Welcome to Sampan!
Sampan is a super easy game that anyone can play, no matter how old you are. It all started in China and was mainly played at children’s parties, but I assure you, it’s a blast for everyone! The goal of this game is simple: get rid of all your cards before anyone else does. If you manage to do that first, you’re the winner!
Let’s Get Set Up
Before we dive into the game, we need to make sure we set everything up correctly. Don’t worry, it’s super simple! First, we need to separate the decks. Take out the Jack, Queen, and King of Spades from both decks, as well as the ace through nine of Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds from both decks. Now, you should have a total of sixty cards.
When it’s time to play a game, the number of cards you get depends on how many people are playing. If there are two or three players, each person gets fifteen cards. Four players means thirteen cards each. When there are five players, you get eleven cards. With six players, you get nine cards. And if there are seven or eight players, you’ll receive seven cards.
Now, let’s get the game started!
How to Play
The dealer begins by giving each player one card at a time, facing down. The remaining cards are put face down in the middle to make the stock pile. The top card from the stock pile is turned face up and placed next to it.
If any of us players have the exact same card as the one that’s just been revealed, we’ve got to play that card right away on top of the discard pile. Once we’ve all played our same cards, we can then play another card from our hand. If any of us have that exact same card, we’ve got to play it, too, and then choose a random card from our hand to play.
We keep playing like this until one of us has played all the cards in our hand or there aren’t any more cards left to play. Then the game will be over and we’ll have a winner.
END OF GAME
The game ends when one of us has played all the cards or there aren’t any more cards to play. If someone is the first to play all their cards, they win! In the second case, the winner is the player with the fewest cards left in their hand.