If you’re a fan of poker who is looking for a new card game to learn, then Teen Patti could be the online casino game for you! The three-card game originated in India and, along with rummy, remains one of the country’s favorite casino card games. Our beginner’s guide to Teen Patti will teach you how to play basics, rankings of the cards, how to win and some different variations of the original game.
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These are our favourite sites for Indian players to play Teen Patti online:
Also known as tri-card, Teen Patti is literally defined as “three cards” in Hindi and possesses many characteristics of poker and the English game three card brag. Only Indian rummy rivals Teen Patti, a.k.a. flash or flush, for India’s most beloved card game.
The basic version of this game can be enjoyed by up to 10 players. Like in poker, there is a dealer and players are dealt cards clockwise. The objective of the game is to finish with the strongest hand or get your opponents to fold before the show. Teen Patti rankings of the card, strongest-to-weakest, are:
| Hand | Definition |
|---|---|
| Trio | three cards of the same value (like three of a kind in poker) | Ace-Ace-Ace is the best trio, 2-2-2 is the weakest |
| Straight run | three sequential cards of same suit (like a straight flush) | A-K-Q is the best followed by A-2-3 then K-Q-J |
| Normal run | three sequential cards (like a straight) |
| Color | three cards of the same suit (like a flush) |
| Pair | two cards of the same value |
| High Card | if nobody pairs in a show, high card wins | Ace-King-Queen is strongest, 4-3-2 is weakest |
Before the initial deal, each Teen patti player must toss in a minimum stake ante or, as it’s referred to in this game, a boot,. The dealer then deals out one card at a time, face down, until each player has three. Many versions then require an additional blind where either the dealer tosses in half of the boot’s stake or the player to the left of the dealer tosses in half of the boot and the player to left of them tosses in 2x time boot. This is similar to poker’s small and big blinds.
Each player can decide whether they want to play their hand blind or seen.
You decide to play your hand without looking at your cards. If you play blind, you must bet at least the current stake (even money) and at most double the current stake (2x current stake). A blind player may become a seen player at any point during a hand. Because a blind player is at a disadvantage, they’ll bet a lesser amount per round up until they decide to see their cards or fold.
You decide to play your hand by looking at your cards before betting. If you play seen, basic rules ask that you bet at least twice the current stake and at most four times the current stake, or twice as much as the blind player.
Here’s a hand of Teen Patti in a few steps:
You have a strong hand like a Queen-Queen-Queen trio and bet aggressively until every other player folds.
You don’t have a strong hand, but bluff you way through each betting round until every other play folds.
You and one other player remain in a hand and one requests a show. Only a seen player can request a show and must pay 2x / 4x the previous player bet for it to occur. Note: if two players remain and nobody requests a show, the betting continues.
As is the case with many popular card games, there are variations of the original. This is no different with India’s Teen Patti, which offers several game variants from which to choose from and spice up your next game night.
Rather than the dealer give each player three cards to make the best hand, each player receives four cards of which they can take any three to make the strongest hand.
Like in poker, rankings of the cards are the opposite and low hand wins.
After the initial deal, the dealer pulls one card out of the deck at random and each card of that same rank become wild cards. For example, if the dealer pulled out a King as the wild card of that round, everybody holding a King would have the opportunity to at least pair two of their three cards.
After the initial deal, the dealer pulls one card out of the deck at random and each card of the same rank become bust cards. If any players hold a bust card, they must fold.
A unique Teen Patti game variation where two card pairings can turn into a single virtual wild card. The KISS is numerically sequential pair like 8, 9, the MISS is a pair of card that is missing the middle part of a sequence like 8, 10 and BLISS is a pair of cards with equal values, like 8, 8.
