Guandan (掼蛋 guàndàn, literally "throwing eggs") is a partnership climbing game for four players and two complete decks, 108 cards including four jokers. You sit opposite your partner, and here your partner and both opponents are computer players. Each player holds 27 cards, a play can only be topped by a higher play of the same type or by a bomb, and the side whose player goes out first moves up from its current level toward Ace, while the match goes to the first side to take a deal while its own Ace is the level, with neither partner left in last place. The table follows a single rulebook, the official 2022 competition rules, without the newer 2025 text or regional variations. This page gives the gist, and the separate rules page has every detail.
The level is what makes Guandan feel different from other climbing games. The rank being played this deal, the level card (级牌 jípái), jumps above the Ace and sits just below the two jokers, and its two hearts are wild cards (逢人配 féng rén pèi, roughly "matches with anyone").
Being first out is only half of a good deal. How far your side climbs depends on where your partner finishes:
| Your partner finishes | Your side moves up |
|---|---|
| Second (a double-down, 双下 shuāngxià, which ends the deal at once) | 3 levels |
| Third | 2 levels |
| Last | 1 level |
So a deal where you go out first and your partner comes in last earns a single level, while the same first place followed by your partner's second is worth three. Most of the partnership play follows from that.
If your partner currently holds the round and no opponent is near the end of their hand, pass. Topping your partner only spends one of your cards and moves the next lead from the player who may be ready to finish to you.
Plan your last play as carefully as your first. When a player plays their last cards and everyone still holding cards passes, the lead goes to that player's partner. Players call this 接风 (jiē fēng, "catching the wind"). Finish with a pair the opponents cannot top and your partner starts the next round with a free lead, whereas if you finish with a weak single an opponent can beat it and take the lead instead.
Once a player is down to 10 cards or fewer, the number appears on their stack, which tells you what your partner can still follow. If your partner has two cards left and you have the lead, a low pair gives them a chance to go out, while a five-card straight probably does not.
At Ace the climb stops being automatic. To pass Ace, a side has to win while Ace is its own level for that deal, and the partner of the first-place player must not come last. Win a deal at the other side's level while you sit on Ace, and all you earn is the next deal at your Ace.
Say this deal is played at level 7. All eight 7s now outrank every Ace, so a single 7 beats a single A and a triple of 7s beats a triple of Aces, and only the jokers rank higher. The two ♥7 are wild, and how much they are worth depends on where you put them:
8♠ 9♠ 10♠ Q♠ plus ♥7 is a spade straight flush from 8 to Q, the wild standing in for J♠. That is a bomb that beats every four- and five-card bomb.5♦ 5♦ plus ♥7 is only a triple of 5s, which saves you one play at most.The best use is usually the one that jumps a category, turning four of a kind into five or completing a straight flush, rather than patching an ordinary pair. Don't throw a wild into the first gap you see.
On the table, level cards carry a small Lv mark, the wild has a gold heart beside its rank and a Wild tag when it stands alone.
A Guandan hand is big, and the fastest way to lose is to leave it as 27 loose cards. The fixed lengths help you plan, since a straight is exactly five cards, a run of pairs exactly three pairs (三连对 sān lián duì, shown on the table as Three pairs), a run of triples exactly two triples (钢板 gāngbǎn, "steel plate", shown as Two triples), and a full house is a triple with a pair. A six-card straight or four pairs in a row is not a legal play here, so there is no point holding cards back to make one.
Count how many plays your hand needs and look for the version with fewer plays. Two consecutive triples gone in one play, a straight that eats three loose singles, or a full house that carries off a lone pair each saves a turn you would otherwise spend on a weak single.
The table does the tidying when you ask. Sort arranges the whole hand in one tap, keeping bombs whole at the front, placing a wild into a straight flush if it can, and splitting the rest into as few plays as it finds. Group locks the cards you have picked up into a column of their own, and Undo puts the hand back. Under the hand, a row of suit buttons marked Str. flush lights up for every suit in which your cards (wilds included) can make a straight flush.
Bombs go by category before rank, starting with four of a kind, then five of a kind, then a straight flush, then six, seven, eight, nine and ten of a kind, and at the top the four jokers together (天王炸 tiān wáng zhà). Within a category the higher rank wins. That means six 3s beat any straight flush, and a straight flush beats five Kings, which beat four Aces.
With two decks every rank has eight copies, so there are a lot more bombs around than in a one-deck game. Open the card counter on the table (the counter button, labelled Count) to see, rank by rank, how many cards you have not seen yet (anything outside your own hand that has not been played), plus how many wilds and jokers are still out. The level rank is marked. Any rank with four or more unseen copies is highlighted, because a bomb in that rank is still possible, and the jokers are highlighted while all four are unseen.
From the second deal on, the deal opens with tribute (进贡 jìngòng). The player who finished last gives the first-place player their highest card, not counting a heart wild, and gets back a card of 10 or lower that is not a level card (还贡 huángòng, "returning tribute"). If whoever owes tribute (both payers together, after a double-down) holds both red jokers, there is no tribute that deal.
As the payer you have little choice because only your highest cards can be given, and everything else in your hand is dimmed. As the receiver, use the return to tidy your own hand by giving back a low card that fits none of your plays rather than one from a pair or a run.
Tribute is also information. The player who paid has nothing higher than that card apart from a wild, and a deal without tribute tells you both red jokers are with the player or players who owed it.
The Hint button on the table cycles through what you can legally play.
If you go out while your partner is still playing, your partner's hand appears face up where yours was, so you can watch how the deal is finished.
The three computer seats play at a single strength, picked from four.
Guan Dan, also written Guandan, is a four-player partnership climbing game in which level cards, heart wilds, bombs, tribute, and promotion carry across deals.
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