[citation needed] Literally, tổ-tôm means ‘nest of shrimps’; however, when written in Sino-Vietnamese characters (Chữ Nôm) it is read tụ tam (bài) (Chinese 聚 三 牌 ju san pai), ‘gathering three cards’,[4] namely the three suits of Văn, Sách, and Vạn of the deck of cards.

[citation needed] The origin of tổ tôm is still unclear, but by the 19th century in Vietnam, this card game was very popular, especially among the upper class who considered it an elegant game that required a lot of intelligence.

Vietnamese literature mentions tổ tôm in a number of literary works, such as this proverb: The game uses a type of Chinese money-suited pack consisting of 120 cards (called "quân").

[clarification needed] Like the Hakka's Six Tigers [zh] deck, each card has a decorative picture in the middle that does not relate to the suit or rank.

During French colonial rule, the Marseilles firm A.Camoin & Cie designed the tổ tôm deck depicting people wearing traditional Japanese costumes from the Edo period.

In addition, there are a few cards depicting other common models in Japanese painting: a carp, peaches, a pavilion, and a boat.

According to Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh,[8] in addition to playing tổ tôm, the deck of cards can also be used to play tài bàn, kiệu and đánh chắn, although some cards must be removed to suit the game.

Each person will pick up their stack, fan their cards so they can see, and then try to arrange them into melds (called "phu").

In addition, the player's hand is not complete until they form a special meld (called "lưng").

There are many types of winning hands: When playing tổ tôm, there are rules for placing them on the mat to make it easier to check the score.

[clarification needed] The winning hand is composed of different special melds and different runs.

Lưng: Phu bí: Tài bàn is a three player game that plays like tổ tôm.

Because tổ tôm is quite difficult, the ancients had a folk song praising tổ tôm, it shows the level and majesty of a gentleman: Poet Nguyễn Khuyến mentioned tổ tôm in his poem "Tự trào": Poet Trần Tế Xương also mentioned this game in the poem "Chơi cuộc Tổ tôm": Poet Nguyễn Công Trứ wrote a whole poem, each verse has the name of a card in tổ tôm, according to legend, to ask for forgiveness from debt: In the work "Sống chết mặc bay [vi]" by Phạm Duy Tốn, there is also a detail mentioned: "Ấy đó, quan phụ mẫu cùng với nha lại, đương vui cuộc tổ tôm ở trong đình ấy, ngài mà còn dở ván bài thì dẫu trời long đất lở, đê vỡ, dân trôi, ngài cũng thây kệ."