PaiMiahhh Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object
• Components
• Setup
• Game Play
  • Dealing Phase
  • Bidding Phase
  • Playing the Cards
    • First turn
    • Playing the cards
    • Sluff
  • Scoring Phase
• End of the Game
• Special Cards List
• Variants
  • Variant 1
  • Variant 2
  • Variant 3
  • Variant 4

Object

The object of the game is to cooperate with your partner to score points by trick-taking and sluffing during each round. The game ends when one side gets 150 points; whichever side has more points wins the game.

Components

• 45 Number cards
• 8 Special cards (with a ★ symbol at the corner of each card)
• 1 Starter card
• 30 Scoring tiles
• 1 Trump marker
• 1 Bonus token

※ Players need a paper and pen, or other scoring method.

Setup

1. Randomly distribute the four players into two teams. Each player sits opposite from their partner.
2. Arrange all the scoring tiles according to their colors and values into a 6 x 5 matrix on the table.
3. Shuffle the Starter, the two Special cards Trump and Honor, and the 45 Number cards to form the draw deck.
4. The game consists of several rounds, with each progressing through four phases: Dealing, Bidding, Playing the cards, and Scoring the results. If neither of the teams reaches 150 points in the Scoring Phase, begin another round with the same order of phases.

※ The first time playing, we recommend players use the two Special cards Trump and Honor. Once accustomed to the game rules, players may discuss and choose any two Special cards. All the Special cards are described in the Special Cards List section.

(Illustration: the Scoring tiles arranged in five color columns valued 1 to 6 from bottom to top, with the Trump marker beside the bottom of the last column.)

Game Play

Dealing Phase

1. Arrange or re-arrange the Scoring tiles and the Trump marker to look as presented in the Game Setup section.
2. Shuffle the deck and deal 12 cards to each player.

Bidding Phase

Each player takes turns bidding on a contract in order to decide the Trump color, Trick-taking points, and the Final contract for this turn.

• Trump color: In the game, there are five different colors. All of them have the same value. The exception is that when a certain color becomes the Trump color, it has more value than the other colors.
• Trick-taking points: The points scored from taking tricks in a turn. Its value plus six is the Final contract for the turn.
• Final contract: There are 12 tricks per round. The Final contract means the least number of tricks the declaring's side (i.e. the player who won the bid and his partner) needs to win. Otherwise, they do not score Trick-taking points for this turn.

1. The first starting player is the youngest player, otherwise it is the Declarer for the previous turn (see #3). The phase proceeds clockwise with each player.
2. During each player's bid, they either move the Trump marker forward any number of spaces onto a certain Scoring tile, or say "Pass" if they do not wish to bid. Players can neither move the marker backwards nor keep it at its current space.
3. If three players in a row pass, the last player who moved the trump marker becomes the Declarer for this turn.
4. The color of the Scoring tile where the Trump marker is at the end of the Bidding phase becomes the Trump color for this turn. The bottom left number on the Scoring tile is trick-taking points for this turn, and the bottom right number is the Final contract.

(Illustration: the Trump marker moves along the bottom row of tiles, then up to the next row. Example tile: Trump color green, 4 trick-taking points, Final contract 10.)

※ During the Bidding phase, revealing your hand to other players, even your teammate, is not allowed.

※ The starting player is allowed to pass as well. If they and every other player say "Pass" (i.e. all four players pass in the first turn), everyone discards all their cards, and start a new round from the Dealing phase.

Tips: Look at your hand carefully to see which color is the majority and has the highest value. Bid that color, as the Trump color makes you have a greater advantage. Remember that if you are on the Declarer's side, you need to win more tricks. Therefore, move the Trump marker carefully to avoid failing the Contract!

Playing the Cards

In a trick, players take turns playing one card and then comparing the value. One round has 12 tricks (turns).

First turn

1. The player who has the Starter plays the Starter card. Then other players play a card.
2. When it is the partner of the Declarer's turn, they need to reveal their hand to other three players. The Declarer chooses and plays a card for his partner for the rest of the round.

Dummy: The partner of the Declarer is called the Dummy. The Dummy plays their cards based on the Declarer's instructions.

Playing the cards

1. Players play one card from their hand during their turn going in clockwise order.
2. The first Number card played each turn is called a lead. When there is no lead in play, players can play any card, and then that card becomes a lead. The other three players can either:
   • Follow color: play a card with the same color as the lead;
   • Sluff: only if a player is unable to follow color can he sluff. The player either plays a Number card with different colors (including the Trump color) or a Special card.
3. After each player plays a card from their hand, compare the value of the four played cards. The one playing the highest card with the same color as the lead wins. However, if a Trump colored card is in play, the hand playing the highest Trump color wins. This includes sluffed cards! The winner gets the trick, meaning they stack the four cards together and place them in front of them face-down.
4. The winner becomes the first player for the next turn. If players have no card in their hand, move to the next phase and score the points for the round.

(Examples: Starter, orange 5 (lead), orange 7, blue 8 (sluff) — the orange 7 wins. Orange 5 (lead), orange 7 (follow), green 1 (Trump), green 4 (Trump) — the green 4 wins.)

Sluff

1. Only if a player is unable to follow color can they sluff. If a player sluffs a Number card, they then take the bottom (i.e. least value) Scoring tile of the same color as the sluffed card from the matrix, and places it in front of them.
2. If a player sluffs a Trump card while the Trump marker is at the bottom of that color, they then take the upper Scoring tile from the matrix instead.
3. If there are no Scoring tiles with the same color as the sluffed card remaining, pick the bottom tile of any other color instead.

A player who sluffs gains the bottom Scoring tile of the sluffed color.

Tips: Sluffing also gives you points, and you gain more and more points as the game goes on. Since it is crucial to gain Scoring tiles, use your strategy well when playing cards and it might win the game for you! Moreover, if you sluff a Trump colored card, not only can you gain points by doing so, but you might be able to win the trick and gain even more points!

Scoring Phase

1. Every player gets points by taking tricks and sluffing. The scores are totaled from the two partners as a team.

Trick-taking points: Check the Scoring tile where the Trump marker is. Its value is the amount of points a player gains for every trick he wins. However, if the Declarer and his partner didn't fulfill the contract, they don't gain any trick-taking points.

(Trick-taking points) × (Tricks taken)

Sluffing points: The total value of the Scoring tiles in front of you.

End of the Game

If any team has reached 150 points total, the game ends. whichever team has more points wins the game!

If neither of the teams has 150 points, begin another round with the same order of phases.

Special Cards List

• Starter: The player who has the Starter card plays the first card for the first turn.
• Trump ★: This card is regarded as the same color as the trump color, but has no value and is smaller than any other Trump colored cards. It can be used to follow a color when the lead is the Trump color, or to sluff and gain a Scoring tile.
• Joker ★: This card is regarded as a Number card. The owner of the Joker sets the value (0-8) and color of the Joker when playing it, and gains a Scoring tile when sluffing it.
  • ※ If there is a card with the same color and value as the Joker in play, turn the Joker face down and it loses its power.
  • ※ If the owner of the Joker has Number cards of the color led, the Joker must be in the led color.
• Honor ★: When comparing card value during the Playing the Cards phase, this card always beats other cards.
• 8 ★: This card is a sixth color. When sluffing this card, the player may take the bottom Scoring tile of any color.
• Porter ★: Name a color from the matrix, move the bottom two Scoring tiles of that color to the bottom of another color column, or move each one of the Scoring tiles to the bottom of two different columns. The color(s) of the two tiles are regarded as the ones of the column(s) they are moved to.
  • ※ It may make the value of the bottom tiles bigger than the upper ones.
• Bonus ★: Anyone who wins the trick for this turn gets the Bonus tile for an extra 4 points.
• Reverse ★: Starting next turn, play the cards for the rest of the round.

Variants

Players may want to try out one of the following variants, or mix more than one variant at once, to add flavor to the game. However, it is not guaranteed that the game will be more fun with variant rules.

Variant 1

1. During setup, use a Special card instead of the starter card. The deck then consists of 3 Special cards and 45 Number cards.
2. For the first round of the Playing the Cards Phase, instead of the player who has the Starter card, the player to the Declarer's left makes the first lead.

Variant 2

1. During setup, choose an additional 4 Special cards and shuffle them into the deck. Then there will then be 52 cards in the deck.
2. Deal 13 cards to each player.
3. There will still be 12 turns for each round of the game. During the Scoring phase, each player will have one unused card in their hand. That card will be kept for the next round.

Variant 3

During the Scoring phase, the Declarer does not score trick-taking points, but the Declarer's partner scores double trick-taking points!

Variant 4

When players are comparing their Number cards, card 2 defeats card 7 as long as both of them are the same color and are in play.