Complete Tractor (Sheng Ji) Rules
Start with what a turn allows and how the game is won.
- Players and deck
- 4 fixed partners · two 54-card decks, 108 cards
- Hand and kitty
- 25 cards each · 8-card kitty · counter-clockwise
- Point cards
- 5s score 5, 10s and kings score 10 · 200 in all
What Is a Tractor in the Card Game?
A tractor is two or more pairs that are adjacent in rank inside one suit — a pair is two identical cards, not two cards of the same rank in different suits. Adjacency follows the hand's own order, so at level 4 the pair of 3s with the pair of 5s is a tractor, and among trumps the level pair of the trump suit chains with another level pair, the black-joker pair with the trump-suit level pair, and the two joker pairs with each other. When a tractor is led, a follower holding one of that length must answer with it.
How Many Points Do You Need to Win a Hand of Tractor?
Eighty of the 200 points in the deck: every 5 scores 5, every 10 and every king scores 10. Only the points the attacking side takes in tricks count; the same cards taken by the dealer side count for nobody. Reaching 80 takes over the deal, and larger totals raise the attackers' level as well.
Is Tractor the Same Game as Shengji or 80 Points?
Yes. Tractor, Shengji (升级), Sheng Ji, Eighty Points, 80 points, 双升 and Tuo La Ji all name the same Chinese point-trick family, whose defining feature is a level card that remakes the trump order every hand. The rules on this page are the four-player two-deck version that 80 points usually means; Finding Friends (找朋友) and the three- and four-deck games are relatives, not the game played here.
- The dealer side's level names the level rank for the hand. Trumps rank: red joker, black joker, the level card of the trump suit, the other three level cards (all equal — the first played wins), then the trump suit from ace down to 2. Jokers and every level card stop belonging to their printed suit and become trumps. The other three suits are side suits, ace high, with the level rank left out of their order.
- Cards are dealt in five batches of five. After each batch a player holding a level card may declare trump: showing one level card names its suit; a pair of identical level cards overturns someone else's single; a pair of identical jokers declares no trump and overturns anything, a pair included. A declarer who draws the twin of the shown card may add it, after which no pair can overturn it. You cannot overturn yourself, but your partner can.
- The first hand has no dealer: whoever ends up naming trump deals, so overturning also takes the deal, and a first hand nobody declares in is dealt again. From the second hand on the dealer is known and declaring only sets trump; if nobody declares, the top kitty card is turned up and its suit is trump, or no trump if it is a joker. In a no-trump hand the only trumps are the jokers and the four level cards.
- Once trump is fixed the dealer picks up the eight kitty cards, buries any eight of the 33, and leads first. Only the dealer can see the kitty until the hand is settled.
- Four kinds of lead exista single; a pair, which means two identical cards; a tractor, two or more pairs adjacent in rank within one suit; and a throw, several singles, pairs and tractors of one suit played together. Adjacency follows the order above: at level 4, 3-3-5-5 is a tractor, and so are the trump-suit level pair with any other level pair, the black-joker pair with the trump-suit level pair, and the two joker pairs. Two level pairs of different side suits are equal, not adjacent.
- You must follow suit. When a pair is led you must play a pair if you hold one. When a tractor is led you must answer with a tractor of that length if you hold one; otherwise play as many pairs as you can, then singles of the suit. With too few cards of the suit, play them all and add anything.
- Void in the suit led, you may ruff — but only with all trumps, the same number of cards and the same structure: a trump pair against a pair, a trump tractor against a tractor. Anything else is a discard. When two players ruff, the highest structure decides: tractors if the lead held one, otherwise pairs, otherwise the top single; equal strength goes to whoever played first.
- The strongest play takes the trick and leads the next. Fives, tens and kings taken by the attackers count for them; those taken by the dealer side count for nobody. The hand is settled when the cards run out.
How to Play Tractor (Sheng Ji): Your First Game
Use this order of thought to get through a complete game quickly.
- Look at the top-left of the table first: it shows the level and the trump suit. Every card marked ★ in your hand is a trump; they are sorted to the front whatever suit is printed on them.
- To lead, tap cards of one suit and press Play. Singles and pairs are enough at first; if you hold a side-suit ace, cash it while the others still have that suit.
- When following, read the line above your hand: it says how many cards, which suit, and whether a pair is owed. Cards that cannot be part of a legal play will not lift, and Play appears only once your selection is complete.
- When your partner is winning the trick, give them tens, kings and fives; when an opponent is winning, throw worthless low cards. Each point card the attackers take moves the Pts counter towards 80.
- As dealer, bury low side-suit cards without points, ideally emptying one suit so you can ruff it later. Keep tens and kings out of the kitty unless you are sure of the last trick.
Tractor (Sheng Ji) Strategy
Move from knowing the rules to playing with a plan.
- Declare on suit length, not on merely holding a level card. With ten cards dealt, four or more in a suit is a sound reason; a lone level card in a short suit just hands the opponents a trump suit you cannot fight.
- Pairs and tractors are what win the lead. If a pair is led and you hold none, two singles can never win the trick — so keeping a pair is usually worth more than splitting it for one extra winner.
- Throw only when nothing bigger is left outside: the ace and high pairs of that suit have been played or sit in your own hand. A failed throw costs no points, but everyone sees the cards you tried to throw and only the smallest beaten part is played.
- Attackers should plan for the last trick. If they win it, the kitty's points are multiplied by twice the number of cards led to it — 2 for a single, 4 for a pair, 8 for a two-pair tractor. A high trump pair saved for the end is often worth more than one more trick in the middle.
- The dealer side wants the opposite: do not run out of trumps early, bury few points, and keep count of the trumps the attackers still hold.
Tractor (Sheng Ji) Winning and Special Rules
Details that are easy to miss but can change the result.
- Levels by the attackers' points: 0, dealer side +3; 5–35, +2; 40–75, +1; 80–115, the attackers take the deal with no level change; 120–155, they take it and gain 1; 160–195, gain 2; 200 or more, gain 3 and one more for each further 40.
- A dealer side that holds passes the deal to the dealer's partner; otherwise it moves one seat on, to an attacker. No level must be played and nobody is ever set back; a level that passes the ace — even by jumping over it — wins the match.
- Three deliberate differences from the 2002 official rulebook, all chosen to match common online play: no-trump hands exist; a failed throw costs no points; the kitty multiplier is twice the card count rather than the official 2, 4, 6. One-, three- and four-deck games, Finding Friends, kitty auctions, compulsory levels and play timers are not included.
- A play has exactly one structure: the longest tractors first, then the remaining pairs, then singles, and two identical cards always count as a pair. So 3-3-4-4-5-5 is one three-pair tractor, and the followers owe a three-pair answer.
Common Tractor (Sheng Ji) Rules Mistakes
The traps new players fall into most often.
- Treating a level card as its printed suit. It is a trump: it cannot follow a heart lead, and it must follow a trump lead.
- Taking two cards of the same rank but different suits for a pair. A pair is two identical cards, and two level pairs of different side suits do not make a tractor.
- Ruffing a pair with two loose trumps. The structure does not match, so it is only a discard — the trick stays with the opponents and you have spent two trumps.
- Running out of trumps early. The last trick decides who gets the kitty: attackers turn a hand around with it, and the dealer side defends the hand with it.
The Story of Tractor (Sheng Ji)
Where it came from, and why it turned out this way.
Origin and standardizationMid-20th-century China · national competition rules in 2002
From forty points to eighty
Sheng Ji — "levelling up" — began as a single-deck game in which the attackers needed 40 points, which is why older players still call it Forty Points. Crowded tables soon shuffled two decks together: the points doubled to 200, the target became 80, and the name Eighty Points followed. It never belonged to one province. Dormitories, factories and long train rides all played it, which makes it one of the few card games understood everywhere in China.
Why it is called Tractor
Two decks created something a single deck cannot hold: two identical cards. The pair became a formal combination, adjacent pairs chained together, and a long chain pushed across the table looked like a tractor hauling its trailers. With tractors in the game, the fight for the lead stopped being about who holds the highest single and became about who has kept their structure.
The level card remakes every hand
Whatever level is being played becomes trump. At level 7 the sevens of all four suits leave their suits and join the trumps, which makes 6 and 8 neighbours; at level 10 the whole order is rebuilt again. The same thirteen ranks are strong or weak depending on the level, and that is the real difference from Bridge or Spades — the half of the nickname "Chinese Bridge" that usually goes unmentioned.
One national text
House rules differ widely: when trump may be declared, whether no-trump exists, what a failed throw costs, how much the kitty multiplies. In 2002 China's national sports authority approved the trial Sheng Ji Competition Rules, a single text for one to three decks, and online platforms later formed habits of their own. This table takes that text as its base, departs from it in three places where most players do, and says so in the rules.
- A double deck holds exactly two of every face, so a pair means two identical cards — same rank in different suits does not count.
- The three off-suit level cards are equal and the first played wins; each can chain with the trump-suit level pair into a tractor, yet they cannot chain with one another.
- The kitty holds eight cards. When the attackers win the last trick its points are multiplied by the size of that final lead, so a hand is often decided by its last four cards.