Pi deng
What is pi deng?
I can’t seem to find anything about this game on the internet but I swear it’s a game that me and my family played. And when we had family friends over they all played this game–so it’s not like my parents made it up for us. It might also be a lost in translation situation where I’m not quite googling the right thing because I only know the phonetic name of the game in English, nor can I write it out in Laos.
Pi deng means “red card” and sometimes my parents called it “Make 10”. Neither of these were helpful to find the game I was thinking of so we’re going to push forward.
Pi deng is a 2-player card game. There is a 3-player variant where the main difference is the card distribution but otherwise the gameplay is the same.
The goal
You win by scoring 105 points or higher at the end of the round.
Set up
You use a normal 52-card deck. Remove jokers. Shuffle and get the other player to cut the deck before dealing the cards.
It is important that you thoroughly shuffle and cut to deck as it is perninent to ensure that the colours are all mixed in inbetween rounds.
Dealing
You deal 10 cards to each player. The dealer always starts with the other player, alternating dealing, and 12 cards are dealt face-up in a communal pile in the middle. These cards in the middle are free to both players.
Once the cards are deal, the reminder of the deck is placed in the middle (face-down)–let’s call this the draw pile.
How to play
Since 10s and face cards match each other, if you start a game and there’s 3 of a face card or 3 10s in the communal pile, they immediately go to the first player. This is because there is nothing to win a pair. However, after this whatever is left at the end of the game goes to the last player (AKA the dealer).
Starting left of the dealer, this player will put a card in the middle–attempting to make 10, or match face cards or 10s with the cards in the communal pile. If there is a match then both cards need to be removed into that player’s win pile (a spot off to the side away from the communal pile). Then, that player flips a card from the draw pile. If this card matches, the player must take that match as well, if not that card remains in the communal pile. Therefore, on each turn a player can have up to 2 matches on a turn. If you cannot make a match you must still put a card into the communal pile–this means that that card is now available to the other player so discard carefully! Once a player draws a card from the draw pile and takes a match, if applicable, their turn ends and it is now the next player’s turn. In sum, a typical turn will consist of:
- putting a card into the communal pile–aiming to get a match but this is not guaranteed
- removing matches, if applicable
- drawing from the draw pile,
- removing matches, if applicable
Ending the game
The game ends when the draw pile is exhausted, this should be on the dealer’s turn.
Scoring
Like the name entails, only red cards are counted for points in the end. Separate your red cards from your black cards.
All number cards are worth their value, e.g., a 3 is worth 3 points and all face cards are worth 10 points. The exception is that standalone aces are worth 20 points and aces that are paired with a 9 are worth 30 points. Therefore, the highest scoring combination is an ace and a 9–which do not need to be won in the same play.