Indian casinos cannot be complete without Teen Patti. There are even sites and apps dedicated primarily to the game. Teen Patti, also known as Three-card brag, is very similar to poker. The aim of the game is to create a winning hand, i.e. a hand with high ranking cards and grow the pot before the game finishes.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Teen Patti Rules
To understand how to play Teen Patti, you must be familiar with the rules and card rankings. Below are the very basics for you to know;
- Aces are the highest-ranking cards, which makes two the lowest ranking card.
- A trail or set is three cards of the same kind. For instance, three Aces is the highest possible hand.
- Straight Flush (or pure sequence) is a hand made up of consecutive cards from a suit.
- Run (or sequence) is just like pure sequence, but the cards need not be of the same suit.
- Colour is a hand that has cards from the same suit but are not sequenced.
- A pair consists of two cards of a rank. The winner is determined by the duo that holds more value. In the case of identical pairs, the winner is chosen by the kicker’s card.
- A high card is the hand wherein the cards are not sequenced, there are no pairs, and the cards are from different suits. In such a case, if two players have identical high cards, the winner is determined by the next highest card.
How to play 3 Patti in India?
Three to six players play a usual game of Teen Patti or 3 Patti as it’s also called, and a standard deck is used. No jokers are taken. Much like poker, a Teen Patti round starts with betting. The betting amount is determined before the game. After the bets are placed, the pot sits in the centre of the table. And this how the game of Teen Patti proceeds:
- All the players receive their three cards that are face down.
- The players can call or raise. If you call, you don’t add anything to your bet, but you stay in the game. If you raise, you add some amount to your original bet.
- However, betting in Teen Patti is slightly different from poker. Here, you have to raise an amount that is equal to the previous bet. For instance, if the preceding player has bet five coins, you will have to raise five coins or more than that (in addition to the original bet).
- As you might have guessed, the pot’s amount keeps growing and the player that stays in the game till the end wins. To win, you have to have the best or the highest hand.
Teen Patti Variants
Teen Patti is a fast-paced and simplified version of poker. And it has many variations like:
- Odd Sequence
Unlike the usual Teen Patti hands like J-Q-K or Ace-2-3, an odd sequence has alternate cards like 3-5-7 count as a valid hand.
- High – Low
This is like a reverse version of the classic Teen Patti. Here, the lower-ranking cards are considered as high ranking. For instance, your 2 would rank higher than your King.
- 369 and One-Eyed Jack
In this, all the Jack of Spades and Hearts become jokers, and they are called One-eyed Jacks. Meanwhile, the other two Jacks are not jokers. As if this is not puzzling enough, the 3, 6, and 9 of some colours can be turned into jokers.
- The ol’ card on the forehead
Locally known as maatha, this is a fun variation of Teen Patti. All the players get one card each. Every player has to stick their card on the forehead in a manner that others can see your card (but you can’t see it). You have to guess the value of your card and make bets.
Other than this, you can play Red and Black, Sudden Death, and Folding joker amongst variants.
