Tien Len Express is Tiến lên miền Nam, the southern game and Vietnam's own card game, for two, three or four players, each on their own phone and each for themselves: beat what is on the table with the same kind, higher, bomb the twos, and be the first to get rid of every card.
About Tien Len Express
Tiến lên is the game a Vietnamese family plays at Tết, round a mat on the floor with the whole house watching. Tien Len Express keeps the table and drops the pack: one phone hosts, the others join it with a short code, and nothing needs a server or an account. Bots take any empty seat, so one phone and a few bots is a game too.
Thirteen cards each. Threes are lowest and twos highest, and between two cards of a rank the suit decides: spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts. Whoever holds the lowest card dealt leads the first hand with it. Play a single, a pair, three or four of a kind, a run of three or more, or a run of three or more pairs, and the next player beats it with the same kind, higher, or passes for the rest of the round. The twos have their own answers, the bombs: three pairs in a row beat a single two, four of a kind beats a two, a pair of twos or three pairs in a row, and four pairs in a row beat them all.
The hand goes on until one player is left holding cards. The places score, 3, 2, 1 and nothing at a table of four, and the first to the target wins the game. If the table plays it, a hand dealt all four twos, a dragon from three to ace, six pairs or five pairs in a row wins on the deal.
Made for the journey
- No internet, no mobile data. The phones talk to each other directly, so a game carries on through tunnels, ghats and stretches with no signal at all.
- Everyone on their own phone. Nobody passes a handset round, and nobody sees a hand that is not theirs.
- Short of players? Bots take the empty seats, each with a setting for how closely it follows the play, and they keep their twos and bombs back for the moment they matter.
- A dropped link is not the end of the hand. A phone that loses the connection can join the same table again.
- No sign-in and no real money. Install it, open it, play.
How playing together works, and tips for trains, buses and flights
Features
- Two, three or four players, each for themselves, thirteen cards each
- Runs and runs of pairs, four of a kind, and the bombs that answer the twos
- A pass for the rest of the round, as the south plays it, or for that turn only
- The hand played out to the last, the places scored, the first to the target winning
- Winning on the deal, if the table plays it
- Quick game: save a table of bots, and open it in one tap
- Connects over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or Google Nearby, with no internet
- No sign-in, no server, no real money