Tiến lên (Vietnamese: tiến lên, tiến: advance; lên: to go up, up; literally: "go forward"; also Romanized Tien Len) is a shedding-type card game originating in southern China and Vietnam. It may be considered Vietnam's national card game, and is also played in the United States, sometimes under the names "Viet Cong", "VC", "Thirteen", or "Killer". Core rules The game has many local variants. The core rules are relatively simple and are taken from the main 4-player rule sets provided by John McLeod and David Parlett. Preliminaries Deal 4 players 13 cards each from a standard 52-card deck. Deal and play is clockwise. For the first hand, the dealer is picked randomly; for subsequent hands, the loser of the previous hand deals. Cards rank (from high to low): 2 A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3. Within the numerical ranking, suits rank (from high to low): Hearts – Diamonds – Clubs – Spades . So for example (from higher to lower): . Thus is the highest card and the lowest. Players in turn discard single cards, or card combinations, to a central face-up pile. The object is to avoid being the last player to hold any cards. Outplay Leading For the first hand, the player holding the lowest card begins by playing it singly, starting a face-up discard pile in the center. (When 4 people play, this will always be the .) In subsequent hands, the winner of the previous hand begins, and may play any card or combination. Valid cards or combinations that may be led are: A single card A pair of the same rank, as A triplet of the same rank, as A quartet of the same rank, as A sequence of 3 or more cards, regardless of suit, as A double sequence of 3 or more pairs, regardless of suit, as Sequences may not "go around the corner". Thus, while is a valid sequence because the cards follow each other in rank, it is not possible to extend this sequence by adding any 3 to the end, since this jumps from the highest to the lowest rank. Following Each player, in turn, may either play or pass. To play, they must contribute a card or combination to the pile that matches the type (single, pair, etc.) of the one previously played, but beats it in rank. The highest-ranking card of each