牌九 - How I was taught...

[Tuesday]

牌九

Pretty much this is a game of Chinese dominos and you get 4 tiles and out of those 4 tiles you make 2 groups of 2 - which is the head and tail of your hand, the dots on your tiles determine the rank of your hand.





The tiles above are arranged in the top ranking groups of 2 to the lowest...

The best ranks are pairs or two of a kind same tile called 寶 or Treasures...

Next groups of twos in rank are 王 or Kings which consist of one Heaven天 tile and a 8 or 9 tile...

Next groups of twos are the 崗 or Sentries which consist of one Earth地 tile and a 8 or 9 tile...

Next groups of twos are the groups of 2 tiles that face values add up to a sum of 9 all the way down to a sum of 0...

So pretty much you arrange your tiles into your 2 groups of 2 tiles and the group of 2 tiles that ranks lower is your head and the other group left is your tail...compare your head against the heads of others and compare your tail to the tails of others...if you win both head and tail in comparison to others you win...lose both you lose...win or lose only the head/tail alone is a push...

I've heard and read lots of stories and gossip about why this ancient Chinese game got invented...and many of the stories are pretty dumb sounding...but I'll share the one that I was taught and which I think makes most sense...

 

[Tuesday]

So the story I learned was that this game was created to help remind people what is most important...most important in life and death I guess...so I'll start ranking everything starting with the most important things and go down from there:

1. HONOUR至尊

Honour is the most important thing to Chinese more important than life and death and Heaven and Earth etc...for Confucian Chinese FACE is above everything...FACE is Virtue...FACE is Honour...FACE is Respect...each of these tiles can be counted as 3 or 6 they are interchangeable nevermind how many dots you see...when the HONOUR至尊 tiles are together and complete/complement each other like Ying and Yang they are the most powerful and highest ranked...but broken up and separated as single tiles each tile is the weakest and lowest ranked...this is a metaphor for HONOUR至尊 as whole/intact/uncompromised compared to being unwhole/damaged/compromised...




2. HEAVEN天

Only thing less important than Honour is Heaven...The Heavens...Magic...Mysticism...Myths...The Cosmos...The Spiritual Realm...The Legendary Universe...these tiles count as 12 the highest count of all tiles...



3. EARTH地

Less important than Heaven is of course Earth...The Real World...The Historical Universe...The Physical Realm...these tiles count as 2 the lowest count of all tiles...

 

[Tuesday]

4. HUMAN人

Less important than Earth are Humans...Humanity...Mankind...The Human Race...The Realm of Humans...The Lives of Humans...these tiles count as 8 not the highest not the lowest but somewhere in the upper middle of the count...




5. GOOSE鵝

Less important than Humans is Goose or the animal kingdom...The Fauna...the lives of creatures other than humans...these tiles count as 4 and are the 3rd lowest count...the tiles resemble the webbed feet of geese with 3 toes etc...




6. PLUM梅

Less important than Goose is Plum or the Flora...The Botanical Kingdom...the tiles count as 10 and the two 5 dot patterns resemble plum flowers...




7. CHEONG SAAM SIX長衫六

Next in importance is Cheong Saam or long clothing...a gown...one of the necessities of life are clothing and food is covered in the above tiles...these tiles count as 6 and resemble the shape of a long gown for girls since the hips are wide...




8. BENCH板橙

Next in importance after the necessities of life of food and clothing is housing which is represented by a Wooden Bench which can represent housing furniture etc...the tiles are counted as 4 and resemble the 4 legs of The Wooden Bench...

 

[Tuesday]

9. AXE斧頭

After the necessaries of life Weapons and Offensive Tools and Items are next in importance represented by an Axe...these tiles count as 11 and the dots resemble an axe and axe handle with a sharp axehead...




10. HAMMER平頭

Less important than Offensive Weapons and Tools are Defensive Tools and Items such as a HAMMER and other things to mm build things to defend against the elements etc...this is represented as a HAMMER and the dots show a handle with flat Hammerhead...




11. TALL LEG SEVEN高腳七

Next in importance is growing up tall big and strong...represented by the TALL LEG SEVEN tiles...these tiles count as 7 as look like a leg with the red dot being a foot...




12. HAPPY GO LUCKY SIX拎冧六

Less important than Big Strong and Sturdy is being Happy Go Lucky...represented here with the Happy Go Lucky Six...these tiles count as 6 as resemble a happy face with a red dot for a mouth...




13. MIXED NINES雜九

Next are Military Ranks starting with the highest number with is 9...the tiles count as 9 too...

 

[Tuesday]

14. MIXED EIGHTS雜八

These tiles just count as 8...




15. MIXED SEVENS雜七

Count them same as their face value...




16. MIXED FIVES雜五

Count them face value...

 

[Tuesday]

So all the above pairs of tiles are The Treasures寶 and are not interchangeable with any other tiles in order to keep the highest Treasures寶 rankings...the Mixed Treasures are Military Ranks and the rest are Civilian Ranks in this game or in Mythical Chinese Imperial Courts of the Gods...next moving down in order of highest ranking hands are the groups of two tiles called King王 and Sentry崗...to make these hands you have to use one Heaven天 or Earth地 tile and either a 9 count tile or a 8 count tile...if you use a 9 count tile it will rank as a King王...if you use a 8 count tile it will rank as a Sentry崗...Obviously King王 ranks above Sentry崗...

After the above special hands it's just the same as Baccarat pretty much just add up the face value of any two tiles and the digit on the right of your added face values are your rank which will be anywhere from 0 to 9...remember that the Honour至尊 tiles are the only tiles that can change face value counts to 3 or 6 you choose the value...

In summary there are no ties in ranks of single tiles not for groups of two tiles...here are the single tile ranks and rankings of pairs as well as how to pronounce the Chinese names: