are written by a collection of more than forty authors (referred to as the "Wild Cards Trust") and are edited by George R. ...

2-7-10

2-7-10 () is the standard game played with these cards. It is a draw-and-discard type game like

Mahjong Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-play ...

and

Rummy Rummy is a group of matching-card games notable for similar gameplay based on matching cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit. The basic goal in any form of rummy is to build '' melds'' which can be either sets (three or four of a k ...

. Usually there are only three players in each game. The winner is the player who reaches 18 points first. Suits — There are two suits: big and small () differentiated by both colours and their characters/patterns. The big suit is red and the small suit is black. The cards belonging to the big suit always carry three points more than those of the small suit if the meld (see below) carries points at all. Melds — When a player discards a card, any other player may "call" for it in order to complete a meld (a certain set of three or four cards) in their own hands. When a meld is declared through a discard, the player must state the type of meld to be declared and place the meld face up. The player must then discard a card (with the exception that they are making the second meld of four of a kind), and play continues to the left. The disadvantage of doing this is that the player must now expose the completed meld to the other players, giving them information on the availability of cards left in the deck. * Duì () meaning ''to make use of a pair'') — A ''Duì'' is a set of three identical cards. If a ''duì'' is made by calling a card, a big ''duì'' carries three points whilst a small ''dui'' carries one point. If it is made in a player's hand during the initial drawing, then they carry six and three points respectively. * Kāi () — A ''Kāi'' is a set of four identical cards. A ''kāi'' in the big suit carries nine points and six points in the small suit if exposed; or they both gain three extra points for being concealed in a player's hand. If a player is forming a second set of ''kāi'' all cards (both concealed in their hands and exposed on the table) considered, they should not discard any cards for that particular turn or they will not be able to win the game. * Chī () — A ''Chī'' is a meld of three suited tiles in sequence or any three cards of the same number. They do not carry any points unless they are formed by the numbers two, seven and ten. When a ''chī'' is formed by calling, any melds that contains the card being called need to be exposed to other players as well. * 2-7-10 The meld 2-7-10 is a special type of ''chī'' which can only be formed if they are of the same suit. A black or small 2-7-10 carries three points when exposed, and six if not; a red or big set carries six or nine points depending on its visibility to other players. * Jiang () — The pair, while not a meld (and thus cannot be declared or formed with a discard, except if completing the pair completes the hand), is the final component to the standard hand. It consists of any two identical cards. Gameplay — The game starts by a chosen player (if the first game) or the winner (of the previous game) drawing the first two cards. Each player then draws two cards until the lead has 20 cards in their hand and announces the end of the drawing phase by drawing one last card and discarding the first card. So each player has 20 cards to start with.

References

External links

Character Cards And Related Patterns
on Andy's Playing Cards {{Playing card packs by geography Chinese card games Rummy

Description

2-7-10

See also

References

External links