Tres y Dos is a game of the Rummy family which originated in the Dominican Republic. While the game is widely played there it is almost unknown throughout the rest of the world. Tres y Dos, which is Spanish for Three and Two, uses one standard 52 card deck. The cards in the deck used for this game have no relative ranking and the suits of the cards are irrelevant. Tres y Dos is designed to be played by two to seven players.
The goal of Tres y Dos is quite simple, with the objective to be the first player to obtain a five card hand consisting of three cards, all of the same rank and two other cards, of which both are of the same rank (also known as a full house).
Determination of seating positions and the first dealer can be performed in a variety of ways, with drawing for high cards a common method. As previously mentioned, for actual play of the game the cards have no relative ranking, but for this draw the cards can be ranked as follows (from high to low): Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Thus, each player would draw one card from the shuffled deck. The players would then take seats at the table in order of preference based on cards drawn, from highest drawn to lowest. If two or more players draw cards of the same rank, those cards should be set aside and new cards drawn, until that player draws a card of a rank not previously drawn by any other player. The player drawing the highest card of all is set as the first dealer.
Once the players are seated and the first dealer chosen, the dealer then gathers all the cards from the deck and thoroughly shuffles the deck. After the shuffle, he offers the deck to the player at his immediate left for the cut. After the cut, the dealer then begins dealing the cards in a counter-clockwise direction around the table, face-down and one card at a time. He begins the deal with the player at his right and continues until each player has five total cards to comprise his hand. The dealer then places the remainder of the deck in a neat face-down pile in the center of the table as the stock. He then removes the top card from the stock, placing it face-up beside the stock pile to start the discard pile.
The player to the immediate right of the dealer has the first turn and the turns rotate in a counter-clockwise direction around the table from player to player. Each turn consists of several actions:
To begin his turn, a player first draws a card. He may either draw the top face-up card of the discard pile or the top face-down card from the stock pile. Whichever card he draws, he then adds the card to his hand. After the draw, the player then examines his hand, and selects one card to discard, placing it face-up on the top of the discard pile. If a player elects to draw the top card from the discard pile, he may never discard that same card on the same turn, however if he draws the top card from the stock pile, he may discard that card if he elects.
The turns continue in this manner around the table until one player, during his turn manages to form a Tres y Dos. This is a five card hand consisting of exactly three cards of the same rank (such as a triplet of 3 fours) and two remaining cards consisting of two cards of the same rank (i.e. a pair consisting of 2 tens). As soon as a player manages to form this type of hand on his turn, he immediately places his hand face-up on the table for all to see and he is declared the winner of the hand. If, on the extremely rare occurrence, multiple players have a hand consisting of a Tres y Dos, the winner is the first player to show his hand face-up on the table. This would usually only happen at the beginning of the hand if multiple players were initially dealt such a hand. If it cannot be determine which of the players showed his hand first, the winner would be the player who would most recently next have his turn.
If the stock pile runs out before any player is able to obtain a Tres y Dos, the players continue playing as long as each player elects to draw the top card from the stock pile. If a player wants to draw from the stock instead, the dealer then picks up all except the top card of the discard pile, shuffles it and places it face-down to start a new stock pile and the game continues.