Intro
Big Two is the grand-daddy of the popular drinking game known widely as asshole, or president. The card game is best played with 4 people, but can accommodate 3-5 people if necessary. It is Chinese in origin and is known as Choi Dai Di.
Rules
The hierarchy of the cards are as follows:
Rank: (highest)2AKQJ109876543(lowest).
Suit: (highest) Spade,Heart, Club, Diamond (lowest).
Unlike in asshole the two is not all powerful, in Big Two it essentially acts as a normal high card like in any game, usually represented by an ace. The two is simply the highest card, nothing more.
The suits simply help break ties between the numerical value of the cards. A 9 of diamonds for example is lower than a 9 of spades, hearts, and clubs.
Play
To start, all the cards are dealt out of a 52 card deck until there are none left. Play commences in a clockwise fashion, in which the goal of the game is to be the first player to dispense of all of their cards. The player with the lowest card, the 3 of diamonds starts first. The next player must beat the 3 of diamonds with a card of higher value. This trick continues around as the value of the cards increase, to the point where people must pass or they simply choose to pass. The last person to play a card on the first trick leads the next hand, a staple continued throughout the game. When leading, a player has many options, (except for the 1st round). They can either play another single card, or more effectively play a selection of poker hands in an attempt to reduce the number of cards their hand. The next person MUST beat what was put down, if they can't, they are forced to pass. You can always choose to pass if you want.
Special Hands
These are basically poker hands with the hierarchical rules of rank and suit applied to them as described above. The legal hands are, Pair, Three of a Kind, Straight, Flush, Full House, Four of a Kind, and Straight Flush. Note that Two Pair is not allowed, and that Four of a Kind uses 5 cards: the 4 similar cards and any extra one you choose. Therefore the only legal number of cards playable at one time is, 1,2,3, and 5.
Remember that Two is the highest card, so in straights and flushes for example the 2AKQJ would be the high hand. Suit must also be considered. A Pair of 9's with Diamonds and Hearts, can be beaten by a Pair of 9's of Clubs and Spades. The highest card with the highest suit in a similar hand signifies the higher hand.
Winning and Losing
The first player to go out is the winner. The game can either stop here, or continue on until there is only one person left with cards. Betting is often used in this game, where the remaining cards in the loser's hand is multiplied by a pre-determined cash value and paid to the winner. If you wanted the game could be stopped with two people having cards, the player with the most cards, would pay the winner, and the second loser would pay the second winner. The betting can be determined by the players before the game is started, and is not important to the mechanics of the game.