LOVEJILI Pusoy Card Game: Every Pusoy Dos Play and How It Ranks

The pusoy card game most Filipinos mean at a table is pusoy dos, and its combinations are the eight kinds of play you can lead or beat with: three small ones and five five-card hands. Pagat, the card-game rules reference, records pusoy dos as the Philippine name for Big Two, with one local twist that matters on every trick: the suit order. This page lists all eight plays in rank order, then the suit order and the rule that ties everything together. For where card games sit in the lobby, see the online poker lane and card studios.

Pusoy Hand Ranking at a Glance

A play can only be beaten by a better play with the same number of cards. You cannot beat a pair with a triple or a triple with a straight.

1. Single Card

Cards rank from two, the highest, down to three, the lowest: 2-A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3. Between two cards of the same rank, the higher suit wins.

1. Example: the king of diamonds beats the king of hearts under the Philippine suit order.
2. Example: any two beats any ace.

2. Pair

Two cards of equal rank. A higher-ranked pair beats a lower one; between equal pairs, the pair holding the highest suit wins.

1. Example: a pair of queens beats a pair of jacks, whatever the suits.
2. Example: two nines including the nine of diamonds beat two nines including the nine of hearts.

3. Triple

Three cards of equal rank. Three twos are the highest triple and three threes the lowest. A triple cannot carry extra cards unless they turn it into a full house or four of a kind.

1. Example: three aces beat three kings.
2. Example: three twos beat every other triple.

4. Straight

Five consecutive ranks in mixed suits, the lowest five-card group. Pagat’s basic rules put twos below threes in a straight, so A-K-Q-J-10 is the highest straight and 5-4-3-2-A the lowest; an ace may sit at either end but not in the middle.

1. Example: K-Q-J-10-9 beats Q-J-10-9-8.
2. Example: 3-2-A-K-Q is not a valid straight.

5. Flush

Any five cards of one suit. A flush beats any straight. In pagat’s basic rules a flush in a higher suit beats a flush in a lower suit, whatever the ranks, so the suit order decides most flush contests.

1. Example: under the Philippine order, a diamond flush beats a heart flush.
2. Variation: some groups compare the top card first and use the suit only to break ties, so agree the rule before you play.

6. Full House

Three cards of one rank and two of another. Between two full houses, the higher triple wins.

1. Example: 9-9-9-4-4 beats 8-8-8-K-K.
2. A full house beats any straight or flush.

7. Four of a Kind Plus a Card

All four cards of a rank, plus any fifth card. Pagat is clear that the fifth card must be included; four equal cards alone are not a playable combination in the basic game.

1. Example: four sevens and a three beat any full house.
2. Between two, the rank of the four decides.

8. Straight Flush

Five consecutive cards of one suit, the highest five-card group. Between two straight flushes of equal rank, the higher suit wins, so under the Philippine order a diamond straight flush tops the game.

1. Example: 9-8-7-6-5 of hearts beats any four of a kind plus a card.
2. A straight flush can only be beaten by a higher straight flush.

The Philippine Suit Order

The suit order also settles who leads. In the standard game the holder of the lowest three starts; pagat notes that pusoy dos changes which three that is, because clubs, not diamonds, sit at the bottom of its order.

Pusoy Card Game or Pusoy Dos?

The two names are easy to mix up. Pagat describes plain pusoy as the Philippine name for Chinese poker, where each player arranges 13 cards into three poker hands, two of five cards and one of three, and warns it is “not to be confused with Pusoy Dos”. Pusoy dos is the shedding game on this page. A game labelled pusoy in any lobby follows its own rules screen, so read it before the first deal.

1. Pusoy dos: race to empty your hand by beating the last play.
2. Pusoy: arrange three poker hands and compare them with the other players’.

Poker’s own ladder differs too: it ranks suits equally and has a two-pair hand. The poker ranking of all ten hands sets them side by side, and the casino terms glossary covers the betting vocabulary.