C T Dobree (1955) spelled the name Luk Fu and used the characters for "Six Tigers", whereas J W Young (1866) said he could not learn the characters for what he spelled Lioek Foe. "Liuk" can certainly mean Six and, as the players' objective in the game is to use at least 6 of their own cards to win tricks or multitricks, Dobree's interpretation of his "Luk" is very probable. But we are sceptical of his Tigers, because Young also uses the word "Foe" for a unit of scoring in the rummy-like game Phien Kim ("ph" as in English "shepherd") - various combinations scored various multiples of "Foe" - but his informants could not tell him how to write "Foe". Since "Liuk" means "Six" and the objective is to take 6 cards-worth of multitricks, we imagine that "Fu" should be translated as "points", like the Mandarin word "Hu" in K Himly (1901) and L M Iakovlev (1946). But we shall see "tigers" in the terminology of the game, and this looks like a pun. Dylan W.H.S. confirms that the word for the number of trick-winning cards in this game is pronounced the same as the word for "tiger" in the Hakka dialect.
We have pleasure in thanking Mrs Chan-Edmead, Miss Tsoi and Mr Pang of Gloucester, a cathedral city lying about 175 km. west of London, for their information on the rules of this game. In January 1993 Mrs Chan-Edmead of the Gloucestershire Chinese Community Group introduced Anthony Smith to an English-speaking user of these cards, Kim Tsoi, an undergraduate student at Westminster University whose family live in Gloucester. Miss Tsoi played cards with her grandmother and explained to him the rules of a three-player trick-taking game called Liuk Fu. In November 1993 he met, through the Open University (a British correspondence college for which he is a tutor), another English-speaking Luk Fu player from Gloucester, Tim Pang.
Luk Fu is a game for three active players, though as in some European games a fourth player may deal. Such a dealer takes part in the payments even though taking no part in the play. Both tricks in the ordinary sense and multitricks, where each player contributes the same number, greater than one, of cards can be played. Let us use "trick" to cover both possibilities, in the sense that a 3-card multitrick is worth 3 "tricks".
When there is no fourth player only 36 cards of the 38 are used, and these are not quite the 36 reported in W H Wilkinson (1895) to be used in the unnamed three-hander which he knew. If a fourth is present 37 cards are used and the dealer retains one card. Under no circumstance is the 38th card used, and the informants knew of no use for it. Packs are so easily obtainable that it is not even used to replace a damaged or lost card. A European equivalent of this state of affairs may be the Tarocco Bolognese pack which is sold with Jokers, although we know of no game for this pack using the Jokers.
The 36 cards used are arranged in the illustration ranking l (low) - 9 (high) from left to right. The suits are:
"Sup" (拾) or "Tens" (ranking high) 
"Gong" (貫) or "Myriads"
"Sok" (索) or "Knots"
"Tyen" (綫) or "Coins" (ranking low)
The extra card ranks as an Extra Ace, but is not attached to any suit.
The five aces:
'The Suffocated' points out that the character 綫, meaning 'thread', on the coins cards probably originated as a misreading of 錢, which stands for 文錢, the coin with the smallest face value.
It will be observed that the cards used as Ace of Tens and as Ace of Coins are not so inscribed. The characters on the card used as Ace of Tens say "Hundred Sons" (Bak Chi - 百子) while those on the card functioning as Ace of Coins are too stylised to be read unambiguously. Miss Tsoi's grandmother called it "Mao Ta" but Mr Pang's mother called it "Ma Tyen". Young (1886) called it "Mo Kwoeng", Prince of Mao, and The Suffocated renders it as Mau Gung (毛公). The Extra Ace was called "Li Tyen" by Miss Tsoi's grandmother but "Yo Tyen" by Mr Pang's mother. Young (1886) has "Joen Tshiën" (雲錢). Although it bears the character for "Coins" it is not accounted a member of the Coins suit. Dylan W.H.S calls the extra ace Leeten (麗綫) and the spare card Leefa (麗花), but according to Hill Li these should be 梨綫 and 梨花 respectively. According to The Suffocated the spare card is Luk Fa (鹿花 "Stagflower").
The first dealer is chosen by lot. Subsequently deal rotates anticlockwise, except that when the Master (Tiu Ga - 頭家) wins then the same dealer will deal again, sitting out again if there are four players.
The dealer can allow a consistent loser to cut the cards.
The dealer may deal the cards singly or in packets of two or more.
If only three are playing the dealer deals to himself first and then anticlockwise until everyone has 12 cards. The dealer will be Master (or Forehand, the person who plays the first card).
If four play then the deal is still anticlockwise, but starts with the player opposite the dealer, who will be Master. The dealer gives himself a single card at any stage , but usually first or last.
When the deal is completed the Master either makes a lawful lead or passes. If he passed then the next player anticlockwise either passes or says "Play". If he also passes then the third player has the same choice. If all three pass the cards are redealt by the next dealer. If anyone said "Play" then the Master leads. According to Dylan W.H.S the word used for play is Tsoh (做).
Any player who said "Play" is Vulnerable, and if he does not win will have to pay the other loser's losses as well as his own. Notice that the Master does not have to say "Play" when he wishes to play, and can never be Vulnerable.
The objective is to win "tricks" with at least six cards. The amount won depends on how many "tricks" the victor takes. The player who first takes six can stop the game and claim immediate victory, but if he plays on, hoping for further "tricks", but another player takes the other six then that other player is the sole victor. If no one takes 6 "tricks" then the hand is drawn and there are no payments. Mr Pang said deal does not rotate in a drawn hand when the Master had not passed; Miss Tsoi said deal rotates in all drawn hands; Dylan W.H.S. says that in a drawn hand (Da Fo - 打和) there are no payments and the same dealer deals again, irrespective of whether the Master passed and who chose to Play.
In Miss Tsoi's tariff of payments a unit stake and a value for extra "tricks" must both be agreed. She suggested 10p for both. The winner would then get 10p for six "tricks" and 10p for each further "trick", giving a maximum of 70p for twelve "tricks". This is collected from each opponent - or twice from a Vulnerable opponent.
Mr Pang's tariff involved a single unit, for which he also suggested 10p, and winners with 6, 7, 8 or 9 were paid 10, 20, 30 or 40p just as in Miss Tsoi's system, but winners with 10 or 11 were paid double, thus getting £1 or £1.20 and a winner with 12 was paid triple, for £2.10.
If a fourth player had been sitting out he turns up his single card at the end of the play. If its rank matches that of one or more of the victor's winning cards then he collects at 10p per match from each loser (or twice from a Vulnerable loser).
If the dealer's card is the Extra Ace it matches any other Aces among the victor's winners, and similarly if the victor has the Extra Ace among his winners then it matches any Ace which the dealer holds.
Variant: Miss Tsoi said that it can be agreed beforehand that the winner also gets an extra 10p for each card with a red overprint among his winners. These cards are the Nines and the Old Aces and also the Eight of Tens.
The four Nines, the Aces of Tens and Coins and (if it is in play) the Extra Ace are called Old Cards (Lao Sui Pai - 老歲牌). The Nines are initially the highest cards in the suits and any card which is known to become, during the course of the play, the highest in its suit has become Old. If a consecutive sequence in the same suit, headed by an Old card, is held by some player then the whole sequence are Old Cards. The point about being known to be highest is that there can be doubt - discards are made unseen and in the 4-player version one card is out of play. The dealer may look at his card at once but is not obliged to reveal it until play is over. If it is a Nine or Eight, or sometimes even a Seven, he leaves it concealed so that the active players do not know what card has become highest in that suit.
The Aces of Tens and Coins are lowest in their suits and the Extra Ace is not in a suit at all. These cards cannot beat any single card played in front of them, but if any of them is led as a single card it wins the trick.
The Master leads first and the winner of each trick or multitrick leads to the next.
The player on lead may play
The Extra Ace does not count as an Ace when making sets of three or four Aces, nor can it enter a sequence. It can however be used to make a set of Five Aces and the lucky owner can claim an immediate victory before the first card is led, irrespective of who has the lead. Miss Tsoi called this "Ng Fu" ie "5 Fu" and valued it at six "tricks"; Mr Pang valued it at 8 "tricks" and called it "Ng Fu Ha San" (五虎下山), "Five Tigers Emerge From the Mountain" in both the Hakka and Cantonese dialects, which we believe to be a play on the two meanings of "Fu". A player who holds other winners in addition to Five Aces cannot claim further "tricks": the payment for Five Tigers is a fixed amount.
There are two constraints upon beginning tricks with single cards:
Firstly an Old Card can be led on its own only in three circumstances:
Secondly, a player who is starting a trick with a single card but may not lawfully play an Old Card must use a card from the highest suit in which he holds a (non-Old) card.
For example, suppose I am not Vulnerable.
The only constraint upon the lead to multitricks is that if the Master passed he is constrained never to lead a set of four or a sequence of four or more.
Play follows anticlockwise. Each player must head the trick or multitrick if possible, or else discard the appropriate number of cards face down.
A single card can be beaten only by a higher card in the same suit. A discard can be of any suit.
A set of three or four cards of the same rank can be beaten only by a set of the same number of cards of a higher rank. Exceptionally, if a set of three or four Aces is led to a multitrick then they can be beaten only by the same number of Nines.
A sequence can be beaten either by a higher sequence of the same length in the same suit or by any sequence of the same length in a higher suit.
If a player who passed plays a set of 4 or a sequence of 4 or more he can expect to be challenged as to why he passed. If he held too good a hand to justify passing, the Pass will be considered unfair. If a player who said "Play" after such an unfair Pass loses then he will "not have to pay his share" of the losses. Presumably the other loser pays on behalf of both losers.
When all three active players have played, the trick or multitrick is complete, and counts for as many "tricks" as the number of cards each person contributed. The winner of the trick or multitrick places his winning card or cards face-up in front of himself and the other cards are pushed aside. The losing cards remain face-up or face-down as they were played but may be buried when later tricks or multitricks are pushed aside. It is considered impolite to excavate in the pile for another sight of a card which is face-up but buried.
The version on the Hak Ga Pai page by Dylan W.H.S. has several small differences from the above description.
The Rules of Luk Fu published by The Suffocated and Wong Siu Fat differ from the main description above as follows:
Here is a blog about Luk Fu (in Chinese) by The Suffocated.
C T Dobree (1955): Gambling Games of Malaya, 1955
M Dummett (1980): The Game of Tarot, 1980
K Himly (1901): Part VII of Die Abteilung der Spiele im Spiegel der Mandschu-Sprache, pp1-23 of T'oung Pao, 1901, 2nd series, vol. II
L M Iakovlev (1946): Igra v Karty u Kitaitsev, pp24-26 of Zapiski Kharbinskogo Obshchestva Estestvoispytatelei i Etnagrofov, 1946, vol 1
W H Wilkinson (1895): Chinese Origin of Playing Cards, The American Anthropologist, 1895
J W Young (1886): Bijdrage tot de kennis der Chineesche hazard- en kaartspelen, pp269-302, Tijdschrift voor indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde, XXXI, 1886