QiuQiu Dominoes Rules

QiuQiu (also known as KiuKiu) is an Indonesian game related to Cantonese game Pai Gow. The word Qiu or Kiu is derived from a Chinese dialect pronunciation of the word for 9. The objective of the game is to devide 4 dominoes into 2 pairs so that the value of each pair is close to 9.

• QiuQiu is played with a deck of 28 Indonesian dominoes which are similar to the Western double-six domino set.
• The game can be played by 2 to 6 players. This web version allows only one player to play against a dealer/banker.
• The game starts with each player putting some money in the pot. Afterwards all dominoes are shuffled and all players (including dealer) are dealt 3 dominoes each.
• The players can then look at their dominoes and decide on continuing with a round of poker-style betting. The first player has two options
  
  1. Check - Player does not want to increase the bet for the round and also does not close the card.
  2. Bet - Adding an amount to the pot. Other players must match this amount if they want to stay in the hand.

• If there was no bet, then other players can also go ahead with "Check" or "Bet". As soon as there is a bet or raise, the players have three options as following
  
  1. Fold - Player does not want to put more money, throws away his/her dominoes face down.
  2. Call - Adds more amount to the pot to match the most recent bet or raise.
  3. Raise - Raises the amount in the pot requiring other players to match this amount if they want to stay in the hand.

• This web version only allows for the first round of betting. Once all bets are made and there are more than one players with equal amount of money in the pot, the fourth domino is dealt to all surviving players.
• The complete hand consists of 4 dominoes and there are four special hands which beat all other hands. The special hands are ranked as following from highest to lowest
  
  1. Six Gods - Four dominoes having 6 spots: [3-3], [4-2], [5-1], [6-0]. This is the highest ranking hand.
  2. Four Doubles - Any four of the seven doubles, for example [3-3], [4-4], [1-1], [2-2]. This beats everything except Six Gods.
  3. Pure Big - A hand with at least 39 spots, for example [6-5], [5-4], [5-6], [6-2].
  4. Pure Small - A hand with no more than 9 spots, for example [0-0], [0-2], [2-1], [2-2].
• A tie between special hands is not possible. If no player has a special hand then the best normal hand wins in which case the players divide their hands into two pairs of two dominoes, and the value of each pair of dominoes is the units digit of the total number of spots. For example [6-1] + [5-3] together have 15 spots, so their value is 5. [3-1] + [4-1] together have 9 spots, so their value is 9 which is the highest possible value. [3-2] + [4-1] have 10 spots, so their value is zero.
• When comparing two normal hands, the higher valued pairs are compared first, then the lower valued pairs. If higher valued pair wins then lower valued pair is not compared. Lower valued pair is compared only when there is a tie for the higher valued pair.
• The best possible normal hand is 9-9, which gives name to the game QiuQiu. For example [3-1], [6-6], [5-0], [5-2] can be arranged as [3-1] + [5:0], [6-6] + [5-2] making 9 and 9.
• Read more about this game on pagat.