Da Ling (打零, “play zeroes”) is, in my opinion, the nicest game of all gambling games. It is also the only gambling game where the casino, or banker, is not involved in the settlement.
Rules
The game is played with a set of 32 tiles. The banker takes two tiles and places them face up on the table – these are the table tiles. You can do without the banker, then simply these two tiles are placed on the table by one of the players. Each player gets six tiles. The maximum number of players is five, in this case, no tiles are left when dealed.
The two tiles of the table define the game. The target points of the game are calculated by module ten rule. When calculating the table points, tiles [4:2] and [2:1] are counted at face value – that is, 6 and 3 points, respectively. If there are four or more red spots on the table, the game is considered “red”, otherwise it is “black”. This is one of the first games where the color of the dots matters.
Players divide their dominoes into three groups – one tile, two tiles and three tiles – trying to make each group have the same number of points as the table. Unlike the table calculation, the [4:2] and [2:1] tiles are wild. Players can decide for themselves how to count them – 3 or 6. The stakes in this game are fixed – for one tile – three chips, for two tiles – seven chips, for three tiles – fifteen.
After all players have divided their dominoes into three parts, all the tiles are revealed and the winner is determined.
First, it is determined whether there is a player who has all three groups corresponding to the target point. Such a player is an absolute winner and he takes all bets.
If there is more than one such player, then each of them counts the number of dots of the color of the game. That is, he counts red dots when playing “red” and black dots when playing “black”. Whoever has more dots of the corresponding color wins.
If there is no absolute winner, then they look for a winner in each group. If there are several winners in the group, then the calculation of the dots of the color of the table is again taken into account. The winner of the group collects all bets for the group (e.g. all the 3 chips stakes if he is a winner of the one-tile group)
Unfortunately, the rules are silent on what to do if, even after counting the colored spots, there are several contenders for victory. In my opinion, the simplest option is – if there is a tie between the absolute winners, then it is considered that there is no absolute winner and it is necessary to look for a winner in each group. If it is impossible to determine a winner in any group, then no one takes bets from this group and the players keep their bets.
Game examples
Let’s say there is [6:6][3:2] on the table – 6 red dots (the dots on the double-six also count), so the game is red, the number of points on the table is 7 (12 + 5 = 17, tens are discarded).
If a player has the following three groups: [4:3], [6:5][5:1] and [1:1][6:3][3:3], then he can be considered the absolute champion, because in each group he has seven points.
If another player has, let’s say: [5:2], [6:6][4:1], [2:2][2:2][5:4], then you have to count the number of red spots (since the game is red ), because both players claim a win. First player has 4+1+1+1 = 7 red dots , second player has 4+1+4+6=15. So the second player won.
Another example. There is [6:5][2:1] on the table – one red dot, the game is “black”, table points – 4 ([2:1] is counted at face value, 11 + 3 = 14, tens are discarded).
Suppose no player has been able to break up his tiles so that there are 4 points in every group. Therefore, the calculation is done by groups.
If one player in the first group has [2:2] and the other has [3:1], then the first player wins because he has more black dots. If two players in the first group have [2:2], then the winner is not determined, no one takes bets.
In the second group, one player has [4:2][6:5] – the player can choose to count [4:2] for three points, then he also has 4 points, as in the table. If someone has [6:6][1:1], then the bets for the second group will still be taken by the first player, because he has more black spots (13 against 6).
In the third group the winner is chosen similarly.
In the classic rules, the banker does not participate in the calculations. There is, however, one detail. If the player is the absolute winner of the round and takes all bets for himself, he is obliged to give the casino one chip (recall that each player bets a total of 25 chips, so the absolute winner in a game of five will receive 100 chips). With this rule, the casino will never lose and can only gain. When this game is played at home game, a winner does not need to give casino anything, since obviously there is none.
Source: Book about games played in Macao
Chinese Dominoes GuPai 