An Example of a Luk Fu Pai Game
Illustrating the most common incidents occuring during play.
A little time is given to the players to sort their cards according to the best possible combinations. The dealer has first call to say whether he will 'Tsoh' or not. This means that if S thinks he can win the game, he will play. If not, he will say 'Um Tsoh' meaning his chances are not too good, so he passes the buck to his right hand player at E. E assesses his cards and says he will Tsoh or Um Tsoh. If he says Um Tsoh, then the buck passes onto the last active player. If likewise he does not think his cards are good, then the whole pack is shuffled again and a new hand is dealt.
First we have a look at the hands that have been dealt.
| CARDS DEALT | Some thoughts from our players | |
|---|---|---|
| N |  .
| North sits opposite the dealer. As the Tsuk Mung person N holds this card without showing it to anyone, until the game has been won by one of the other players. |
| S |
| South is the dealer. S has three red cards, and the choice of whether to use the triple 3 combination, or the 123 Gon combination. Horizontal combinations, of 123 Gon type are generally harder to beat than triple threes combination, however, one must weigh whether the numerical value 123 and Gon suit are suitably high not to be beaten. Judgement can be made looking at the remaning cards that s/he holds. South has the possibility to win with the miniumum six cards, and since he is the dealer, if he says Tsoh, then he can open with whatever card he chooses. This gives him a great advantage in winning. Though the 123 combination is low in value, he convinces himeself to Tsoh, because Gon is a relatively high ranking suit, and he has three Lao Sui red cards. The winning score, will be one for obtaining Luk Fu, then three bonus points for the reds, making a score of 4. |
| E |
| East sits at the dealer's right. E is the next active player. He notes that the only prominent combination that s/he posseses is the Gok See, or All 4's combination. Apart from that, s/he holds two red cards. The LeeTen card, and the 9 Gon card. All the remaining seven cards do not form any combinations. Stuck with five cards, E will have no choice but to say Um Tsoh if and when it comes his way. |
| W |
| West is to the dealer's left. On the whole, West observes that s/he has a rather good set of cards. There is the possibility of the 123 Sip combination being high, because he already holds the 5,6 and 8 Sip so there will not be anything higher to beat this high rank combination. The fives combination looks good, but he doesn't hold a value seven card, so playing a triple five combination will probably be hedging his bets. The 8 and 9 Ten cards are high cards, playable only if he moves towards winning. If and when he is able the onus to Tsoh lands on her/him, s/he will take the opportunity to do so. If West wins, s/he will obtain Bat Fu making three points and two red bonus points, totaling 5 points altogether. |
The game proceeded in the following manner, using the Luk Fu recording shorthand the author has devised.
All cards which have been revealed, that were beaten or not, remain revealed. The cards which have been discarded remain unrevealed. The winner of this round, places his winning cards near to her/himself, either in front, or to one side (usually the left side). The losing cards are placed near to the centre of the table, but unobscured, together with those that have been discarded.
However, Since West now has six winning cards, s/he is asked how many winning cards s/he has, and he reveals two more, the nine and eight of the Ten suit. Since these are Lao Sui in that he is using them in winning, they cannot be beaten.
(Note that the red 8 Sip has not been used. This is because it is not Lao Sui unti the time 9 Sip has been revealed. Since 9 Sip has not been played during this example game, it can NOT be used towards the winning set.)
The cards that West holds are:
As we have said, this makes for 5 points. The person Tsuk Mung, reveals an eight :
and since this matches with one of the eight in the winning cards, North collects one point from each of the losers.
But it was South who said Tsoh, and lost. He in the state of Bao Su, forfeiting the points of two losing parties. East doesn't need to pay out because South is Bao Su. Therefore, the winning player at West recieves 5 points twice from South, and North who Tsuk Mung recieves 1 point twice from South again. In total South has forfeited 12 points, demonstrating the precarious nature of the player who says Tsoh. If it were money that was played for, then that would be 12 units of money from South altogether.