Teen patti rules

The three-card game of the Indian subcontinent, played at Diwali in more homes than anywhere else. It is poker in structure and quite different in feel, because you may bet without ever looking at your cards.

Players

Three to seven, each for themselves.

Hand ranking, highest first

Three of a kind, straight flush, straight, flush, pair, high card. As in three-card poker a straight beats a flush. Ace, king, queen is the best straight, and ace, two, three is the second best.

Three aces is the best hand there is, and it outranks the best straight flush — which is the reverse of a casino's three-card game and catches visitors out.

The deal

Everyone puts in an equal ante, called the boot. Three cards are dealt face down to each player.

Seen and blind

This is what makes the game. You may look at your cards or leave them face down.

A blind player bets, and a seen player must bet at least twice what a blind player would. Playing blind is cheap, and a blind player who later looks becomes a seen player from that point on.

Betting

Going round the table, each player either puts in a stake or folds. Stakes rise as agreed.

The usual arrangement is that a player may match the stake or double it, and tables agree a ceiling in advance — without one, two stubborn players can double at each other until the pot is larger than the evening.

The show

When only two players are left, either may pay for a show and both hands are revealed. The better hand takes the pot. A seen player cannot demand a show from a blind player — the blind player must be given the chance to continue.

Sideshow

A seen player may ask the previous seen player to compare hands privately. The request can be refused. If accepted, the weaker hand folds and nobody else sees either.

Playing well

Staying blind is not bravado, it is arithmetic: you are paying half of what everybody else pays to see the same number of cards. Look when the stake has climbed far enough that half of it is real money, and fold the hand you would have folded anyway.