Winner (card game)

Winner (Chinese: 争上游; pinyin: Zheng Shangyou) is a card game similar to the game President, the game Big Two, and other shedding games. It is the game from which Tien Len and other similar games are derived.

The game uses a standard 52-card deck, with thirteen cards in four suits. Diamond is the lowest suit, followed by clubs, then hearts, then spade. Like Big Two, twos rank high, and the rest of the deck ranks as usual: aces above kings, kings above queens, and so on, with threes being the lowest. The Jokers are the highest singles, and the red joker ranks higher than the black joker. Two decks may be used for four or more players.

Cards may be played as singles, pairs, three of a kind, full house, four of a kind, straights (3 or more in a row), straight flushes (3 or more in a row of the same suit), pair straights, and three of a kind straights. The leading card to a trick sets down the type of play. The combinations and their rankings are as follows.

The dealer (who may be chosen by cutting the cards, as usual) shuffles the deck to begin with and begins dealing out the cards singly, starting with himself, in a clockwise manner around the table. The cards are dealt out entirely. In a three player version of the game, the dealer ends up with one more card than the other two players.

At the beginning of the first game, the player with the 3 of diamonds starts. The three of diamonds does not need to be played in the first play. Play proceeds clockwise, with normal climbing-game rules applying: each player must play a higher card or combination than the one before, with the same number of cards. Players may also pass, thus declaring that he does not want to play (or does not hold the necessary cards to make a play possible). A pass does not hinder any further play in the game, each being independent.

When all but one of the players have passed in succession the trick is over, and the cards are gathered up and a new trick is started by the last player to play. When a player plays the 2 of spades either as a singleton or as part of a pair of 2s, it is often customary for that player to restart play immediately by leading a new card or combination, since the 2 of spades cannot be beaten whether as a singleton or as part of a pair of 2s, and the passes are mere formalities.

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Wikipedia