Rule variations

Draw rules – Play Goulash after a draw

Sometimes a special deal called "Goulash" is played if the deal ends in a draw. (Note that the Goulash deal is played only if the deal ends in a draw because of exhaustion of tiles, it is not played after an abortive draw; on the other hand, if a Goulash deal ends in an abortive draw, another Goulash deal is started without increasing the counter for successive Goulash deals.)

In the Australian rules the Goulash deal is played by establishing a pool of extra points that are to be paid to the winner of the deal, and no Chows are allowed. In addition, jokers are used, and the Goulash deal starts with Charleston, exchange of the tiles. In the British rules the Goulash deal is otherwise similar, but no Goulash pool is used. After a Goulash deal is played, the deal normally passes, disregarding whether there is a winner or not and even if East wins the deal (if a Goulash deal ends in a draw, it is possible to play another Goulash deal, and it is also possible to specify that the deal does not pass if the East wins the Goulash deal; but if the rules allow just one Goulash deal, or specify a maximum number of successive Goulash deals and the last Goulash deal ends in a draw, the deal is always passed).

The Korean rules use Goulash deal, as well, but the rules do not differ from those used in regular deals – players just place a 1-point marker in the pool at the beginning of each successive Goulash deal (there can be a maximum of three), and the winner of the deal collects the pool.

The rules for Goulash can be edited for customized and saved, user-defined rule presets.

To enable Goulash after a draw:

Choose Preferences on the File menu.
From the Rule Presets list, choose a customized rule preset.
Choose Winning & Draw under the Rules section of the category tree.
Check the Play "Goulash" after a draw box.
If desired, click the Options button to specify the amount of points each player must place in the pool at the start of a Goulash deal, and whether another Goulash deal is played if the deal ends in a draw.

Note: The Goulash deal can be used only if the deal is never passed on draw, so make sure that the Pass deal on draw box is cleared. Also, when you check the Play Goulash after a draw box, the current rules and scoring values are automatically copied as default Goulash settings. To customize the settings, see the instruction below.

To edit the Goulash rules:

Choose Preferences on the File menu.
From the Rule Presets list, choose a customized rule preset using the Goulash deal after a draw.
Click the arrow button on the left of the Rule presets list (at the top of the Preferences dialog box) and choose Goulash Rules from the pop-up menu.
Make the changes you wish to have in your Goulash rules and click OK to save the settings.

Note: When the rules and scoring values are edited in the Goulash mode, certain settings (like those relating to passing of the deal on draw, and use of Goulash deal) are automatically disabled. Also, in order to avoid conflicts, most of the changes made to the rules and scoring of the underlying base rules are automatically updated to the Goulash rules (a Goulash setting or scoring value is updated, if its saved and current value is the same as that of the setting that was originally saved with the underlying rules, e.g., if the scoring for All Chows is 0 in the underlying, saved rules, and 0 also in the saved Goulash rules and in the current, not yet saved, Goulash rules, but has been changed to 5 points in the underlying not yet saved rules, the scoring value of 5 is automatically updated to Goulash rules). To guarantee that you have the intended settings for the Goulash deal, it is recommended that you do not make changes to the underlying rules after having specified the Goulash rules.