Guandan Rule Lesson 2 · 5 min read
Reading the seven combos
Before you can beat a hand you have to name it. Here are the seven legal shapes and the one rule that ties them together.
To answer a hand you must match its shape and its card count, then out-rank it. So the first skill is recognising the shape on the table at a glance.
The seven shapes
- Single — one card.
- Pair — two of the same rank.
- Triple — three of the same rank.
- Full house — a triple plus a pair; only the triple decides who wins.
- Straight — exactly five in a row (A-2-3-4-5 low, 10-J-Q-K-A high). Never longer than five.
- Pair run — exactly three consecutive pairs, like 778899.
- Triple run — exactly two consecutive triples, like 777888.
Tip · None of these can be stretched. A straight is always five cards, a pair run always six. If you are holding six in a row, it is not a bigger straight — it is two combos.
Everything above lives in one league: a pair only answers a pair, a straight only answers a straight. To break out of that league you need a bomb — which is the next lesson.