Tien Gow is a trick-taking game, in which each of the dominoes has a specific value when played against other dominoes. The dominoes are divided into two suits: a "civilian" upper suit and a "military" lower suit.
Unlike many similar games like Bridge or Spades, each trick may involve the play of multiple dominoes at a time, and the goal of Tien Gow is to save a strong enough domino for the last hand of each round in order to win the last trick. Doing so, however, depends on having won at least 1/4 of the tiles in previous tricks, else the end trick is forfeited, so players can't simply save their best tiles until the end.
Tien Gow is traditionally played as a gambling game, but can be played for its own enjoyment as well.
