If you already know Tiến Lên, skip to the chop — sections 6 to 9 are the house rules that most apps leave out, and they are where the chips really move.
One standard 52-card deck, no jokers. At a full table of four, everyone gets 13 cards and the whole deck is dealt. Tables of two or three players deal the same 13 cards each and the rest of the deck simply stays out of play.
The very first hand of a session is led by whoever holds the 3♠, and their opening play must contain it. At smaller tables the 3♠ may not have been dealt at all — then the opening belongs to the lowest card actually in play, and it must be included the same way.
After that, the winner of the previous hand leads the next one, and may lead anything.
3 is the lowest card and 2 is the highest. The 2 (the "heo" — pig) is not a low card here; it is the most powerful single in the deck, and that is exactly why so many rules are built around punishing you for holding one.
| Rank, low to high | 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · J · Q · K · A · 2 |
|---|---|
| Suit, low to high | ♠ Spades · ♣ Clubs · ♦ Diamonds · ♥ Hearts |
Suit only breaks a tie between equal ranks. 8♥ beats 8♦ beats 8♣ beats 8♠, and every 9 beats every 8. The lowest card in the deck is 3♠; the highest is 2♥.
Six shapes are legal. Nothing else can be put on the table.
| Shape | What it is |
|---|---|
| Single | One card. |
| Pair | Two cards of the same rank. |
| Triple | Three cards of the same rank. |
| Four of a kind | All four cards of a rank. This is a bomb. |
| Straight | Three or more cards in consecutive rank, any suits — e.g. 5 6 7. A straight can never contain a 2. |
| Consecutive pairs | Three or more pairs in consecutive rank — e.g. 7 7 8 8 9 9. Never contains a 2. Three or more of these are bombs. |
Because runs may not include a 2, the highest possible straight ends at an Ace, and a "dragon" straight runs 3 through A.
Play moves around the table. When it is your turn you either beat what is on the table or pass.
You finish by emptying your hand. The first player out places 1st, and the round continues until only one player still holds cards.
A bomb is a hand shape strong enough to break the normal same-shape rule — but only against 2s and against other bombs. Four bomb strengths exist, weakest first:
| Bomb | Strength | What it can chop |
|---|---|---|
| Three consecutive pairs | 1 — weakest | A single 2. |
| Four of a kind | 2 | A single 2, a pair of 2s, and three consecutive pairs. |
| Four consecutive pairs | 3 | Single and paired 2s, and every weaker bomb. |
| Five or more consecutive pairs | 4 — strongest | Single and paired 2s, and every weaker bomb. |
A bomb never answers an ordinary combination. You cannot drop four 7s on a pair of Kings or on someone's straight. Bombs exist to punish 2s, not to end tricks.
A triple of 2s can never be chopped. Three 2s put down together are untouchable — nothing in the deck beats them.
When a bomb beats a 2, that is a chop, and it is not just a win of the trick: the chopped player pays the chopper immediately, in the middle of the hand, before anybody has won anything.
The price depends on the colour of the 2 that died, measured in the room's entry:
| What was chopped | Price | In a 1,000 room |
|---|---|---|
| A black 2 (2♠ or 2♣) | 2 × entry | 2,000 |
| A red 2 (2♦ or 2♥) | 4 × entry | 4,000 |
| A pair of 2s | Both 2s added together | 4,000 – 8,000 |
Counter-chops multiply it. If someone chops your bomb back with a stronger one, the price doubles; a third chop in the same chain triples it — and it is always the player who was just chopped who pays the one who chopped them. A chop war over one red 2 in a 1,000 room moves 4,000, then 8,000, then 12,000 chips, in seconds.
Chains do not carry between tricks: once everybody passes, the next trick starts clean.
If the round ends and you never played a single card, you are frozen. It is the worst thing that can happen to you at the table:
In a 1,000 room (stake 4,000) that is 8,000 for an empty-handed freeze, 12,000 if you were sitting on a bomb, 16,000 if you were sitting on two red 2s.
Get at least one card down. A single 3♠ played early is the cheapest insurance in the game.
The moment 1st place empties their hand the round is decided, and whoever is left holding cards is measured for what they are still carrying. The last player pays the player who finished directly above them for every dangerous card still in hand:
This is paid on top of the normal placement result, not instead of it. A 2 you managed to unload before the end owes nothing — only what is actually in your hand when the round stops counts.
Frozen players are exempt from thúi, because their leftover cards were already priced into cóng.
Some hands win the moment they are dealt, before a single card is played. The table settles and the next one is dealt.
| Hand | What it is |
|---|---|
| Four 2s | All four 2s in one hand. |
| Six pairs | Any six pairs among your 13 cards. |
| Five consecutive pairs | Five pairs in a row — e.g. 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8. |
| Dragon straight | One of every rank from 3 to Ace. |
Every other player pays double the table stake — 8,000 each in a 1,000 room, so a four-handed instant win collects 24,000 chips off the deal.
If two players are dealt an instant win at the same time they split one pot: each loser pays exactly what they would have paid against a single winner, because a loser did nothing different and should not be charged for someone else's luck. And if every seat wins at once, no chips move at all — chips at a table only ever come from losers.
Every room has an entry, and the stake is four times it — in the 1,000 Beginner room the stake is 4,000. Placement settles between players; the table never creates or destroys chips.
| Table | Who pays whom |
|---|---|
| Four players | 4th pays 1st a full stake · 3rd pays 2nd half a stake. |
| Three players | 3rd pays 1st a full stake · 2nd pays 1st half a stake. |
| Two players | The loser pays a full stake. |
At four players that is +4,000 / +2,000 / −2,000 / −4,000 in a 1,000 room, before any chop, cóng or thúi money is added on top. Where a frozen player sits on one end of a pairing, that pairing is void and the surviving player simply breaks even — they are not rewarded for someone else's freeze.
You do not have to memorise any of this. The first game is guided, and each of the four money rules above explains itself the first time it fires at your table — at the moment it costs somebody chips, which is the moment it is worth understanding.