Chinese Poker

In English, it is sometimes ambiguously called Chinese poker because of its use of poker hands, but this name more often applies to another game of an entirely different nature. A variant is called pusoy dos. The Origin of Chinese Poker is Shrouded in Mystery There are two opinions on the origin of Chinese poker and they are as follows: The Ancient Game– Some believe that the Chinese version of poker. Chinese Poker, or just Chinese, is a poker game with no actual betting involved. That is there's no betting during the play of a hand. Instead, you play for points just as in many other card games like Bridge and Gin Rummy. However, players will often agree on a monetary value for the points such as 10c or $1 for each point. If you're a really. Chinese Poker also know as Pusoy or Capsa Susun.This game is one of the most popular card game in Asia - an extremely popular offline card game and is loved by many countries like Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thai, Indonesia. This card game can be played from 2 to 4 people. Open Face Chinese is one of the newest games that is really starting to take off. It's vastly different from other forms of poker, such as Texas Hold'em, and can be played with 2-4 players. Players set their hands and play for points - it's important to declare how much points are worth prior to starting!

A variation of Chinese Poker called Open Face Chinese Poker (OFC) has been spreading wildly across the world. In OFC the basic gameplay is as follows:

• Each player is dealt five cards initially.
• These cards are set in either the front, middle or back hands in any way the player sees fit.
• Play continues in rounds with each player being dealt one card at a time and placing that card in any available hand.
• Play rotates clockwise with the ‘under the gun‘ player always revealing his cards first. This process is repeated until all players have been dealt 13 total cards.
• The hands and royalties are scored and each player settles with the other players. Rules for fouling a hand are the same as traditional Chinese Poker.

General rules:

• A 52-card deck is used (2 to Ace, excluding Jokers). The card suits are equivalent.
• The maximum 3 number of players at a table
• 17 pocket cards.
  13 of 17 cards must be laid out into 3 boxes.
  The remaining 4 cards must be discarded.
• No community cards.
• No betting rounds (no blinds, ante, etc.)
  Every player at a table takes one seat with 3 boxes to lay 13 cards out into (5 cards into the middle and back (the lowest) boxes, 3 cards into the front box (the highest). At the end of a hand, the back box hand must be stronger than or equal to the middle box hand, and the middle box hand must be stronger than or equal to the front box hand.
• The game is played for points. The goal of the game is to achieve more points than your opponents by winning more hands and/or by collecting royalties on premium hands.
  Point score is the cost of one point (for example, 1 cent for 1 point). The calculation is made at the end of a match.
• Cap – the maximum limit of loss in one match. Thus, over a match, a player can lose the maximum amount of money equaling to that specified in Cap.

Hand Structure in Open Face Chinese

In both traditional Chinese Poker and Open Face, players will look at their cards and begin setting up three different poker hands,

Chinese Poker Player

• A three card hand, known as the Front
• A five card hand, known as the Middle
• Another five card hand known as the Back

For a hand to be valid, the back hand must be the strongest of the three hands in accordance with traditional poker hand rankings. The middle hand must be of a lower rank than the back hand, but higher than the front hand. The front hand must be the lowest strength. A valid hand would look like:

• Front – 2 2 7 (Pair of Twos)
• Middle – A A 4 4 J (Two pairs: Aces & Fours)
• Back – 8 9 T J Q (Straight)

Fouling in Open Face Chinese

If the order of strength does not go front to back, weakest to strongest, it is called a fouled hand.

For example,

• Front – 2 2 7 (Pair of Twos)
• Middle – K K 3 3 9 (Two Pairs: Kings & Threes)
• Back – Q Q 8 8 J (Two Pair: Queens & Eights)

Scoring in Open Face Chinese

Once all three hands have been set, players will compare front, middle and back hands. Each hand is worth one point. If one player has won two of the three hands they will score 1 point (winning two points and losing one for a net of +1 points). More points can be earned if the player wins all three hands, known as scooping. Players can also earn points by making high ranking hands known as royalties.

A player scoops the hand by winning all three showdowns with their front, middle, and back holdings. The player is awarded one point for each showdown won, and three bonus points for scooping for a total of six points.

When a player has fouled their hand, it counts as an automatic scoop and is worth six points. If both players have fouled their hand, the game is considered a tie.

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Royalties Chart

Front, middle and back rows may earn points for making certain hands as long as the hand does not foul. The type of royalties and how much they are worth varies from game to game. Below is one common scoring chart:

Multi Player Scoring

In a game with more than two players, scores are settled by position. The player under the gun will settle with each player in a clockwise order. The player to the left of the under the gun player will then settle their debts. This continues until are players have paid.

If a player fouls in a multi-player game, that player will pay 6 units to each player plus any royalties on hands that have not fouled.

Fantasyland

Chinese Poker App

Fantasyland is a type of ‘bonus round’ in Chinese Poker. A player may enter Fantasyland when they have made a pair of Queens or better in the front hand without fouling.

Entering Fantasyland means that on the next hand, they receive all 13 cards at once. They make all three hands at once, a huge advantage as they’ll be able to see if they hit any straights or flushes in advance, and lay cards perfectly without any risk of fouling.

Other players play as normal, with just one card dealt at a time. The button does not move during Fantasyland – this is considered a continuation on the previous hand.

A player may stay in Fantasyland (and receive the same advantage next hand) if they make any of the following hands:

• Three of a kind in the front
• Full House or better in the middle
• Four of a Kind or better in the back

Related Topics:

If you haven’t heard of Chinese poker, then you are in for a surprise. It is one of the most popular games among chinese people but is played all over the world. It is a really fun game to play. Also, pretty easy to learn. Now a lot of tournaments takes place related to the game and thousands of people take part. There is an event in World Series Of Poker too where the cash bonus for the winners is huge.

Chinese Poker is a card game that is played between 2-4 players and it is one of the variations of poker. All you need to know is the poker hand rankings to get started with it. It only takes about 5 minutes to learn this amazing game. In this article, you’ll learn about the history of the game, Rules for the game, Common Terminologies used in the game and some popular FAQ’s.

Chinese Poker History

Before we get on to the rules of Chinese Poker, Let’s look at the history of the game about where the game was started and how did it become one of the most popular poker variations ever.

As the name suggests the game was first originated in China. The dates go back a long way in the ’90s where the game was first seen playing. The first tournament was held in the year ’95 and ’96. Some of the first winners of the tournament include John Tsagaris in ’95 and Steve Zolotow and Gregory Grivas in ’96.

Since then, the Chinese Poker has grown a lot in terms of popularity and fame and is now known to the whole world. It is now played in almost all the Casinos in the US and many others.

The stakes involved in the Chinese poker might be low compared to Texas Hold’em Poker, but it is still a really good game to play and enjoy. Even the beginners can do well in this game as there’s a lot of luck going on rather than skills in this game.

There is a saying in Chinese poker that even when a player loses the game, they blame the cards and luck since luck plays a huge role in this game and still take pride about how they play and approach the game.

Chinese Poker and the rules to play the game

Ok, before we get onto to the rules of Chinese Poker, we need to first understand and learn the Poker hand rankings. I’ll get on to rules directly keeping in mind you guys already know the poker hand rankings. If you don’t then you can learn them from here.

Chinese Poker doesn’t involve Betting of any sort during the game. The amount is fixed during the starting of the game and the player that wins that round gets that amount.

There is no Small Blind or Big Blind involved like Texas Hold’em Poker.

Some of the most used terminologies in Chinese Poker

Before we get onto rules, let’s understand some of the commonly used terminologies in Chinese Poker.

Here each player gets 13 cards and they have to form 3 hands using those cards. The hand rankings for those 3 hands are as follows:

• Front Hand or Top Hand – This is the hand that is formed using 3 cards. This must be the weakest hand among the three.
• Middle Hand – This is the hand that is formed using 5 cards. This hand must be stronger than the Top Hand, but weaker than the third Hand.
• Bottom Hand – This is the hand that is formed using 5 cards. This hand is the strongest hand among the three.

Some other terminologies

• Scoop – If a player wins all 3 hands against another player, then it is known as Scoop.
• Mis Set – If the player forms a stronger hand for the front hand than the middle hand, It is known as Mis Set. If the player Mis-set his hand, then he has to pay the remaining players who are still playing the amount equal to the Scoop.
• Pusoy – It is another name used for Chinese Poker.

Rules

I’ll explain the rules in 10 simple steps and is very easy to learn.

1. The game is played between 2-4 players and each of the player receive 13 cards face-down.
2. There are no betting rounds in this variation of poker but instead, each player must agree to a certain value (Amount) before they play the hand.
3. After the players receive their 13 cards they must arrange these cards into 3 groups of 3 different hands.
4. The first hand or group must include 3 cards and these cards must be the worst of the 13 cards. This hand is called the Front Hand or the Top Hand.
5. The second hand or group must include 5 cards and these cards must be better than the first hand but worse than the third hand. This hand is called the Middle Hand.
6. The third hand or group must also include 5 cards and these cards have to be the best hand among the other 2 groups. This hand is called the Bottom Hand.
7. After each player decides their hands they place the cards face-up on the table with the remaining players doing the same.
8. Each player scores each hand against the corresponding hand of each other player.
9. You win one point for each hand you win against other players. The player that wins the most hand wins that round.
10. There are also bonus points for players that win all three of their hands with the other player. Winning all three hands are known as Scoop.

These are the ten easy steps that are involved in playing Chinese Poker. If you still have doubts about playing Chinese Poker, then you can watch the tutorial on Youtube.

Open-Face Chinese Poker

There is another variant of Chinese Poker called as the Open-face Chinese Poker. This version is even more complicated than the normal version. There is a slight variation of rules for this version. The rules are mentioned below.

• Each player is dealt with 5 cards first instead of 13 and they must build the top hand (including 3 cards) with those five cards.
• After that, each player draws one card per turn from the deck and continues to build their hands to complete Middle Hand and the Bottom Hand.
• There are way more decisions and excitement since you have to draw each card one at a time.

This version of the game is much more challenging and involves Skill rather than luck. This version of Chinese Poker is not that famous and is not present in most of the Casinos. But, you can still play the game at home with your friends and have fun at it.

Hope you enjoyed reading it and learned something new. Have a nice day. 🙂

General FAQ’s

What is Chinese Poker?

Chinese Poker is a variation of poker and is played between 2-4 players. Each player receives 13 cards and they have to form 3 sets of poker hands with them. Each player has to form 2 sets of 5 cards and 1 set of three cards.

Where was Chinese Poker originated from?

As the name suggests the game was first originated in China. The dates go back a long way in the '90s where the game was first seen playing. The first tournament was held in the year '95 and '96. Some of the first winners of the tournament include John Tsagaris in ’95 and Steve Zolotow and Gregory Grivas in ’96.

What are the different types of Chinese Poker?

2-7 Chinese Poker, Double deck Chinese Poker and Open-Face Chinese Poker.

How do you win in Chinese Poker?

After each player makes their 3 sets of hands, Each player scores each hand against the corresponding hand of each other player. You win one point for each hand you win against other players. The player that wins the most hand wins that round.

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I am the owner of the site rohithebbar.com. I love playing poker and other card games.