CHA KAU TSZ

Have you ever heard of Cha Kau Tsz? It’s a fantastic game that originated in China and has become popular all over the world. If you love trick-taking games but crave something different, this is the game for you! With its unique combination of cards, special scoring, and a twist on the usual goal, Cha Kau Tsz will keep you on your toes and add some excitement to your game nights!

SETUP

Getting ready to play Cha Kau Tsz is easy! All you need are two standard decks of cards. But don’t worry, we won’t be using all of the cards. Just take out the aces, twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, sevens, eights, and nines from the suits of Clubs, Diamonds, and Hearts. And don’t forget to remove the Jack, Queen, and King from Spades. In the end, your deck will have a total of sixty cards.

So, here’s the deal: first things first, we need to figure out who’s gonna be the dealer and where everyone’s gonna sit. And you know what? The most common way to do this is by drawing cards. Whoever gets the highest card becomes the first dealer and gets to choose their seat. And the person who draws the lowest card, well, they get the last pick.

Now, before we get started, every player gets an equal number of chips. Gotta make it fair, right? Then, it’s time for the dealer to shuffle the cards and deal them out. The number of cards each player gets depends on how many people are playing. If there are only two or three players, they each get 15 cards. But if there are four or five players, they’ll only get 14 cards each.

Alright, we’re all set! The game is about to begin! Get ready for some serious fun!

Now, Let’s Talk About Card Ranking

The cards in the game are ranked from lowest to highest: aces, twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, sevens, eights, and nines. The face cards don’t have a specific rank, but they serve special purposes throughout the game.

GAMEPLAY

I will begin the game since I am sitting to the left of the dealer. After that, we will take turns clockwise around the table. On my turn, I can play any combination of cards from my hand that follows the rules. The next player needs to follow suit and play the same number of cards as I did.

While I can play any cards, it’s better to play combinations because they score more points. The player who plays the highest combination of the leading type wins the trick and takes all the cards played.

When playing this card game, the winner of each trick gets to lead the next one. Once all the cards have been played, the hand is over and scores are calculated. The number of points a player earns is equal to the number of cards they won in the trick. However, all other players will lose points based on the difference between the number of tricks they won and the number won by the player with the most tricks.

The game continues until a player reaches the predetermined number of tricks needed to win.

Types of Card Combinations

Single Card: Any individual card.

Single Court Card: A single face card (king, queen, or jack).

Sequence: Three or more cards of the same suit in consecutive order.

Group: Three or more cards with the same rank, with at least one card from each of the three suits.

Ace Group: Three or more aces.

End of the Game

The end of the game depends on the number of players. If there are two players, the game ends when one player wins 11 tricks. For three players, the game ends at 9 tricks, and for four players, it’s 8 tricks. The first player to reach the required number of tricks wins the game!