How to Play

Our table’s take on Tiến Lên — the climbing game where you shed all thirteen cards and the first one out wins the hand.

The play

Lead a single, a pair / triple / quad, a straight (3+ ranks in a row, never a 2), or a run of pairs (3+ consecutive pairs). To follow, match the shape and length with something stronger. Every card has a unique strength: ranks climb 3 (low) up to 2 (high), and within a rank the suits order ♦ < ♣ < ♥ < ♠. The humble 3♦ opens the first hand.

Passing & bombs

Passing locks you out for the rest of the trick; when everyone else is out, the last to play clears the table and leads fresh. The 2s (the heos) rule the singles until someone bombs — a quad or a 3-pair run chops a single 2, a 4-pair run chops a pair of them. Bombs only ever target 2s and other bombs.

Table settings (the ☰ menu)

Everything below lives in the ☰ menu on the game board, and your choices are saved for next time. Pick them the first time you play, or change them whenever you like — the board waits with a Start Game button, so nothing deals until you say so.

Bot difficulty — pick your poison, and don't trust the names. Friendly is here for the snacks and plays for fun, not blood. Ruthless talks a big game but plays it safe — sound, steady, all bark. And then there's Family: it plans every hand, hoards control, and takes no prisoners. Ruthless on steroids, because nobody fights dirtier than family. Mastery sits on top of the ladder — it counts every card you've played and reads you like a menu. A change takes effect on the next deal, never mid-hand.

Table pace — Relaxed, Steady, or Brisk. Pace sets both how fast the bots play and how long your turn clock runs before the table moves on (roughly 45s / 25s / 12s). A countdown shows on your turn.

On timeout — what happens when your clock runs out: Pass Me passes for you whenever passing is legal (and only lets a bot step in when you're forced to lead, so you're never bombed out for going idle), or Bot Plays hands your move to a bot every time.

Auto-pass — when nothing in your hand can beat the pile, pass for you automatically instead of making you click.

Where it comes from

Tiến Lên is Vietnamese for "go forward" — one of the great Asian climbing games, a cousin of Big Two and the Western game President. The house rules and the bombs are ours; going forward belongs to everyone.

A house standard built on Big Two — Chor Dai Di (鋤大地) — the climbing game where you shed all thirteen cards, the winner calls Bonzai!, and the table answers Ai yah!

The play

Lead a single, a pair, a triple, or a five-card poker hand — a straight, a flush, a full house, four of a kind with a kicker, or a straight flush. To follow, match the shape with something stronger. Ranks climb 3 (low) up to 2 (high), and within a rank the suits order ♦ < ♣ < ♥ < ♠. The 3♦ opens the very first hand, and the first player to empty their hand wins — announce your last card before you play it.

The Bonzai Standard

Our rulings are codified and versioned: a suited 2-high straight flush tops the royal, four of a kind can be thrown away for free, and a play the whole table can't answer leads itself. On singles the house blocks at all costs. The last-card announcement is a table event — the flag flies and the call goes up.

Table settings (the ☰ menu)

Bot difficulty runs Friendly, Family, Ruthless, Mastery — and don't trust the names. Family plans every hand and takes no prisoners; Mastery counts every card you've played. Table pace is Relaxed, Steady, or Brisk.

Auto Pass passes for you when your hand can't answer the pile. Last-Card Duty (off by default) puts the leader on the hook to block a player down to their last card. Hints (off by default) light up your legal plays. Daily Table deals every player the identical hand, like duplicate bridge; Live Table opens a seat for friends with a join code. Your choices are saved for next time.

Where it comes from

Big Two — Chor Dai Di in Cantonese, literally dig up the big deuce — took hold across Hong Kong, Guangdong and Southeast Asia, with cousins in Vietnam's tiến lên and Japan's daifugō. Ours is our family's version, learned at the table and named for the shout.

The frantic solitaire race of the North American kitchen table — everyone plays at once, hands colliding on shared foundations, and speed takes the hand.

The play

You work your own columns and a face-down Nerts pile, but the foundation piles in the middle are shared: anyone can start one with an ace and build it up in suit, and the card that lands first takes the spot. A King claims any empty column. Empty your Nerts pile and call it to end the race.

The count

When the race ends, every card you landed on a foundation is worth a point, and each card still in your Nerts pile counts against you. Play to 200. The shuffle pile keeps feeding your hand, so there's always a card to turn.

Partners: at four, two play to a side and pool their foundations.

Table settings (the ☰ menu)

Assist (off by default) highlights your playable Nerts and shuffle cards and auto-plays the obvious moves. Card Counts shows the little badge tallying each pile.

Where it comes from

Nerts — Nertz, Pounce, Peanuts — is North America's racing solitaire, a whole table playing patience at the same time on the same middle piles. The name is what you shout the instant your pile runs out.