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The name means "collecting tens" and it is credited as being the ancestor of Mah Jong. [The justification for this claim is slim. The immediate ancestor of Mah Jong is most likely a game played with money cards, not dominoes. Also, the combinations collected in this game are unlike those of Mah Jong. JM] Kap Tai Shap is like a Rummy game played with Chinese dominoes instead of cards, and pairs instead of triple or quadruple combinations.

The game begins with each player putting an ante into the pot.

The Deal

The games uses several sets of dominoes, depending on the number of players.

The tiles are first arranged in a woodpile, five tiles high. The third stack from the end has one tile removed and placed, still face down, at the other end of the woodpile. From that point backward, the top tile of alternating stacks are removed and added to the end of the woodpile. The result is a saw-toothed wall of stacks that are five, five, four, five, four, five, etc. tiles high.

Dice decide the first player, who then removes the first two stacks, giving him a hand of ten tiles. The other player are then dealt two stacks, giving each of them a hand of nine tiles.

The Play

The goal is to complete your hand. A complete hand has:

1. One pair of identical tiles, from either the civil or military series.
2. Four pairs of tiles, each pair having a total of ten or twenty pips.

   Twenty	Ten
   [6-6] and [6-2] [6-6] and [5-3] [6-6] and [4-4] [6-4] and [6-4] [5-5] and [5-5]	[6-2] and [1-1] [5-3] and [1-1] [5-2] and [2-1] [4-4] and [1-1] [4-2] and [3-1] [4-2] and [2-2] [3-4] and [2-1] [3-3] and [3-1] [3-3] and [2-2]

If the first player was dealt a winning hand, he declares victory. If he was not dealt a winning hand, he discards one tile face up on the table. This is why he was dealt one more tile

In turn each player can:

1. Pick up a discard from the table and put it in his hand. If this tile completes his hand, he wins; otherwise he discards one of his own tiles.
2. Draw a tile from the woodpile. If this tile completes his hand, he wins; otherwise he discards the drawn tile immediately.

The game continues until a player announces that he has completed his hand and he collects the pot.