Two-Player Dou Dizhu

Take a standard 54-card deck and remove all four 3s and all four 4s. That leaves 46 cards: 44 rank cards from 5 up to 2, plus the small joker and the big joker.

Ranks run, from low to high: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A, 2, small joker, big joker. The 2 beats the ace but stays below both jokers, and suits never matter: the nine of hearts and the nine of spades are equal. There are no wild cards.

After the shuffle, each player receives 17 cards. Three more cards go face down in the middle as the kitty. The last 9 cards are never dealt: nobody holds them, and they are never turned over. This is the big difference from the three-player game. A card that is not in your hand is not necessarily in your opponent's hand.

A random player speaks first and may call the landlord or pass.

• Once someone has called, the other player may grab or not grab.
• A grab makes the grabber the new landlord candidate, and the turn goes back to the other player, who may grab back or stop. The players keep alternating like this.
• As soon as a player declines to grab, the current candidate becomes the landlord.
• There can be at most 4 grabs in total. Whoever makes the fourth grab becomes the landlord immediately.
• If the first player passes, the second player may call or pass. If both players pass, the cards are not redealt: the first player becomes the landlord with zero grabs.

The kitty is then turned face up for both players to see and added to the landlord's hand. The landlord holds 20 cards, the peasant holds 17, and the landlord leads the first play.

The number of grabs sets two things.

The handicap equals the number of grabs. With zero grabs the handicap is 0 and the peasant must play out all 17 cards. With one grab the peasant wins with a single card left. With four grabs the peasant wins as soon as they are down to four cards.

Every grab doubles the multiplier. A deal with a call and no grabs is worth 1, one grab makes it 2, two grabs make it 4, and four grabs make it 16.

So every grab trades an easier target for your opponent against higher stakes. The table shows the current handicap and multiplier at all times.

The combinations are the same fourteen used in three-player Dou Dizhu:

• Single, pair, triplet (a triplet may be played alone)
• Triplet with a single (4 cards) and triplet with a pair (5 cards)
• Straight: at least 5 consecutive ranks, one card each, from 5 up to A, so the longest straight has 10 cards
• Straight of pairs: at least 3 consecutive pairs
• Airplane: at least 2 consecutive triplets, which may be played without kickers
• Airplane with singles and airplane with pairs: one single or one pair per triplet
• Four with two singles (6 cards) and four with two pairs (8 cards)
• Bomb (four cards of the same rank) and rocket (small joker plus big joker)

The usual limits apply. Straights, straights of pairs and airplanes never include the 2 or the jokers. A kicker may not share the rank of the main body. Four cards of the same rank must be used together in a single play, so you cannot split one off as a kicker. The two jokers cannot both be used as kickers. Four with two singles and four with two pairs are not bombs.

The landlord leads. After that the players take turns, and each play must be the same combination with the same number of cards as the previous play, and higher. Only the main body is compared, never the kickers: KKK + 5 beats QQQ + big joker.

A bomb beats any combination that is not a bomb, and bombs compare by rank. The rocket beats everything and can never be beaten.

With only two players, a single pass ends the round. Whoever made the last play leads again with any combination they like. The player who leads a round may not pass.

• The landlord wins by playing all 20 cards.
• The peasant wins as soon as, after one of their plays, the number of cards left is less than or equal to the handicap. With a handicap of 0, the peasant has to play out every card.
• The first player to reach their target ends the deal immediately.

The base score is always 1. The deal is worth:

score = grab multiplier × bomb and rocket multiplier × spring multiplier

Every bomb or rocket doubles the multiplier. A spring happens when the landlord wins and the peasant never played a card. An anti-spring happens when the peasant wins and the landlord played only the opening lead. Either one doubles the score again. There is no cap. The winner gains the score and the loser loses the same amount.

For example, with two grabs and one bomb played, the deal is worth 4 × 2 = 8 points.

The classic game of Dou Dizhu needs three people. Two-Player Dou Dizhu turns it into a one-on-one duel: there is no partner to rely on and nobody to blame, only you against your opponent on every play. It has been a fixture of Chinese online card rooms for years, where it is called 二人斗地主. In English you will also see it described as Two-Player Doudizhu or 1v1 Fight the Landlord.

Playing with the full 54 cards would give each player far too many cards and dilute the effect of the kitty. So the two-player version makes three changes. It removes the 3s and 4s, deals only 37 cards and keeps 9 out of play, and balances the two sides with grabbing and a handicap. The combinations, the comparison rules and the bombs are unchanged, so anyone who knows Dou Dizhu can start right away.

The game runs in your browser with no download and no sign-up, in portrait or landscape on a phone and on a computer. Your opponent is the computer, at one of three difficulty levels.

• Hint suggests a legal play when you are unsure.
• Card counter (the card tracker) shows how many cards of each rank have not been seen yet. That count includes the 9 undealt cards, so a card on the tracker is not necessarily in your opponent's hand.
• Handicap display: next to your opponent you can see how many cards they hold and the card count at which they win, so you always know how close they are.
• Autosave: if you reload the page or rotate your phone, the deal continues exactly where you left it.

There is no kitty doubling, no open hand, no double or super double and no coins or beans. The multiplier comes only from grabs, bombs, rockets, springs and anti-springs, and the result screen lists each one.

Count the handicap before you grab. As the peasant, a bigger handicap means fewer cards to play. As the landlord, every extra grab lets your opponent stop one card earlier. After four grabs the peasant needs to play only 13 cards while the landlord still has to get rid of all 20. With a scattered hand and few high cards, letting your opponent grab is often the better choice.

As the landlord, control the lead. Your edge is the kitty and the opening lead. Use long straights, straights of pairs and airplanes to shed many cards at once, and keep your 2s, jokers and bombs for winning the lead back. With two players, one pass from your opponent hands you a fresh lead, so a high card they cannot beat often turns into several plays in a row.

As the peasant, watch the handicap line. You never need to empty your hand, only to get down to the handicap. Your last few cards can be awkward singles. Focus first on playing the cards that form combinations. When the display shows the peasant is only a play or two away from the handicap, the landlord needs to stop them with high cards.

Remember the 9 undealt cards. In the three-player game, if all four 2s are still missing, someone is holding them. In the two-player game, 9 cards never come into play, so a rank may never form a bomb at all. Before assuming your opponent has a bomb or the rocket, check the tracker and think about which plays they declined to beat.

Choose your bombs carefully. Every bomb doubles the score. Bombing from a weak position can simply double what you lose. A bomb is at its best when winning the lead lets you run out your hand, or when it stops your opponent from reaching the handicap.