This is a version of a popular Chinese street game that I play with my friends. There are some variations of it online, but we play with a modified ruleset.
Our version of Landlord is a 4-player card game involving 54 cards - a normal deck plus both Jokers. The cards are shuffled and 12 are dealt face down to each player. The remaining 6 are placed face down in the middle.
The players look at their hands and can then decide on who will pick up the cards in the middle. This is usually the player who believes they have the 'strongest' hand. This player becomes the 'Landlord' and is pitted against the other three for the duration of the round.
The winner of the round is the first 'team' to get rid of their entire hand, following the move rules. The Landlord has more cards to offload, but also has more choice as to what moves they will play; they also get to go first. If any of the other three players gets rid of all their cards, then all three opponents of the Landlord have won. In this regard, Landlord is a team game - although the three cannot discuss their hands.
This is how a round can be played:
The starting player (initially the Landlord) plays a Move (look at the possible Moves below to see more details). At the start of the round, the Landlord can choose the direction that play will go in, but this is then fixed for the round. The next player can choose to play cards on top of the previous player's, but they must follow the same style of Move and must beat the previous Move.
For example, if Player 1 plays a pair of Jacks, then Player 2 can only follow with a pair - and the value of the pair must beat Jacks.
It is always optional to play a Move.
If no-one is able to follow a Move, then the last player to put down cards 'wins' the trick and gets to begin the next trick, deciding which style of Move to play.
This continues until a player has put down all their cards, in which case they have won the round.
Each trick consists of a single Move style. Players must follow that style, so a pair cannot be played on top of a single card or a full house, for example.
- Single card - one card of any suit. To beat another single card, your card must have strictly higher value.
- 2 beats Ace, which beats 7, which beats 3. 4 does not beat 4. Joker beats anything except another Joker.
- Pair - two cards of the same value. To beat another pair, your pair must have strictly higher value.
- Pair of 10s beats pair of 8s. A Joker and a Jack counts as a pair of Jacks.
- Straight - five or more consecutive cards. To beat another straight, yours must have at least as many cards and must finish on a higher card.
- [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10] beats [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] but cannot beat [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] (which has more cards) or [6, 7, 8, 9, 10] (as it doesn't finish on a higher value).
- Full house - three of a kind and a pair (e.g. [7, 7, 7, Queen, Queen]). To beat another full house, your full house has to have a higher three of a kind. The pair value doesn't matter.
- [9, 9, 9, 3, 3] beats [8, 8, 8, Ace, Ace] but not [10, 10, 10, 3, 3].
- Three consecutive pairs - e.g. [9, 9, 10, 10, Jack, Jack]. To beat another set of three consecutive pairs, yours must finish on a higher card.
- Bomb - four of a kind. A bomb is special in that it is the only Move style that can be played on top of another Move style. A Bomb can be played at any moment and can interrupt a round or can be done between rounds.
- Jokers are wildcards - they can represent whatever you want them to represent.
- The two Jokers have equal value, so one cannot beat the other.
- A pair of Jokers counts as a Bomb, as does a pair of Jokers and a pair of any other value (e.g. two Jokers and two 7s is a Bomb of 7s)
- 2 is high - 2 beats Ace, which beats King, and 2 can only be beaten by a Joker.
- Suits don't matter! At all!