Filipino card games are not one game but a family. Six of them come up again and again at tables in Manila, Cebu and Davao: Tongits, Pusoy, Pusoy Dos, Pekwa, Ungguy-unggoyan and 1-2-3 Pass. All six use a standard 52-card pack. None of them is poker, and that matters, because players who sit down expecting poker rules lose their first few hands to the difference.
This page covers what each game is, how many people play it, and how a round ends. Detailed rules live on their own pages, linked from each card below.
The six games at a glance
| Game | Players | Cards | What kind of game | You win by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tongits | 3 | 52 | Rummy family | Emptying your hand, calling a draw, or holding the lowest total when the stock runs out |
| Pusoy | 4 | 52 | Partition game | Beating more of an opponent’s three hands than they beat of yours |
| Pusoy Dos | 4 | 52 | Climbing game | Being first to play every card in your hand |
| Pekwa | 3-6 | 52 | Layout game | Playing your last card before anyone else |
| Ungguy-unggoyan | 2-8 | 52, one removed | Pairing game | Not being the one left holding the unpaired card |
| 1-2-3 Pass | 3-13 | One four-of-a-kind per player | Passing game | Not being the last hand on the pile |
Two of these are often confused, so start here: Pusoy and Pusoy Dos are different games. Pusoy splits 13 cards into three hands and compares them. Pusoy Dos is a climbing game where the first player out wins. They share a name root, not a rulebook.
How each one is played
Games that use poker hand strength
Both of these rank your cards the way poker does, so a player who already knows the ten hands starts with an advantage. They are not poker: you arrange or shed cards rather than bet on them.
Pusoy
Chinese Poker, 13-card poker
- Players
- 4
- Cards
- 52 cards
- Time
- 15-30 min
- Type
- Partition game
Everyone gets 13 cards and splits them into three hands: five, five and three. The five-card hand at the back must outrank the five in the middle, which must outrank the three in front. Get that order wrong and your hand is fouled. Then every pair of players compares the matching hands.
How you win You score for each of an opponent's three hands that you beat. The front hand only counts as three of a kind, a pair, or high card.
Pusoy Dos
Big Two, Chikicha
- Players
- 4
- Cards
- 52 cards
- Time
- 10-20 min
- Type
- Climbing game
All 13 cards are dealt. The player holding the 3♣ leads with it. Each turn you either pass or beat the previous play with a higher combination of the same number of cards: single, pair, triple, or a five-card group. When everyone else passes, the last player to play leads anything.
How you win First to shed every card wins. The hand is scored when someone goes out.
Pusoy Dos is not Pusoy. Different game, different rules.
Local and family games
These are the games played at home, at reunions and in the neighbourhood. Three of them need no scoring at all, and none of them uses poker hand rankings.
Tongits
Tong-its
- Players
- 3
- Cards
- 52 cards
- Time
- 20-40 min
- Type
- Rummy family
Each player is dealt 12 cards, the dealer 13. On your turn you either draw from the stock or take the top discard, then discard one card. Melds are sets of the same rank or runs in one suit, and sapaw lets you lay a card onto any meld already on the table, including other players' melds.
How you win You win by emptying your hand, by calling a draw when your hand and melds reach a set value, or when the stock runs out and the lowest total wins.
Pekwa
Fan Tan, Card Dominoes, Sevens
- Players
- 3-6
- Cards
- 52 cards
- Time
- 15-25 min
- Type
- Layout game
The whole pack is dealt out. Play builds four rows on the table, one per suit. Each row starts from a set card and grows downward toward the two on one side and upward toward the ace on the other. On your turn you must play if you can. If you cannot, you pass.
How you win The first player to play every card in hand wins the hand. Everyone else is left holding cards.
The six-start layout is the one documented under the Philippine name Pekwa. Tables that play the plain Sevens version open on sevens instead, so agree which rank starts the rows before the first deal.
Ungguy-unggoyan
Monkey-Monkey, Filipino Old Maid
- Players
- 2-8
- Cards
- 52 cards, one removed
- Time
- 10-20 min
- Type
- Pairing game
Before the deal, one card is taken out and set aside face down. Nobody looks at it. The rest of the pack is dealt out. Everyone discards their pairs, then players take turns drawing a card from the hand on their left and discarding any new pair. Three of a kind only sheds two cards.
How you win Play continues until one card is left. That card cannot be paired, because its partner was the card removed at the start. Whoever holds it loses, and is the unggoy: the monkey.
1-2-3 Pass
A Spoons variant
- Players
- 3-13
- Cards
- One set of four per player
- Time
- 5-10 min
- Type
- Passing game
Each player is dealt four cards from a pack built out of one four-of-a-kind per player. Everyone shouts "1 2 3 Pass!" together, passes one card face down to the left, and picks up the card coming from the right. The shouting keeps everyone in the same rhythm. There is no turn order.
How you win When someone completes four of a kind, they put a hand palm down in the middle of the table. Everyone else races to stack a hand on top. The last hand on the pile loses the round.
Which one to learn first
The answer depends on the table you are joining, not on difficulty.
If you are playing with family at home, start with Ungguy-unggoyan or 1-2-3 Pass. Both need no scoring, no money, and no strategy beyond paying attention. Children can join both, and a round takes ten minutes.
If you are playing with friends who gamble for small stakes, Tongits is the usual entry point. It has the most moving parts of the six, but it also has the most players, so there is almost always someone at the table who can walk you through your first hand.
If you want the game closest to poker, learn Pusoy. It uses standard poker hand rankings for its five-card hands, so a player who already knows what a full house beats is halfway in. It is a partition game, though, not a betting game: you are arranging cards, not wagering on them.
If you want the fastest game to teach someone, 1-2-3 Pass wins. The rules fit in four sentences and the only skill is noticing when someone has gone quiet.
Three mistakes that catch beginners
One: assuming these games share poker’s hand rankings. Only Pusoy does, and only for its five-card hands. Pusoy Dos uses poker hand types but ranks suits in an order that is not the poker order. Tongits uses sets and runs, which follow no poker ranking at all.
Two: assuming the ace is always high. In Tongits and Pekwa, the ace can sit below the two. In Pusoy Dos, the two outranks the ace everywhere except inside a straight. Ask before the first deal.
Three: assuming one rulebook covers the table. Every one of these games has house rules, and Filipino tables are relaxed about using them. Pekwa has two common starting cards. Pusoy Dos has more than one scoring system. If you learn a game from one source and the table plays it differently, the table is right.
Common questions
Is Tongits the same as Tong-its?
Yes. Tongits, Tong-its and Tong Its are three spellings of one game.
Are these games gambling?
They are card games that people play for fun. Some tables play for small stakes and some do not. Whether any particular game is played for money is a decision for the people at that table, not a rule of the game itself.
Do I need a special deck?
No. All six use a standard 52-card pack. Some households add jokers to a few of them as a house rule, but that is optional.
Can I play these with two people?
Ungguy-unggoyan and 1-2-3 Pass both work with two. Tongits needs three. Pusoy Dos has official two- and three-player adjustments. Pusoy and Pekwa are built for four and up.
Educational content. 18+ only.