Dou Dizhu (斗地主, "fight the landlord") is a three-player shedding game for one 54-card deck, jokers included. A short auction picks one player to be the landlord, who plays alone with 20 cards against two farmers holding 17 each, and the first side to get rid of its cards wins the deal. The two other seats here are computer players, so in one deal you may be the landlord facing both of them and in the next a farmer sharing the result with one of them.
Everyone is dealt 17 cards. The last three stay face down in the middle as the bottom cards (底牌 dǐpái, sometimes called the kitty). Then the seats bid for landlord, which players call 叫地主 (jiào dìzhǔ, "calling the landlord"):
The ranks climb from the 3 at the bottom through 10, J, Q, K and A to the 2, with the black joker and then the red joker above everything. Suits play no part at all, so a 9♠ and a 9♥ are the same card for every purpose.
The leader may put down any legal combination. Each player after that can answer with the same kind of combination, the same number of cards and a higher main rank, drop a bomb or the rocket, or pass. Once the other two have both passed, the cards in the middle are cleared and whoever played last leads anything they like. Passing is never allowed while you hold the lead. The deal stops the moment someone plays their final card, so the landlord wins alone, and either farmer going out wins for both farmers.
No. Bidding here is the classic points auction, where each player gets one turn to bid 1, 2 or 3 or to pass, a bid of 3 ends it at once, and if all three pass the cards are reshuffled and dealt again. Rob-the-landlord bidding, 抢地主 qiǎng dìzhǔ, the usual system in many Chinese apps, is a separate ruleset and is not mixed in.
| Combination | Chinese name | Example | What it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single | 单张 dānzhāng | 7 | Any one card, a joker included |
| Pair | 对子 duìzi | 9 9 | Two cards of one rank |
| Triple | 三张 sānzhāng | J J J | Three cards of one rank |
| Triple with one | 三带一 sān dài yī ("three carry one") | K K K 4 | A triple plus any single of another rank |
| Triple with a pair | 三带二 sān dài èr | K K K 5 5 | A triple plus a pair |
| Straight | 顺子 shùnzi | 3 4 5 6 7 | Five or more ranks in a row; the highest possible is 10 J Q K A, and longer ones run up to 12 cards |
| Pair run | 连对 liánduì | 3 3 4 4 5 5 | Three or more pairs of consecutive ranks |
| Airplane | 飞机 fēijī | 3 3 3 4 4 4 | Two or more triples of consecutive ranks |
| Airplane with wings | 飞机带翅膀 | 3 3 3 4 4 4 7 9 or 3 3 3 4 4 4 7 7 9 9 | One extra single for each triple, or one extra pair for each triple |
| Four with two | 四带二 sì dài èr | 8 8 8 8 3 5 or 8 8 8 8 3 3 5 5 | Four of a rank carrying two singles or two pairs |
| Bomb | 炸弹 zhàdàn | 6 6 6 6 | Four of a rank played on their own |
| Rocket | 王炸 wángzhà ("king bomb") | black joker + red joker | Beats every other play |
A few limits catch people out in their first games:
J Q K A 2 is not a legal play.3 4 5 6 7, and only a higher five-card straight, a bomb or the rocket can.9 9 9 4 4 does not beat 8 8 8 3.3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 carries a 5 and a 5), and a 2 is fine as a wing. The wings may not be the two jokers, and they may not be four cards of one rank.A bomb beats any ordinary combination, whatever its length, and a higher bomb beats a lower one (7 7 7 7 over 6 6 6 6). The rocket beats every bomb, 2 2 2 2 included, and nothing can be played on top of it.
The deal's score starts from the winning bid, 1, 2 or 3, and doubles for each of these:
Each farmer settles with the landlord on their own, and the landlord collects or pays both amounts. With a bid of 3 and one bomb played, a landlord win costs each farmer 6 and earns the landlord 12. With a bid of 2, one farmer doubling and the landlord redoubling, a farmer win pays the doubling farmer 8 and the other farmer 2, and the landlord loses 10.
High cards alone do not make a landlord hand. What matters is how many separate plays it will take to empty your hand, and how many cards you have that can take the lead back. Take this 17-card hand:
3 4 5 6 7 · 9 9 10 10 J J · Q Q Q 5 · 2 · red joker
It goes out in five plays, with a straight, a pair run, a triple with one, and two singles, the 2 and the joker, that can win back the lead. Compare a hand with both jokers and two 2s but six or seven unconnected low cards. In that hand every loose single is another play, and each one led hands the lead to someone else.
Bids are information. A player who bid 2 and was outbid by 3 probably holds a decent hand, and after the auction everyone sees which three bottom cards went to the landlord.
You face two hands that can pass the lead back and forth between them, so the landlord wants plays they struggle to follow. Long straights, pair runs and airplanes are hard to answer with exactly the same length, so lead them while the farmers still hold scattered cards. Keep a 2, a joker or a bomb for the end, and plan your last two plays so the final one is something nobody can beat. A bomb doubles the stake whether you win or lose, so spend it to take a lead you need, not to win a round that changes nothing.
Your partner going out is a win for you as well. If your partner's cards are on top and the landlord still holds plenty, passing usually does more than overtaking. The farmer seated just before the landlord has a special job, because the landlord must answer that farmer's plays directly, so higher singles and pairs from that seat force the landlord to spend a 2 or a joker or give up the lead. When your partner is down to one or two cards, lead the shape they can follow, a low single or a low pair, not a straight they cannot answer.
When the landlord has one card left, lead pairs or longer combinations rather than singles you cannot be sure are the highest, while at two cards a pair may be their way out, so a single is usually the safer lead.
Once bidding is over, the counter button on the table (labelled Count) opens a strip showing how many of each rank are still unseen, meaning not in your hand and not yet played. If it shows no jokers and no 2s left, an Ace is the highest single anyone else can hold. A rank with all four cards unseen is marked, because those four may be sitting together as a bomb, and both jokers are marked while the rocket is still possible.
Dou Dizhu, or Fight the Landlord, is China's classic three-player climbing game: one landlord races two cooperating farmers through combinations, bombs, and the rocket.
Play Dou Dizhu (Fight the Landlord) free against adjustable AI in your browser. No download or account.
Preparing