page_title: Tien Gow
section_title: Dice game
hierarchical_section_title: Tien Gow / Dice game
caption_attribution_description: English: Double ones with Chinese dice
context_page_description: Tien Gow or Tin Kau is the name of Chinese gambling games played with either a pair of dice or a set of 32 Chinese dominoes. In these games, Heaven is the top rank of the civil suit, while Nine is the top rank of the military suit. The civil suit was originally called the Chinese suit while the military suit was called the barbarian suit but this was changed during the Qing dynasty to avoid offending the ruling Manchus. The highly idiosyncratic and culture-specific suit-system of these games are likely the conceptual origin of suits, an idea which would later be used for playing cards. Play is counter-clockwise.
  The ranks from highest to lowest are:
  Civil: Heaven; Earth; Man; Harmony; Plum Flower; Long Threes; Bench; Tiger's Head; Red Head Ten; Long Leg Seven; Red Mallet Six
  Military: Nines; Eights; Sevens; Six; Fives; Final Three
context_section_description: Throwing Heaven and Nine (掷天九), or Kwat-P'ai (骨牌) as reported by Ng Kwai-shang in 1886, is a game of chance where players try to beat each other with a higher combination from a pair of Chinese dice with red 1 and 4 pips. Of the 21 possible combinations, 11 are ranked in a "civil" suit and 10 are ranked in a "military" suit. After the wager is set, the banker throws the dice into a bowl which sets the suit. The banker automatically wins if he throws the highest rank (Heaven or Nine) but loses if he throws the lowest rank (Red Mallet Six or Final Three). For any other combination, the other players try to beat him by throwing a higher rank of the same suit. If they throw the wrong suit, then they get to throw again until they "follow suit". Those that throw lower than the banker will have to pay him. According to R.C. Bell, if there is a tie, no money is exchanged. The opponents keep throwing until one manages to beat the banker and gets paid by him. The player to the right of the banker becomes the next banker and starts the following round after new stakes are set.
caption: Chinese dice
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