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• Introduction
• Players, Cards and Deal
• Playing
• Scoring
• Red Frog Black Frog

Introduction

This game is certainly of Oriental origin, and in fact is very similar to the Thai game Red Frog Black Frog (Gob Dum Gob Dang - กบดำกบแดง). The playing process whereby a card is flipped from the face-down deck after each play from a player's hand is characteristic of Oriental fishing games.

The description below is based with permission on the description by Jen Minute (Bullock) formerly available on the page http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/niferbee/frames/Cards/chinese.htm which unfortunately disappeared around the end of 2001, along with the whole of her 'House of Cards' site.

Players, Cards and Deal

The game is played with a standard 52-card pack. The number of cards dealt to players varies depending on how many are playing. For a game with two players, each player gets twelve cards. For a game with three players, each player gets eight cards. For a game with four players, each player gets six cards. It is easy to remember how many get dealt to each player by simply dividing 24 by the number of people who are playing (i.e. 24 divided by 2 = 12, each player gets 12 cards).

After all the cards have been dealt, four cards are turned over face up from the remaining deck and placed in a layout like this:

The layout isn't that important, if you want your own setup, go right on ahead... (Just as long as you begin the game four cards out and the remaining deck on the table.)

Playing

The object of the play is to capture cards from the layout. A numeral card from Ace (1) to Nine captures another numeral card if their values add up to exactly ten - so for example Ace captures Nine, Nine captures Ace, Three captures Seven, a Five captures another Five, and so on. Tens and picture cards can only capture another card of the same rank: Ten captures Ten, Queen captures Queen, and so on. Suits don't matter for the purpose of capturing.

At your turn you play one card from your hand. If it captures a card from the layout, you take both cards and place them face down in front of you in your pile of won cards; if not you leave it face up as a new layout card. Whether you captured or not, you next flip the top card of the face down deck face up. If this captures a card from the layout you take both cards; if not it remains in the layout. After you have played one card and flipped one card, whether you captured or not, the turn passes to the next player.

Note that each card played or turned up can only capture one card from the layout. If the initial layout is 3-3-6-Q and you play a Seven, you can only capture one of the Threes from the layout (3+7=10). If you play an Ace you do not capture anything (you cannot use 1+3+6=10 to capture two cards at once).

Note also that although the layout always begins with four cards, during the game there may often be more or fewer than four cards in the layout.

For another example, look at the following initial layout with the Jack of hearts, Ace of hearts, Six of clubs, and Two of hearts.

To make a move on a turn (with this layout), a player would need to play (out of his hand) a Jack (on the Jack), a Nine (on the Ace), a Four (on the Six), or an Eight (on the Two). Suppose he plays a Jack. He takes the pair of Jacks and stacks them face down in front of him (for later evaluation). He next flips over the top card from the deck and places it face up on the table. Suppose it's the Six of spades. This does not capture anything. It is now the next player's turn and the new layout is:

If, after capturing the Jack, the player had flipped a Four, capturing the Six from the table, then only two layout cards would remain for the beginning of the next player's turn:

If the rules are followed correctly, then you should finish with no cards in any player's hand, no cards in the face-down deck and no cards in the layout - on the final play, the last card from the deck will always capture the last card from the layout.

Note: since tens and picture cards can only capture another card of the same rank, there is a problem if the initial layout contains three or four of these cards of the same rank, since then there are cards in the layout that can never be captured. Jen's original description does not mention this case. I suggest that if the initial layout has three or four of a kind of 10's, J's, Q's or K's (for example three tens or four queens), the cards are gathered up and shuffled and the same dealer deals again.

Scoring

At the end of the game, each player should have a stack of cards next to him. When there are two players, only the red cards have a value; when there are three players, the Ace of spades also scores; when there are four players the red cards and both black Aces score. Black cards other than Aces are always worthless. The point values of the cards are as follows:

The tie score is

• 105 points in a two-player game
• 80 points in a three-player game
• 70 points in a four-player game.

The difference of your score from the "tie score" is the amount you win or lose by. If your score is exactly the tie score you have neithewr won nor lost.

Example of scoring:

Let's suppose a person had the following red cards in a two-player game:

K, Q, 9, 6, 7, 3, 4, 5, 5, and an Ace of Hearts.

The points would add up as follows:

10 + 10 + 10 + 6 + 7 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 20 = 90.

This player has lost by 15 points (105 - 90 = 15), and the other player should have 120 points, winning by 15 (because 120 - 105 = 15).

Red Frog Black Frog (Gob Dum Gob Dang - กบดำกบแดง)

This Thai game, described to me by Kantaphon Tongmee, is played the same way as Chinese Ten, but the scoring is somewhat different.

• Red cards are always worthless.
• Black cards 2-9 are worth face value.
• Black 10-J-Q-K are worth 10 points each.
• The Ace of Clubs is worthless.
• The Ace of Spades is worth 50 points.