Big Two
Somebody leads a combination and everybody else has to beat it with a better one of the same size, or pass. Two things surprise almost everybody: the two is the highest card in the game, not the ace, and a flush is judged by its suit before its ranks. There are no points here at all. One deal decides it, and what you play for is the order you go out in.
The two orders
- The cards rank, from high to low: 2, ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three. The TWO IS THE HIGHEST and the three is the lowest.
- The suits rank, from high to low: spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds. Every card in the pack therefore beats or loses to every other, and there are no ties.
- So the two of spades is the best single card there is, and the three of diamonds the worst.
The deal
- Two, three or four players from a standard pack. An empty seat is filled by the bot, and a game with a bot in it is not rated.
- Thirteen cards each at four players. At three, seventeen each and the one card left over goes to whoever leads. At two, seventeen each and the other eighteen cards are set aside unseen and take no part.
- Whoever holds the lowest card that was dealt leads first, and their first play has to include that card. At four players that is always the three of diamonds; at two and three it is whatever came out lowest.
What you can play
- A single card. A pair of the same rank. Three of the same rank. Or five cards in one of the five shapes below.
- FOUR CARDS ARE NEVER A PLAY.
- A straight: five cards in a row of mixed suits. A flush: five of one suit. A full house: three of one rank and two of another. Four of a kind plus any fifth card, which you must include. A straight flush: five in a row, all one suit.
- You can only be beaten by the same NUMBER of cards. A single beats a single, a pair a pair, five cards five cards. A pair can never answer a single, however good it is.
Which five-card hand beats which
- Any flush beats any straight. Any full house beats either. Any four of a kind beats all three. Any straight flush beats everything.
- A FLUSH IS JUDGED BY ITS SUIT FIRST, whatever the ranks. A seven-high spade flush beats an ace-high heart flush, because spades beat hearts. Two flushes of the same suit are settled by their highest card.
- A straight is judged by the card at the top of its run, and then by that card's suit. The highest straight is ace, king, queen, jack, ten; the lowest is five, four, three, two, ace.
- INSIDE A STRAIGHT THE TWO IS LOW, below the three, which is the one place it is not the best card in the pack. So five, four, three, two, ace is beaten by six, five, four, three, two, which is beaten by seven, six, five, four, three. Jack, queen, king, ace, two is not a straight at all.
- Between two full houses, the one with the higher three of a kind wins. Between two fours, the higher four. The fifth card of a four of a kind counts for nothing.
The trick, and passing
- Play goes round. Each player in turn either beats what is on the table or passes.
- You are never obliged to beat something just because you can. Passing to keep a high card back is often the right move.
- PASSING DOES NOT PUT YOU OUT OF THE TRICK. If somebody else plays and it comes round to you again, you may play then.
- When everybody still holding cards has passed since the last play, the trick is over, the cards are set aside, and whoever played last leads again. If that player has gone out, the lead goes to the next player who has not.
- You cannot pass when it is your lead, because there is nothing to pass on.
How the game ends
- Play your last card and you are out, in first place if you are first, second if you are second, and so on. THE OTHERS CARRY ON without you.
- The game ends when one player is left holding cards, and that player comes last.
- There is no score and nothing to add up. The finishing order IS the result, and it is what your rating is worked out from.
- A resignation or a missed deadline puts that player last. Every move has the same deadline, chosen when the table is made.
Worth knowing before you start
- Big Two is usually played over many deals for points. Here ONE DEAL IS THE WHOLE GAME, and everybody gets a place in it rather than only the winner being named: that is what the site rates, and it is why play carries on after the first player is out.
- Games of this family are played all over Asia under other names, and they are not quite this game: Tien Len in Vietnam, Capsa in Indonesia, Pusoy Dos in the Philippines and Choh Dai Di in Hong Kong all add cards or combinations that this one does not have.
- Keep the two of spades. Nothing beats it, so it is a trick whenever you want one, and it is wasted taking a trick nobody was fighting for.
- Count what is left. Everybody's card count is on the table all game, so you can always see who is about to go out, and there is no need to announce a last card.
- Long runs and flushes are worth breaking up if the alternative is being left with singles: a hand you cannot lead is a hand you cannot finish.
The deal comes from the seed, which is published when the game ends, so the whole game can be checked afterwards. Nobody ever sees another player's cards, and at two players nobody, including the game, knows which eighteen cards were set aside.
Big Two terms
- A combination
- What you play: one, two, three or five cards. Four cards are never a combination.
- The table
- The combination in play, which the next player has to beat. The cards beaten under it stay there until the trick ends.
- To pass
- To let your turn go by. Always allowed except on your own lead, and it does not stop you playing later in the same trick.
- To go out
- To play your last card, which takes the next place. The others play on.
- The finishing order
- Who went out first, second, third, and who was left holding cards. There is no score: this is the result.