Strategy to Win in Pinoy Henyo!

Filipinos love games - specially those games that involve some kind of creativity. That is why many Filipino viewers are glued to their TV screens when it's time for the PINOY HENYO portion in Eat Bulaga - a popular and longest running TV variety show in GMA 7. 

My mother-in-law and I love watching Pinoy Henyo. This is up to a point where we get angry on the contestant who can't answer a very easy word. Sometimes, my kids keep reminding my mother-in-law to calm down and stop screaming because she might suffer from heart attack. In my case I get frustrated when the contestant are not ready to take the challenge or maybe they don't know how to strategize to come up with the right answer. This is why I wanted to write this article: To come up with a strategy or plan for the contestants to use in playing Pinoy Henyo games.

Pinoy Henyo is a game of deductive reasoning and creativity. It requires understanding of objective facts, logic, geography and language.

The mechanics of the game.  Teams must have 2 players. Player One will do the questioning while Player Two should answer only YES, NO or Can Be. The secret word will be posted at the top of the head of Player One. The team will be given 2 minutes to get the correct word. No body language is allowed. The team can be disqualified for this. If Player Two answers with another word other than Yes, No or Can Be, a 3-seconds penalty shall be given to the team. The clock stops when Player One answers correctly the secret word.

The Strategy. Often times, only 5 categories are being considered to guess the secret word. These are:

• Person
• Animal
• Place
• Food
• Thing. 

The team should use logical questioning to get the secret word. Questions should start from the first level and then to the second level until they have all the clues to guess the secret word.

Tip for questioner - be attentive to the answer of your partner. 
Tip for answerer - modulate your voice if the word guessed by the questioner is already near the secret word.


Below are the level of questions for each category:

Person

1. Name of the person
1. Celebrities
1. Actor - drama, comedy, action, has a new movie or tv show
2. Singer -R&B, Pop, Rock, Ballad, Jazz
3. Host - Evening show, Afternoon show, Morning show
4. Dancer -TV show
2. Politicians - President, Vice President, Senator, Congressman, Mayor, Governor, Cabinet Secretary
3. Presidents - Still alive / already dead, Gender
4. Heroes - Gender, Name in bills or coins
5. Athletes - Basketball, Boxing, Swimmer, Runner, Billiards
6. Newscasters- Network affiliate, Morning news, Evening news, Afternoon news
2. Parts of the body
1. Internal
1. From shoulder to head - Inside the head, Inside the mouth
2. From neck to waist
3. All over the body
2. External
1. From shoulder to head
2. From neck to waist
3. From waist to feet
4. From shoulder to hand

General questions: Age, gender

Animal

1. Living in Land
1. Number of feet - No feet,  Two feet, Four feet, More than 4 feet
   
2. Mammals? Amphibian? Reptiles? Insects?
   
3. Pet (can be found inside the house?)
4. Living in the wild or forest or zoo or farm
   
5. With horns, furs
2. Living in water
1. Fish - size, can be eaten
2. With shell - crabs, clams
3. Without shell - jelly fish, star fish
4. With tentacles -octopus, squid
3. Living in air
1. Birds - size(small, large)
1. as pets?
2. living in the wild, forest or zoo?
2. Insect

Food 

1. Fruits
1. Color, shape, size, taste (sour, sweet)
2. Vegetables
1. leafy, color, shape, size
2. viand
3. Meat
1. Pork, chicken, beef, lamb, goat, fish, seafood
2. Viand
1. prepared in breakfast, lunch or dinner
2. with sauce, soup or fried only or with dip sauce
4. Appetizer
5. Soup
6. Dessert
7. Drinks
8. Condiments

Place

1. Inside the country
1. Luzon
1. North - central, south, metro manila
1. province, city, landmark, tourist destination
   
2. Visayas - province, city, landmark, tourist destination
   
3. Mindanao - province, city, landmark, tourist destination
2. Outside the country
1. Asia, Australia, North America, South America, Africa, Middle east, Europe, 
1. State, city, province, landmark, tourist destination

Thing

1.  Inside the house
1. Kitchen, bedroom, dining room, living room, toilet
1. Made of plastic, metal, wood, paper
2. Electrical appliances
3. Electronics - gadgets,
2. Part of the house
3. Used as decoration
2. Outside the house
1. Made of plastic, metal, wood or paper
2. Kind of transportation - land, water, air
3. Trees, plants, land formation, water formation
4. Buildings, monuments, offices, malls, 

Both player should be attentive to the answer of each. And the best tip in this kind of game is --- PRACTICE.
 

Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am)