THE QUICK TAKE
In the traditional layout described here, the front is nearest the table centre and the back is nearest its owner. A row at the top of a photo is not automatically the front.
Traditional Pusoy table vocabulary for adult Filipino beginners · No-stakes paper layout · Not an App interface guide
Use the owner and table centre as your reference points
Pagat describes Pusoy cards being placed with the three-card front nearest the centre of the table and the five-card back nearest the player. The five-card middle lies between them. “Front” therefore names a row relative to its owner, rather than an edge of a photograph.
For a paper demonstration, place three labelled rectangles between a seat marker and a centre marker. Starting at the seat, write back → middle → front → centre. No card ranks or hand comparison are needed for this orientation check.
Read this two-seat diagram from top to bottom
Imagine looking straight down at a table. Ana sits at the top of the page and Ben at the bottom. These are invented seat labels, not real players or a recorded game. The table below shows only their row positions; it omits any other seats.
| Page position | Label to write | Cards in that row |
|---|---|---|
| Top seat marker | Ana | — |
| Nearest Ana | Ana: back | 5 |
| Next toward centre | Ana: middle | 5 |
| Above centre | Ana: front | 3 |
| Centre marker | Table centre | — |
| Below centre | Ben: front | 3 |
| Next toward Ben | Ben: middle | 5 |
| Nearest Ben | Ben: back | 5 |
| Bottom seat marker | Ben | — |
Read only Ana’s three rows downward: back, middle, front. Then read Ben’s three rows downward: front, middle, back. The written sequences differ because the owners face opposite directions. The row definitions have not changed.
Turn the paper halfway around without moving its labels. Each front remains nearer the centre than its owner’s other rows. Each back remains nearest its owner. Page-top and page-bottom have swapped, but ownership and row identity remain intact.
Write a caption that survives rotation
“The top five cards” is a fragile caption: it may identify a different group after a picture is rotated or cropped. Instead, use owner + row + count, such as “Ana — back — five cards”. Place the caption beside the intended rectangle.
Try this annotation sequence on the diagram:
- Mark the owner’s seat and the table centre.
- Trace from that seat toward the centre.
- Label back, middle and front in that order.
- Check the expected counts: five, five, three.
The count helps distinguish the front, but cannot by itself distinguish middle from back: both contain five cards. If a cropped image omits the seat, centre and row labels, record the uncertainty instead of guessing from the remaining five-card groups.
Self-check: correct a rotated-picture caption
CHECK THE REFERENCE POINT
A worksheet says: “Ben’s front is the row nearest Ben’s seat.” A second caption says: “Ana’s uppermost row must be her front because it appears first on the page.” Under the diagram above, what needs correcting?
Reveal the explanation
Both captions mistake the reference point. Ben’s nearest row is his back. Ana’s uppermost row is also her back because it is nearest Ana. Their fronts are the three-card rows beside the centre marker. Identify each owner before naming a row.
Now remove only the player names from your copied diagram. Add “top-seat owner” and “bottom-seat owner” to restore unambiguous captions. A real person’s name is unnecessary; a stable seat label is enough.
Keep position, card pattern and row order separate
This diagram identifies positions only. It does not supply thirteen actual cards, validate an arrangement or decide a result. Continue with the three-card front-hand lesson for permitted patterns, then the row-order worksheet for the separate ranking checks.
An App may rotate, stack or label cards differently from a physical table. Read that mode’s own labels and help text before interpreting a screen; no Tongits Go interface was tested for this article. Also confirm the game name: Pusoy and Pusoy Dos do not share this three-row arrangement.
Sources & scope
Checked on October 2, 2026. Pagat supplies the traditional placement and row sizes. The two-seat diagram, caption method and orientation exercises are original editorial examples; they do not reproduce a tested App screen.
- Pagat — Chinese Poker / Pusoy ↗Traditional Pusoy hand arrangement. Individual game modes can vary.
This is an independently written educational guide, not an official rulebook or a promise of results. Illustrations are original examples, not screenshots from the game.
