Game Bai Doi Thuong

What game bai doi thuong apps are

The phrase "bai doi thuong" translates as card games exchanged for prizes. In practice it means card game apps, usually played on a phone or computer, where the points or in-game currency you win can be swapped for something with real value: cash from an agent, a telecom top-up code, or a game card code.

The model matters because it is what separates these apps from ordinary free card games. A round of Red Bull Black Bull or Lieng on a free app costs you nothing but time. The same round on a doi thuong app has a stake attached, and the winnings leave the app as money or credit. That exchange step is where the "doi thuong" (prize exchange) happens.

The most fully documented example is Rikvip, later renamed Tip.club. According to Vietnam's Ministry of Information, it ran 42 games simulating forms of gambling, took deposits by telecom card, game card, bank transfer and agents, and let players convert its RIK currency back into money through the same channels. Police dismantled the operation in 2018, and its story is told in full later on this page³.

The games themselves are usually live-dealer card games streamed from a studio, alongside traditional Vietnamese card games. The rules below come from published operator rulebooks for the live games, which is the clearest record of how these apps actually play.

Red Bull Black Bull: how a round works

Red Bull Black Bull, also listed under names such as Bullfight and Bull Flight depending on the app, is a comparing game. You are not playing the cards yourself. Two hands are dealt, one called Black Bull and one called Red Bull, and you bet on which will win.

The game uses a standard 52-card deck with no Joker. The dealer deals 5 cards to each side, Black Bull and Red Bull, and the system reads the cards and scores both hands¹. In the Bullfight variant, two 52-card decks are used alternately, and Black Bull is always dealt first¹.

Scoring works on card points. The aim is to arrange your 5 cards into a set of 3 cards that totals a multiple of 10, with the remaining 2 cards deciding the strength of the hand. Face cards and combinations that fit the named hands (Bull Bull, Gold Bull, Bomb, Five Calf) rank above plain point totals⁵.

Once both hands are scored, the side with the higher hand value wins. If Black Bull and Red Bull have equal hand value, the result is a tie, and bets on Red Bull or Black Bull are returned. Special bets are not affected by a tie and settle on their own terms¹.

A round takes well under a minute. Cards are dealt, scanned, scored and settled, and the next round begins immediately, which is part of why this game suits phone play.

Hand rankings and the ace rule

The full ranking order, from strongest to weakest, is:

Five Calf > Bomb > Gold Bull > Silver Bull > Bull Bull > Bull 9 > Bull 8 > Bull 7 > Bull 6 > Bull 5 > Bull 4 > Bull 3 > Bull 2 > Bull 1 > No Bull¹

The named hands work like this:

• Five Calf is the top hand: 5 cards comprising A, 2, 3 and 4, with the total value of all 5 cards equal to or less than 10¹.
• Bull Bull is a 3-card set totaling a multiple of 10 plus 2 remaining cards totaling exactly 10 or 20⁵.
• No Bull means your 3 cards cannot be arranged into a multiple of 10, and it is the weakest result⁵.
• Bull 1 through Bull 9 are hands where the 3-card set is a multiple of 10 and the 2 remaining cards total between 1 and 9 points; Bull 9 beats Bull 8 and so on down¹.

One rule catches many new players: aces count only as 1. Unlike blackjack or poker, where an ace can be high, in Red Bull Black Bull an ace is worth exactly one point, always¹. That is why Five Calf, built on A, 2, 3, 4, is possible at all: the four low cards plus one more small card keep the total at 10 or under.

A related variant, Bull Bull on the same operator, uses a slightly different top hand: 5 Gong, meaning all 5 cards are J, Q or K, ranks above Bull Bull, and the rest of the ladder runs Bull 9 down to No Bull as above⁵.

The bets you can place

The betting layout offers four groups of bets: the main sides, Bull 1 to Bull 9, Double Bull Bull and special hands²:

• Black Bull and Red Bull: the two main sides. The higher hand value wins, and a tie returns your stake.
• Bull 1 to Bull 9: you are betting that a specific hand rank will appear. These pay more than the main sides because they are harder to hit.
• Double Bull Bull: this bet wins only if both the Red Bull and Black Bull hands have equal results, that is, the same hand ranking¹.
• Special hands: Silver Bull, Gold Bull, Bomb and Five Calf. A special bet wins if either the Red or Black Bull hand matches the bet type, and you can win more than one hand type in the same round¹.

The special-hand rule works like this. If you bet on Five Calf and either side is dealt Five Calf, you win, regardless of which side wins the round. If both sides somehow qualify for different special bets you hold, you can collect on both¹.

Cross bets and how to place a bet

Placing a bet is simple: select the chip value you want and drag and drop it into the betting area on screen¹. There is no dealer to announce to and no verbal declaration, unlike a live poker table where you would say "I bet 5" and push chips across the line⁶.

Betting on both Red Bull and Black Bull at the same time is allowed, but it is treated specially. The operator's rules call these cross bets, or in the English version, hedging: the valid bets count as hedging rather than as two independent positions². In the Thai-language version of the same rulebook, simultaneous Red Bull and Black Bull bets are described as fraudulent bets, so the treatment varies by operator and the in-app rules state which applies⁵.

There is also a balance requirement for combined bets. To bet Equal (Tie) and Double in the same round, your account balance must be greater than 6 times the intended stake. If both bets lose, you lose 5 times the Tie stake plus 1 times the Double stake⁵. The same operator states it more simply elsewhere: a Double bet alone needs a balance of at least 5 times the stake, and Equal plus Double together needs 6 times¹.

Table limits and adjusting them

Minimum and maximum bets depend on the limits set at each table. You may bet anywhere within the combined range of the table limit and your personal player limit¹. In practice this means two numbers matter: the table's range, which is the same for everyone at that table, and your own limit, which can be lower.

If your personal limit is too low or too high for how you want to play, you adjust it by contacting customer service. There is no in-app slider for limits; the change goes through support¹.

For context on what licensed betting limits look like in Vietnam, the draft betting decree sets a minimum stake of VND 10,000 per bet and caps a player at VND 1,000,000 in total bets per day⁷. The same VND 10,000 minimum appears in the existing decree on betting business⁸. Unlicensed app tables are not bound by these figures, which is one reason stakes on them can climb much higher.

What happens when a card cannot be read

Because these are live-dealer games, the cards are physically dealt in a studio and scanned so the system can read them on your screen. Sometimes a scan fails.

The rule is consistent across the operator's rulebooks. If the system cannot read a dealt card, the dealer rescans it until the system reads it. If the card still cannot be read, the current round is canceled or voided, and all bets for that round are returned¹. The same rule appears for Bullfight, Bull Flight, Dragon versus Phoenix and Win Three Card, so it is a house-wide policy rather than a quirk of one game⁵.

For you as a player, this means a misread card never costs you a settled bet. The round simply does not count and your stake comes back.

Traditional card games you will see in apps

Alongside live comparing games like Red Bull Black Bull, these apps carry digital versions of the traditional Vietnamese card games that people already play at home. If you want the background on those games, our page on traditional Vietnamese card games covers them in depth. The ones you will meet most often:

• Bai Buu: a traditional Vietnamese game similar to Chinese Poker (Mau Binh). Each player gets 4 cards face down and arranges them into a front hand and a back hand of 2 cards each. Front hands are compared first, then back hands; you win the round only if both of your hands beat the opponent's corresponding hands. Pairs are the strongest hands regardless of point value, ranked from Pair of Aces down to Pair of 2s, and the maximum hand score is 9. It is popular in Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia⁹.
• Xi Dach: the Vietnamese take on blackjack. Two Aces (Xi Bang) beat a regular Xi Dach of an ace plus a 10-value card and win immediately, and Ngu Linh, 5 cards without busting, beats a regular 21. Our Xi Dach page has the full rules¹¹.
• Bai Cao: a 3-card comparing game. Each player gets 3 cards and points are compared, with three of a kind the best hand¹².
• Lieng: a 3-card poker-style game with betting rounds, covered in our Lieng rules overview¹³.
• Tien Len: the country's most popular shedding game, also known as Thirteen. A player who holds cards when others finish loses double the stake, a penalty called thua cong, and is checked for remaining 2s and special combinations for extra penalties. See our Tien Len page¹⁴.

The mix matters for understanding these apps: the live games bring the fast, casino-style action, while the traditional games bring familiarity. Both carry real stakes on a doi thuong app.

Rikvip: the Vietnamese card game app and its closure

Rikvip is the case study for how these apps rise and fall in Vietnam. According to the Ministry of Information's announcement, the operation was renamed Tip.club in August 2016 and ran as apps for phones and computers. It offered 42 games simulating forms of gambling³.

Money moved through several channels.

Cashing out worked in reverse: players converted RIK, the in-game currency, into money by selling to agents, or took the value as telecom card codes, game card codes or phone top-ups through payment intermediaries³.

The payment mechanics are the tell. Licensed prize-winning gaming in Vietnam pays in Vietnamese dong, and the regulation on electronic games with prizes sets out lawful routes for foreigners who win cash in foreign currency: selling it to a licensed bank for dong, transferring it abroad through a licensed bank, carrying it abroad with the bank's confirmation, or depositing it into a foreign currency account at a licensed bank¹⁵. Card codes and agent sales sit entirely outside that system.

Who can play

These apps have no legal status in Vietnam. They are not licensed betting products, and the Rikvip case shows the practical risk plainly: the operation was dismantled by police and its channels shut down, with players' balances in RIK left to whatever the closure allowed. Anyone playing on such an app, visitor or resident, is doing so outside any licensed framework.

What is licensed is narrow. Betting under Vietnam's betting decree is conducted in Vietnamese dong, with a minimum stake of VND 10,000 per bet⁴, and the draft decree proposes a cap of VND 1,000,000 per player per day⁷. Vietnamese citizens can enter licensed casinos under the pilot scheme, and foreigners can play at licensed venues with a passport. For the licensed options, see our pages on casinos in Vietnam, sports betting in Vietnam and online gambling in Vietnam.