Big2 Instruction

This exciting card game combines all the elements of a great game - skill, luck and a little of that ever-so-fun backstabbing, with skill being the overriding factor. Big2 is tremendously popular with the Chinese.

Big2 is closely related to poker, in that poker hands and values are used in the play of the game, and to other card game variations where players attempt to rid their hands of all its cards. The game is simple to play, but where strategy comes in, there's much to learn.

This game has many alternative names: Big Deuce, Da Lao Er, Choi Dai Di, or simply Dai Di, Pusoy Dos...

When you first enter a big2 game room, you are an observer. To reserve your sit, you can click on one of the empty seats (denoted by [None]) or click on button "Sit". If there is no seat available, consider open a new table, or wait for someone to leave, or go to a different table. Double click on a table will let you to go there.

Once you have a sit, you can play the next time the cards are dealt. If there is no game in progress, you can click on "Deal" to ask the server to deal cards. There must be at least 2 people to play.

At the beginning of a new game, each player is given 13 cards. The winner of the previous game (or a random player chosen by the server) starts a round with any valid big2 card set (to be described shortly). All players then take turn to play a higher card set or "Pass" to skip the turn. This continue until 3 players "Pass". The remaining player then starts a new round with any valid big2 card set. The game ends when one of the player runs out of cards.

You can play when in a round even if you have "Pass" previously.

A big2 card set can be either of the following:

1. Single: one card
2. Pair: 2 cards of the same rank
3. Triple: 3 cards of the same rank
4. Straight: 5 cards forming a consecutive sequence
5. Flush: 5 cards of the same suit
6. Full House: 3 cards of the same rank and 2 other cards of the same rank
7. Quadro: 4 cards of the same rank and an arbitrary card
8. Straight Flush: 5 cards of the same suit forming a consecutive sequence.

In big2, the ranks of the cards in increasing value are 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A 2. A card of higher rank is better than a card of lower rank. Among cards of the same rank, a card of higher suit is better. The suits of the cards in increasing value are Diamond, Club, Heart, Spade.

Please note that A2345 and 23456 are NOT valid big2 straights, where as JQKA2 is a valid straight.

Card sets of the same type are compared as followed:

• For full house, use the rank of the triple
• For quadro, use the rank of the 4 same-rank cards
• For flush, use the rank of the biggest card. If the two biggest cards in the sets are equal, the next biggest cards are compared, and so on.
• For all others, use the biggest card in the set

Valid card sets of 5 different cards are compared according to poker rule, which straight the smallest, then flush, full house, quadro, and straight flush is the biggest.

Card sets of different sizes are not comparable. You cannot play a triple to beat a pair, for example.

Before the cards are dealt, the player in sit #1 can change the betting per card by selecting a new betting from the box at the bottom left corner. There is a limit on how much you can bet. This limit depends on the amount of money you have.

When the game ends, moneys are transfered between each pair of players based on the difference of the numbers of remaining cards of the players. For example, if A has 2 cards left, and B has 9 cards left, B has to pay A 7 times the bet amount. Furthermore, if one has 10 or more cards left, the money transfered is doubled.

An exception to the above rule is when the winner win with a single card, and the person left (the assistant) before him/her could have prevented it from happening. In that case, the assistant has to pay for all loses payed to the first winner, and is not allowed to take money from players with more cards than the assistant.