Chinese Poker gets it name not from the gambling around it rather from the simple use of poker hands...
Chinese Poker is a popular card game poker variant that is well known in the world for its simplicity and portability. It is very easy to learn and everyone who knows Poker hands ranks can start playing after a few minutes of instruction. Luck plays an important role in this game as beginners too have high chances of winning. The game is interesting and players can expected a lot of exciting twists and turns while playing.
Since this game does not use chips or betting it is not technically considered to be poker however the use of poker hands renders the game its name. This game can be played with 2-4 players and it has a standard 52 card deck and a unique way to keep scores.
How Do You Play Chinese Poker?
Chinese Poker is played at one table with four seats for four players and each person gets 13 cards. These cards are split into three hands having three cards in front, five cards in the middle and five cards at the back. These back hand cards has to equal or beat the middle five cards in poker ranking and the middle five cards need to beat the three cards in front. It should be noted that Flushes and Straights are not counted in the three card hand.
The scores are kept with points and each hand is assigned the value of 1 point. Each point is rendered a monetary value for each game. The poker hands are subsequently compared to the other hands of the players. The player that has the highest ranking hand in the front segment wins 1 point and the player with the highest ranking back hand also wins 1 point.
A hand is given to all the four seats regardless of the number of players who at the table. The lowest Straight in the game is an A 2, 3, 4 straight.
Chinese Poker Scoring Rules
Once all the players have had their hands sorted, you can immediately score the hands and in the scoring you can compare each specific hand i.e. the top, middle or bottom to each player’s hand of the same type. The better hand earns one point off of that player that has the weaker hand.
If the 3 part hand outranks an opponent’s hand 2 out of 3, that player gets 2 points. This means you get one point for the majority of wins i.e. out of the three segments of your hand you win 2 out of 3. You also win 2 points minus 1 point (the one the opponent won) plus 1 point for most of the segments that follow winning 2 points totally in the process.
If your 3 part hand outranks the 3 out of 3 of your opponent’s you win 4 points. Your net win is 3 points with one point for each of the segment wins minus the zero points that your opponent did not win plus 1 point for most of the segments won making the total to 4 points.