Tien Len

Players and equipment

Four players, each for themselves, and a standard 52-card deck with no jokers. Two or three can play with the same deal and some cards left out, and five to eight can play with two decks shuffled together. It is the card game of Vietnam, played at kitchen tables and on pavements, and it goes by Thirteen, Vietnamese Cards and VC among people who learnt it from Vietnamese friends. The name means go forward, which is what the play does: every card you put down has to beat the one before it.

Cards rank two, ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three. The two is the highest card and the three the lowest. Suits rank too, hearts highest, then diamonds, then clubs, then spades, and the suit only matters between two cards of the same rank: the eight of spades beats the seven of hearts, because rank comes first. So the lowest card in the pack is the three of spades and the highest is the two of hearts.

Play goes to the left unless the table agrees before the first deal to go the other way, which some Vietnamese tables do.

SquareScores keeps the record. There is nothing to add up in Tien Len, so the table is a match table: one deal is one match, and a player is tapped as they go out. More on that under Scoring.

The deal

Thirteen cards each, dealt one at a time. With four players that is the whole pack. With two or three, still deal thirteen each and put the rest face down out of play without looking at them; three players may agree beforehand to take seventeen each instead. With more than four and a double pack, deal thirteen each, or as many as go round equally. The first dealer is chosen any way you like, and after the first deal the loser of the last deal deals the next.

Play

In the first deal, whoever holds the three of spades leads, and that card must be in the opening play. In a two- or three-handed game where the three of spades was left out, the holder of the lowest card dealt leads with it instead. From the second deal on, the winner of the last deal leads, with any combination they like.

A play is one of six combinations:

Single

Beaten by a higher single

One card

Pair

Beaten by a higher pair

Two cards of one rank

Triple

Beaten by a higher triple

Three of one rank

Four of a kind

Beaten by a higher four of a kind

All four of one rank

Sequence

Beaten by a higher sequence of the same length

Three or more cards in rank order, any suits

Double sequence

Beaten by a higher double sequence of the same length

Three or more pairs in rank order

A sequence runs up the ranks and never round the corner: ten, jack, queen, king, ace is a sequence, and so is queen, king, ace, two at the standard table, but ace, two, three is not. Many tables keep the two out of sequences altogether, so that the highest sequence ends at the ace; agree which before you start.

Each player in turn must beat the play on the table or pass. To beat a play you put down the same kind of combination with the same number of cards and a higher top card: a pair needs a higher pair, a four-card sequence needs a four-card sequence, and a triple can never be answered with a pair or four of a kind. Combinations are compared by their highest card, with suit breaking a tie at the top. The seven of hearts with the seven of spades beats the seven of diamonds with the seven of clubs, because the best card in the first pair outranks the best card in the second.

If you pass, you are out of that round of play until somebody's play stands unbeaten. The exception is a bomb. Once a play has gone all the way round with nobody beating it, the cards are swept aside and the player who made it leads again with anything they hold. A player with no cards left is simply skipped.

Twos are the highest cards, and a single two would end most rounds of play on its own, so there is a set of plays that beat a two from outside the ordinary rules. These are the bombs, and a bomb can be played even by somebody who has already passed.

Four of a kind

Beaten by a higher four of a kind

Beats a single two

Three pairs in sequence

Beaten by a higher three-pair run

Beats a single two

Four pairs in sequence

Beaten by a higher four-pair run

Beats a pair of twos

Five pairs in sequence

Beaten by a higher five-pair run

Beats three twos

A bomb beats twos and nothing else. Four of a kind cannot be dropped on a single ace; if a two then beats that ace, the four of a kind can beat the two. A bomb played against a two is itself beaten only by a higher bomb of the same kind, and once a bomb stands unbeaten the player who laid it leads next.

Players go out as their hands empty, and the play goes on among the rest. The first player to shed every card wins the deal; the others follow in the order they empty; the last one still holding cards loses the deal, pays the others and deals the next one.

Scoring

There is no score within a deal. There is the order in which the hands empty, and at most tables a stake that the loser pays.

First out

Leads the next

Wins the deal

Second and third out

Place on the podium

Safe

Last with cards

Pays each other player and deals next

Loses the deal

The stake is whatever the table has agreed, the same amount from the loser to every other player. Serious tables in Vietnam are known to play for sums that would buy a car; among friends it is a coin, a point on a scrap of paper or nothing at all.

On SquareScores a deal of Tien Len is one match on the match table, and the game is set up as a podium: tap a player's name the moment their last card goes down, and the taps run first, second, third. The first player out tops the podium, and the tap that fills the last podium place files the match by itself; everybody below it, the loser among them, reads out, and the Leaderboard carries three, two and one points to the podium across the deals you play. With four or more players that is the third tap. With three players the loser's own tap is the third: the host taps the last one holding cards into third place, and that tap files the match. At a table of two the second tap, the loser's, files the match on its own, because there are only two places. The next match table opens on its own; End match is the door only when a table stops short of a full podium. A host who only wants to know who won each deal can choose winner takes all at launch instead, which is one tap on the first player out. SquareScores deals nothing and never sees a card: the pack, the plays and the bombs are all on the table, and the app only hears who has gone.

A worked deal

Four players: Alice, Ben, Cara and Dev. Alice holds the three of spades, so she leads, and she leads it in a sequence: three of spades, four of clubs, five of diamonds.

Alice

Leads

3♠ 4♣ 5♦

Ben

Six beats five

4♥ 5♠ 6♦

Cara

Ten beats six

8♣ 9♠ 10♥

Dev

Out of this round

Passes

Alice

King beats ten

J♣ Q♦ K♠

Ben

Out of this round

Passes

Cara

Ace beats king

Q♥ K♥ A♠

Alice

Cara's play stands

Passes

Cara leads next and puts down the two of diamonds on its own, expecting it to stand. Dev passed in the last round, but this is a new one, and Dev holds all four sevens: a four of a kind beats a single two, so Dev bombs it. Nobody holds a higher four of a kind, so Dev leads and the deal goes on, pairs beating pairs and singles beating singles, hands shrinking all round.

Alice

Out first, wins the deal

Last card goes down on Ben's queen

Cara

Out second

Empties her hand two rounds later

Ben

Out third

Plays his last pair unbeaten

Dev

Loses, pays, deals next

Four cards still in hand

Three taps on the match table: Alice when her last card landed, Cara when her hand emptied, Ben when his pair stood. Ben's tap was the third podium place and filed the match. Alice carries three points on the Leaderboard, Cara two, Ben one, and Dev reads out; he pays the stake to each of the other three and deals the next one, which Alice leads. On a winner-takes-all table the only tap is Alice's.

Ending

A deal ends when only one player still has cards. The winner leads the next deal and the loser deals it, and a session is as many deals as you like. Most tables settle the stakes after each deal; others keep a tally and settle at the end.

Count the twos and the bombs

There are four twos in the pack, and a hand with two of them is a strong hand. Every two you see played is one fewer that can beat yours, so keep count. Count the bombs the same way: a four of a kind or three pairs in a row is the only thing that can stop a two, and once you have seen the sevens go down as a bomb, the pack has one fewer in it. A hand with a bomb in it should hold the bomb for a two somebody plays with their last cards in sight, not spend it on the first two of the deal.

Lead low and keep control

The player who makes the unbeaten play leads next, and the lead is worth more than any single card, because the leader chooses the shape of the round. Open with your worst cards in the shapes you have most of: a long low sequence or a small pair costs you little and clears your hand of the cards that would strand you at the end. Keep a high single, ideally a two or an ace, to take the lead back when you need it, and plan the last two or three plays so that the final one cannot be beaten.

Do not break your pairs

A lone five is nearly worthless; a pair of fives can win a round once the high pairs are gone. Beginners play singles from their pairs to answer a single and then find their hand is all odd cards. Answer singles with your genuinely single cards, and when you have none, pass and keep the pairs for a round of pairs. The same goes for a sequence: a six that would extend a run is worth more in the run.

Watch who passes and why

A player who passes on a low single either holds nothing above it or is saving what they have, and you will find out which when the round goes to pairs. A player who answers everything fast is a player with a big hand and nothing to lose. When you hold a two, the moment to play it is when the others have passed on something middling and you can lead what you like afterwards; play it into a round where a bomb is sitting in somebody's hand and you have thrown away your best card.

Mind the suits at the top

Rank beats suit, but between two cards of one rank the suit decides, and it decides a surprising number of rounds. A two of spades is the lowest two and a two of hearts the highest, so the two of hearts is the one card nothing but a bomb can beat. A pair that includes a heart beats the other pair of the same rank. When you have the choice, play the spade and keep the heart.

Twos stay out of sequences

The most common difference between tables. Sequences run from three up to the ace and no further, so a two can never be part of a run or of a double sequence. It makes the two purely a trump card, and makes the ace the highest card a sequence can end on. Several Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American tables play this way, and it is the rule in Viet Cong below.

Stacking

When everybody else has passed, the player whose play stands may keep going, laying down one higher combination of the same kind after another before leading afresh. A player who has passed can only interrupt with a bomb. It speeds the game up and rewards a hand with several pairs or sequences of one length.

Trading

After the deal and before the first lead, the loser of the last deal gives their two highest cards to the winner and the second-to-last player gives their highest to the player who came second. The winner then passes back any two cards they do not want and the second player passes back one. Tables in California call it San Jose rules. Over a session it keeps the winner winning, which is why some tables use it and others refuse it.

Pay by the card

Play ends the moment the first player goes out, instead of running on until one player is left, and every other player pays the winner one stake for each card still in their hand. Quicker, and it changes the game: holding a big hand is expensive, so players shed fast and nobody saves a bomb for long. Under this rule three players usually take seventeen cards each and the leader takes the odd card.

Viet Cong

The version most often called VC, which many American players know as the standard game. Twos stay out of sequences, the three of spades must be in the first lead, and four twos dealt to one hand win the deal outright before a card is played. The bombs are stronger and are called slams: three pairs in a row or four of a kind beat a single two; five pairs in a row or two fours of a kind in sequence beat a pair of twos; seven pairs in a row or three fours of a kind in sequence beat three twos. Some VC tables let players swap cards by agreement before the first lead, an equal number each, and when they trade the four twos no longer win automatically.

Two packs for a big table

Five to eight players shuffle two packs together and deal thirteen each. With eight cards of every rank there are more pairs, more sequences and more bombs, and a four of a kind is no longer the only one of its rank. Agree beforehand whether two identical cards are a pair, since the eight of hearts can now be answered by the other eight of hearts.

How many cards do you deal in Tien Len?

Thirteen each. With four players that is the whole pack, which is why the game is also called Thirteen. With two or three players you still deal thirteen each and leave the rest face down out of play; three players can agree to take seventeen each instead. With five to eight players you shuffle two packs together and deal thirteen each.

What is the highest card in Tien Len?

The two of hearts. Twos are the highest rank, above the ace, and within a rank hearts beat diamonds, diamonds beat clubs and clubs beat spades. The lowest card is the three of spades, and the player who holds it leads the first deal.

What beats a two in Tien Len?

A bomb, and nothing else when the two is played as a single. Four of a kind or three consecutive pairs beat a single two; four consecutive pairs beat a pair of twos; five consecutive pairs beat three twos. A bomb can be played even by a player who has passed, and only a higher bomb of the same kind beats it. Four twos together cannot be beaten in the standard game, and in the Viet Cong version they win the deal outright.

Can you play after passing in Tien Len?

Not in the same round of play. Once you pass, you sit out until somebody's play goes all the way round unbeaten and a new lead is made. The one exception is a bomb: a player who has passed may still bomb a two.

Who leads first in Tien Len?

In the first deal, whoever holds the three of spades, and that card has to be part of their opening play. If the three of spades was not dealt in a two- or three-handed game, the lowest card out leads instead. After that the winner of each deal leads the next with any combination they like, and the loser deals.

Can you play Tien Len with two players?

Yes. Deal thirteen each as usual and set the other twenty-six cards aside unseen, so that neither player can work out the other's hand from what is missing. It is a thinner game than four-handed, because half the pack is out and a bomb is rarer, but it plays well and fast. Three is better, and four is the real game.

Is Tien Len the same as Big Two?

No, though they are close cousins and the hands look alike. Both are climbing games with thirteen cards each and twos at the top. Big Two is the Chinese game, with five-card poker hands as combinations and spades as the top suit; Tien Len uses sequences of any length, has no poker hands, ranks hearts highest and gives the two its own set of bombs.