How to play Pusoy Dos: a visual guide
A Filipino Big Two guide to the card order, the four plays, passing, and going out before the table catches up.
How to Play Pusoy Dos
What is Pusoy Dos?
Pusoy Dos is the Filipino name for Big Two, a climbing card game for four players. You win by getting rid of all your cards first. Each turn you beat what's on the table with a single, a pair, a triple or a five-card poker hand, or you pass.
It uses one standard 52-card deck with no jokers. The whole deck is dealt, so everyone starts with 13 cards. Most of the game is timing. You spend weak cards while you can and keep something strong for the moment you need to take the lead back.
Card ranking
Ranks run from 3, the lowest, up through 10, J, Q, K and A to 2, the highest. That 2 is the "dos" in the name. When two cards share a rank the suit decides, and Pusoy Dos has its own order. Diamonds are highest, then hearts, spades and clubs.
Which pair is higher?
How a round works
You either beat the current play with the same number of cards and a higher value, or you pass. A pass only skips that turn. If the trick comes back around to you, you can still play.
- Whoever holds the 3♣ leads first. The opening play has to include the 3♣, as a single, in a pair or triple, or inside a five-card hand. Nobody can pass on that first play.
- Beat the table, or pass. Play the same shape at a higher value. Singles answer singles, pairs answer pairs and five-card hands answer five-card hands.
- Three passes in a row clear the table. Once the other three players have passed, the cards are swept away. Whoever played last leads the next trick with any legal play.
- The first player with no cards left wins. Everyone else counts the cards still in their hand.
The four plays
Every play is one of four shapes. Two cards of different ranks are not a pair, and there are no four-card plays.
Five-card hands
Five-card hands rank like poker hands, read from the bottom. A higher type beats any lower type, no matter which cards are in it. Here they are, lowest first.
- Straight Five consecutive ranks in mixed suits. Compared by the highest card, then that card's suit. A-2-3-4-5 is the highest straight and 2-3-4-5-6 the next. Other runs can't go past the 2, so J-Q-K-A-2 and Q-K-A-2-3 don't count. 5♣ 6♦ 7♠ 8♥ 9♣
- Flush Five cards of one suit. Compared by suit first, so a diamond flush beats every heart flush, then by the highest card. A private room can switch to highest card first as a house rule. 4♦ 6♦ 8♦ 10♦ Q♦
- Full house A triple plus a pair. Compared by the rank of the triple. The pair never matters. 9♠ 9♥ 9♣ 4♦ 4♠
- Four of a kind Four cards of one rank plus any fifth card. Compared by the rank of the four. Q♠ Q♥ Q♣ Q♦ 6♣
- Straight flush Five consecutive cards in one suit. Compared by the top card, then suit. No other hand beats it. 7♦ 8♦ 9♦ 10♦ J♦
Winning and scoring
The round ends the moment one player plays their last card. That player wins. Everyone else scores the number of cards left in their hand, so a low score is good.
The winner leads the next game and can open with any legal play. The 3♣ only has to start the first game.
Pusoy Dos and Big Two
Our Pusoy Dos tables play like Hong Kong Big Two with two changes. The suits rank ♦ > ♥ > ♠ > ♣ instead of ♠ > ♥ > ♣ > ♦, and the 3♣ opens instead of the 3♦. Everything else on this page is the same in both. To see how Taiwan and Vietnam play, compare the regional variants.
House rules vary a lot at Filipino tables. Pusoy Dos explained covers the common ones and where the name comes from.
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Pusoy Dos
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