To western eyes, the arrangement of suit symbols appears very strange, and values might be difficult to tell; Myriads cards even state their value by a small Chinese numeral. Nevertheless, this should not represent a problem in playing the game, because in modern decks the central part of the illustration is encircled by a thick black frame, whose pattern changes according to the value of the card, more or less as numeral indices do in ordinary playing card decks. And since the aim of the game is to collect sets of cards with identical value, regardless of the suit they belong to, players not accustomed to the deck's traditional patterns may simply rely on these peculiar "indices".

Two of the honour cards, Red Flower and White Flower, have a frame with the same pattern as 1s, while Old Thousand has no frame, but it is clearly recognizable.
Therefore, two cards might still cause doubt: the White Flower, easily mistaken with the 1 of Coins (the latter has three rows of small dots), and the 9 of Strings, which might be mistaken with the Red Flower because of its red stamp (though two clues are the frame pattern, which is the same as other 9s, and the big dot which most Strings cards have).
A little practice will soon enable to recognize these cards without any problem.

Any number of players from 2 to 6 can take part.
A dealer, randomly chosen, shuffles the pack and asks the player on his right to cut it. He then deals two cards to each of the players, in clockwise direction, repeating the operation four times for a total of eight cards.
Players are not allowed to look at them until the deal has been completed.
The undealt cards are placed in a pile, face down, in the middle of the table, and the first player (on the dealer's left) opens the game by taking his turn.

Honour cards are only worth 1 (each set scores 3 points), so the most cherished combinations are the ones made of three 9s, worth 27.


The simple principle on which sets are built is that each player, at his turn, can choose whether to draw a covered card from the pile, or to pick the last discard made by a previous player. In the first case, he can decide to keep what he has found, discarding one of the cards he already holds in hand, or to discard straight away the one he has just drawn. Therefore, at the end of his turn, each player always remains with eight cards.

All discards must be piled in a heap, close to the uncovered cards, but only the uppermost one (i.e. the last discard left on the table) can be taken by other players.

In case any of the two sets held in hand by the player who called ceki has the same value as his couple (for example, he holds a set of 3's, a set of 9s, and has a couple of 3s), he will have to lay face down not only the couple, but all five cards of the same value, i.e. the five 3's in this example, illustrated below.

During the game, other players may call ceki, as soon as they obtain two sets and a couple. The first player to complete three sets is the winner.

When a player who has called ceki obtains the last card he is looking for, he turns all his cards face up, showing the three sets: he is the winner of the hand, and the only player to score points.

• If the last card comes from the previous player's discard, it is a plain win, only scoring the total made by the sum of the three sets.
  
  
• If the player wins by using a card which the previous player had been holding in hand, it is a double win, and his total is multiplied by two.
  
  
• If he wins with a card drawn directly from the pile, it is a triple win, and his total is multiplied by three.

These three situations are summarized in the following diagrams:

Therefore, as soon as a player calls ceki, all discards by the opponent on his right become crucial: in deciding whether to keep a new card drawn from the pile, he will have to assess the risk of an unlucky discard, which might enable the next player not only to win, but even to double his total.


At the end of each hand, players can settle their dues, the winner receiving from his opponents an amount of money corresponding to the points scored.
But Ceki can also be played by agreeing a total number of points: the winner will be the player who reaches this total after a variable number of hands.
Lastly, a third scheme may be to play a given number of hands, and the winner is he who in the end has totalized the highest score.