How to Play Guandan (掼蛋)

Guandan, also written Guan Dan (掼蛋), is a Chinese partnership climbing card game. On your turn you either beat the last play or pass, and the first player to empty their hand each deal is the "head". You and your partner share a level — and you race that level up from 2 to Ace, then win at Ace under the endgame rules.

Four players in two teams: you sit across from your partner, with an opponent on each side. The game uses 108 cards — two full decks plus four jokers — dealt 27 to every player. Nothing is left over.

Someone leads any legal combo. Going around the table, each player either beats it with a bigger combo of the same shape (or a bomb) — or passes. When everyone else passes, the trick is cleared and whoever played last leads a fresh combo of their choice.

When you go out, your partner picks up the lead next — so finishing early hands them control. That teamwork is the soul of Guan Dan.

Every deal has a level rank: your team's current level. Those cards get superpowers. The level rank leaps above the Ace (just under the jokers), so a pair of your level cards beats a pair of Aces. And the level card in hearts is wild — it can stand in for any card except a joker.

You can only beat a combo with a bigger one of the same shape — a pair answers a pair, a straight answers a straight. (Bombs are the exception; they're next.) Here are the shapes:

A bomb beats almost anything — any normal combo, and any weaker bomb. They're your trump cards, and the four-joker bomb is the strongest play in the game. Spend them wisely; you rarely get them back.

After each deal your team climbs, based on where your two players finished. The further apart the losers are, the more you climb. You must reach Ace and then win one more deal from there to take the game.

Because the winners lead the next deal, the losers "pay tribute": last place hands their single highest card (never a wild) to the head, who returns a low card in exchange. If the losing side holds both red jokers, tribute is cancelled.