Gan Deng Yan

China’s quick climbing game. Beat each play exactly one rank higher, jokers are wild, and when nobody can, everyone draws. 2–6 players.

Also known as Gan Dengyan and Staring Blankly.

Game ends at

points

Who To Play With

or

How to play Gan Deng Yan

  1. 1Two to six players, one deck with both jokers. Cards rank from 3 (low) up through K and A, and 2s are on top. Suits never matter.
  2. 2Everyone gets five cards, except the starter, who gets six and leads. The first starter is picked at random; after that, whoever won the last deal starts.
  3. 3A play is a single, a pair, a run of three or more ranks in a row, or two or more pairs in a row (like 6 6 7 7). Runs stop at the Ace: no 2s in them. Three or more of a kind is a bomb, and both jokers together are the biggest bomb.
  4. 4To beat a play, match its kind and size exactly one rank higher: a 7 on a 6 (not an 8), or 8 9 10 on 7 8 9. A 2 beats any single, a pair of 2s beats any pair, and only a bomb beats those. A bomb beats any play; a bigger bomb (more cards, or as many and higher) beats a bomb.
  5. 5Jokers are wild: a joker stands in for any card in a pair, run or bomb, but can’t be played alone (except as your last card, when it counts as a 2). When the cards could read more than one way, they make the strongest play they can.
  6. 6You may pass whenever you like, unless you’re leading. When everyone else passes, the cards are cleared, each player draws one card from the stock (starting with whoever played last), and that player leads anything.
  7. 7The first player out wins the deal. Everyone else takes a penalty point for each card left, doubled if they never played a card that deal, and doubled for each bomb played (bombs at most quadruple it). The game ends after a deal that takes anyone to the target (50 points unless the host picks another), and the lowest score wins.

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