With the popularity of Texas Hold'em taking hold in the culture, other poker games have been strung along like a Jackson brother following in wake of Michael during the “Thriller” days of the King of Pop. One of the games that has existed on the periphery, and has yet enjoy the popularity of other forms of poker is called Big2.
Big 2 is played can be played with 2 to 4 players, and starts with each player being dealt thirteen cards. The object of the game is to be the first person to get rid of every card in your hand.
In this game, a Two is the highest card (hence the name) and a three now takes the place as the lowest card in the deck. There is also a hierarchy of suits. Spades is the highest suit followed by by hearts, clubs, with diamonds bringing up the rear. This means that the highest card is a two of clubs and lowest is a three of diamonds.
The player holding the lowest ranked card starts things off. In a game with four players somebody is definitely going to have the three of diamonds. In a game with fewer people this may not be the case. In this case players will announce what their lowest card is, and the one with the lowest card starts the action.
The starting player will discard a card set that includes their lowest ranking card. After this first action, the next player will discard a higher card set then the one that the first player had discarded. For example if the first player had discarded a pair of threes, the next player would need to discard a higher pair, two-pair, three of a kind, etc. Remember that suit also is meaningful when calculating value.
Each player will play a hand of a higher value then the person who acted before them or pass. This goes on until three players have passed. In the case of four players, once three players have passed, the remaining player begins a new round with any card set. A player passing doesn’t bar them from playing other hands in the same round.
Players discard their hands, and winner is the player who gets rid of all their cards. Card sets and values are displayed below.
A two still works the same way as it would in any other straight or flush; the only benefit it gets from being the highest card in the deck is that it cannot be counted as the lowest one in the deck.
# of cardsExample5Straight Flush
54-of-a-Kind + Kicker5Full House5Flush5Straight33-of-a-Kind2Pair1Single
