Overview

Originating in Hong Kong, Big Two is a strategic trick-taking card game that demands well-timed plays and tactical foresight. Players take turns playing valid cards or combinations (tricks) from their hands, aiming to be the first to empty their hand or to have the fewest cards when another player finishes.

While the game has evolved into many variations, this competition will play the vanilla version with four players and the rules outlined below. Card names will be represented by their rank followed by the first letter of their suit and a rank of ten is represented with a T (e.g. KS refers to the king of spades, TD refers to the ten of diamonds).

Gameplay

Match

A match consists of the same four players that will play three games. Each player will have a cumulative score of the points earned from each game. The player with the most points at the end of the match wins

Each Game

Start

All cards are dealt out evenly between the four players such that each player receives 13 cards (no jokers). The first round is started by the player with 3D (the weakest card in the game) and their first trick must include 3D.

Rounds

Each round, the starting player may play any valid one, two, three or five card trick from their hand (tricks will be discussed in the Tricks section). Play then rotates through each player. On a player’s turn, they may

  1. Play a trick that, 1) consists of the same number of cards as the starting trick and 2) beats the last played trick (i.e. If the round started with a two-card trick, each player can only play two-card tricks during this round).
  2. Pass their turn. Note a pass does not forfeit them from the current round and they may play a trick if play comes back to them. A player must pass if they do not have a valid trick to play.

A player wins a round if they play a trick and every other player passes. This event concludes the round and the winning player becomes the starting player for the next round.

Conclusion

A game ends as soon as a player empties their hand. The score for each player is calculated and added on to their cumulative match score (scoring will be discussed in the Scoring section).

Tricks