BIG 2 (the chinese card game), any strategy advice?

[die_rich88]

I am sure many people know/played this game, but I am just wondering if there are any strategy articles anyone here can pinpoint me to. I tried googling it but couldnt really find anything.

- thanks!

[shant]

Do you know where this game can be played online? I love it.

Can be played for micro-stakes on the Action Poker network, I think.

pocket wilds, then when you have a monopoly on 2s and black threes you spring it, boom, instant lead.

[college kid]

First of all, it can be played for decent stakes at Superior Poker. I still just play for play money because I still get schooled at it. As far as strategy, I'm still working on it, but I keep seeming to get raped when somebody throws down the nut hand for that number of cards, then a low pair, then pair of dueces, and then a [censored] four as their last card and I'm sitting with five cards left! Try to figure out how to use your cards to allow you to win every hand in a row in the last part of the game. Like shooting the moon at hearts, people figure out what you're up to right away, so you need to make it so they can't do anything about it. There's a bit of watching your opponents and figuring out how sneaky they are too, but my best advice (and I still suck, mind you) is practice practice practice. I wish there was more info on Big 2; it really is an interesting game.

[henrikrh]

Here's my genreal BIG 2 advice:

-Watch for the highest card at all times, when 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif and 2/images/graemlins/heart.gif have both been played you know your 2/images/graemlins/diamond.gif will give you a free setup to play a big hand. You should be able to keep track of this all they way down to the kings, though it rarley gets there before the game is done.

-Hold on to your big cards for quite a while, let your big cards become the highest cards still in play, then you can dominate towards the end.

-Obvious but: Play the lowest possible hand of whwatever is being played, except near the end if an opponenet to your left has one card left play your highest card.

-Don't play a flush with 3 face cards in it or a 2 and a face card, the big cards are worth more being played alone.

-When you have the 3/images/graemlins/diamond.gif open with as big a hand as possible, 33 if you can, a str8 would be the ideal. This si obviously just to get a head start, leaves room for error later.

-Always watch how many cards your opponents have.

-If you play it live don't sorrt your cards, you should be watching your opponenets sort theirs, particularly watching for anyone moving 5 cards at a time, or constructing a 5 card hand.

-Think 2 or 3 moves ahead.

-Don't play a str8 if it breaks several pairs, unless of course you can play 2 str8s hehe. The pairs are better 3 pairs or more are better than the str8, pairs are excellent for taking the momentum very late in the game when people are trying to get rid of a lone card or two.

-If someone seems desperate to take control, ie. plays an ace on top of a 7 or something, they probably have a 5-card hand they really want to play, and you should do whatever you can to stop them. Nothing is worse than being stuck with a low str8 you can't play and now have to play as 5 low cards.

Ok, all this advice was very rag-tag, tkae it with a grain of salt. I've also never played for money, and I've never played online.

How does betting work online? Do you play on after one person is done?

Edit: for speeling

[henrikrh]

[ QUOTE ]
I keep seeming to get raped when somebody throws down the nut hand for that number of cards, then a low pair, then pair of dueces, and then a [censored] four as their last card and I'm sitting with five cards left! Try to figure out how to use your cards to allow you to win every hand in a row in the last part of the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

If someone throws down teh nuts, let's say it's 2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif, then plays a pair, and still has a pair of deuces left, then they started with 3 deuces and there was no way they wouldn't have raped you. It takes a lot skill to f*ck up 3 deuces.

Also, if I have 224 left in my hand and I know no one can beat the deuces, I play each one individually, just to give people a glimmer of hope and to drag out their defeat /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[dblgutshot]

Anyone else prefer vietnamese rules?

[henrikrh]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone else prefer vietnamese rules?

[/ QUOTE ]

What are they?

[lastchance]

Only play cards that improve your hand after you've played them.

Look for the nuts - the unbeatableness. If you are in a position to win no matter what anyone else plays, you should figure that out 90% of the time, after enough play.

Play low cards before high cards.

[die_rich88]

for those who dont know, you can play BIG2 at tigergaming.com or pokerincanada.com, the latter is a skin of tigergaming.

[henrikrh]

Still looking for someone to inform me how betting is done in this game? Is each hand played like a small sng where the winner takes quadruples his investment and everyone else loses theirs?

[dblgutshot]

For vietnamese rules, the suits are a differnet order but that doens't really matter. There are no flushes or full houses, straights can be as short as three running cards or can go as long as you can make it.

You can 'chop' a 2. So the nut 2 isn't really the nut, it can be beat by 3 consecutive pairs (667788) or quads.


henrikrh, I've never played for money online but when playing for money at school it was a certain $/card left in your hand at the end of the game.

For example playing $.25/card, if someone wins and you have 4 cards in your hand, you paid the winner $1.0

There were some other rules but I think we just made those up depending on who was playing. I'm not sure if this system is widespread or not though.