Shi Wu Hu

The game Shi Wu Hu (十五湖) – “Fifteen Lakes” is very similar to the game Tiu-U (please read the rules of Tiu-U first if you haven’t done so already)

It is played with a special set of paper domino cards, in which there are four pieces of each domino card, for a total of 84 domino cards. In Europe, domino cards do not exist, but in China it is a common phenomenon. These cards are very elongated and they picture a domino tile they card corresponds to. Since there are four of each domino cards, the usual disproportion between civilian and military tiles no longer exists. There are four of each of them. At the end, I will give a version of a game adapted to the two decks of Chinese dominoes.

The deck, which is called “Shi Wu Hu” itself, is used to play one trick taking game, where you have to take fifteen tricks – hence the name of the deck. But the fishing game is played with the same deck, so there may be some name confusion.

Paper domino cards

Two or three players play. 30 cards are dealt equally between the players, 30 remain in the deck, 24 cards are laid out face up on the table – this is the “lake”. In the future, the game continues according to the same rules as in the Tiu-U game with the following differences:

• cards of the supreme pair cannot capture each other (i.e. no exceptions for [2:1])
• [5:5] and [6:4] cannot catch each other despite both having ten points (this is due to the scoring method – tens can bring bonuses)
• three identical cards can be caught by the fourth only if these cards can be caught only by themselves, that is, this particular rule only works for [1:1], [2:1], [6:4], [5:5], [6:5], [6:6] – all of them can be caught only with an identical card and no other.

Scoring is more complicated than in Tiu-U, but more balanced. Therefore, the catch is divided into three types – small, medium and large fish. It is worth recalling the mixed pairs from the game Tien Gow in order to better understand the logic of scoring points.

• If the catch contains a Sky tile ([6:6]) and both nines (i.e., both [6:3] and [5:4]), then all tiles with such values are counted as big fish, otherwise – as small
• If the catch contains both tiles from the supreme pair (that is, both [4:2] and [2:1]), then all such tiles count as a large fish, otherwise – as a small fish.
• If there are all four elevens in the catch (that is, four tiles of [6:5]), then it is called a Quarter (more precisely, a Jun – 鈞, an ancient measure of weight, close to imperial quarter) and they all count as a big fish, if if they are less, then they are count as small fish.
• The same rule as the previous one applies to two more tiles: [5:5] and [6:4].
• Middle fish are only tiles Earth-Eight ([1:1], [5:3], [6:2]), Man-Seven ([4:4], [5:2], [4:3]) and Harmony-Five ([3:1], [3:2], [4:1]) – under the same conditions as the Sky-Nine tiles. That is, all three tiles from the group must be present in order for all of them to count as middle fish.
• All other tiles count as small fish.
• Large fish count for 30 points, medium fish for 20, and small fish for 10.

In addition, there are bonus points:

• If a person collects all 12 tiles from the Sky-Nine group, then he gets another 300 points.
• If a person has collected all Quarters (that is, 3 sets of four tiles of elevens and two types of tens), then he is awarded another 300 points.
• If a person has collected all 8 tiles from the Supreme pair, then he gets another 300 points.

Note that in all cases of the middle fish, as in the Sky-Nine group, the grouping of tiles follows the same principle as the mixed pairs in the Tien Gow game. But since in the game Fifteen Lakes there are four copies of each tile, the maximum number of tiles in a group is 12, four civilian [6:6] and four each military [5:4] and [6:3]. And in order for them to count as large/medium fish, one civilian and two different military must be present. This rule is called: one-civilian-two-military.

Settlements are one-to-one, just like in Jie Long. That is, players pay each other the difference in points. There is one nuance – if a player has scored 1000 points or more, and the other player has not, then the difference in points between them is doubled.

In fact, this same game can be played with two standard sets of Chinese dominoes, just like the Tiu-U. After all, finding a set of Chinese domino cards on our territory is even more difficult than Chinese dominoes. But since in this case there will be two times less military tiles, it is worth introducing the following changes:

• For mixed civil-military groups, remove the restriction of one-civilian-two-military, and instead introduce one-civilian-one-military. That is, now only one type of military tile is enough to count all the tiles from the group as large (or medium) fish.
• Bonus 300 points to pay for a set of eight (not twelve) Sky-Nine tiles (which is logical, since there are no more)
• Reduce the bonus for all tiles of the Supreme Pair to 100, because there are only four of them and it is much easier to collect them.
• Dealing is the same as in Tiu-U – 24 tiles to the players, 24 in the deck, 16 face up on the table.

All other rules remain unchanged. This is only my suggestion for rule changes, but they are very much in the spirit of the original game. And one-civilian-one-military restrictions are sometimes introduced even when playing with the original deck.

An example of a calculation for a game adapted for two sets of Chinese dominoes:

Example of a Catch in Shi Wu Hu

• In the photo, the group of [6:6], [5:4] and [6:3] all count as big fish because both tiles are present. Total 30×6=180.
• A group of [4:4] and [4:3] are considered medium fish, since there is a “man” and a “seven” in the group. Total 20×3=60. In the version with domino cards, these tiles would count as small fish, since one more seven is missing [5:2].
• The tile [6:1] helped to catch [4:3], but this does not make it a middle fish – it is small, plus 10 points.
• A set of four [6:5] counts as a big fish. 30×4=120.
• A set of two [5:5] counts as a small fish, since there are only two of these tens, not four. So another 10×2 = 20 points.
• Sixes [3:3][5:1] count as small fish, another 10×2=20 points.
• The catch contains both tiles from the supreme pair, so they all count as big fish. Total 4×30=120 points. In addition, there is a bonus for the fact that all of them are collected +100 points.
• Four Earth tiles don’t count as a middle fish because the eight is missing, there should have been either [6:2] or [5:3] (or both if playing with cards) to count as middle, thus they count as small 10×4=40.

Total 180+60+10+120+20+20+120+100+40=670 points.

Sources

Description of an original game in Chinese: https://aloneinthefart.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post_05.html

Description of a Trick taking game on Pagat, in case you’re interested