Dezai Shen

Dezai Shen is a card game for 3 players. The deck used is the Nismiram-style deck, with the tree and crown removed.

Deal

Players draw for the first deal; the person with the lowest-value card deals first. For this purpose the suits ordered from lowest to highest as Crescents, Cups, Swords, Towers, Trumps (High Cards). From this point, the deal will pass to the right (counter-clockwise) for each subsequent deal.

The player on the dealer's right then cuts the deck. The dealer then deals out the entire deck into four piles - one for each player, and one "poke". The players, starting with the player to the dealer's left, each select one of the piles.

Bidding

The players evaluate the cards they have been dealt, and an auction begins, starting with the player to the left of the dealer and proceeding clockwise. By bidding a player states his confidence that he will be able to meet a set contract and sets the terms by which they will try to do so. If a player does not wish to bid, they may "pass" but may not bid after having passed previously. One may only bid higher than the previous bidders or pass. The "taker" is the one who wins this auction and must try to meet the contract, while the other players attempt to prevent the taker from doing so.

The bids are, in increasing importance: Take, Hold, and Poke. For the Take bid, the taker merges the poke with their hand and then discards down to 12 cards. For the Hold bid, the poke is discarded and the taker uses only the cards they were dealt. For the Poke bid the taker discards the cards they were delt and uses only the cards from the poke.

For each level of bid one of the subsequent players may bid "Double". This does not change the proposed taker. Instead it increases the penalty if the taker should lose the hand, while at the same time making it slightly easier for them to win.

If no one bids, the hand is void and the deal passes to the left of the current dealer. When two players in a row pass, the bidding is over.

Play

The player to the right of the dealer leads the first trick, and the play proceeds clockwise, with every player playing a card from his hand to the trick. Tricks are evaluated in a similar fashion as other trick-taking games with a trump suit; the highest trump, if played, takes the trick, and if trump is not played, the highest-value card of the led suit takes the trick. Every subsequent trick is led by the player who took the last trick. The leader of a trick can play any card they like.

Once the leader of a trick has played a card, everyone else must follow suit if they can. If a player cannot follow suit, he must play a trump card if able, and additionally, the player is compelled to play a higher trump than any existing trump in the trick if he is able. If a player must trump but cannot overtrump, they can play any trump. If a player cannot follow suit or trump, he may play any card to the trick.

When two or more trump are played in a single trick, the "high trump" (Sun, Moon, and Star) outrank any of the "low trump" (Leopard, Bear, Wolf, Boar, and Serpent). For two or more cards within the high or low trump, the first trump played outranks any that follow.

Scoring & Betting

After the last trick has been played, the taker counts the number of tricks they took to determine if they won the hand.

For each level bid, each player sets out a single token, and if a bid is doubled the number of tokens is doubled. These tokens remain in front of the individual players. On winning the bid, the taker sets out an identical number of tokens. If the taker wins the hand they collect all the tokens from the table. If the taker loses the hand the other players take equal shares of the taker's tokens.