Scoring - Chinese Poker

Chinese Poker Rules And Tips

Chinese Poker is a fun variation of poker quite different from Stud, Omaha and Hold’em games. It's not widely available, but one place we enjoy where it can be played for real money or just for fun is at Poker Room. Those comfortable with Caribbean poker may find the game similar in some aspects.

There are a few distinct differences between Chinese Poker and other online poker tournament games:

While most poker games can accommodate at least 6 players to a table, chinese poker is a smaller game played by two to four players.

While other poker games are played/scored directly with money - Chinese Poker is first played for points, with each point worth a set amount of money.

You'll play each round by making 3 distinct hands from a total of 13 cards, and a card can only be used in one hand (The cards are literally divided into 3 hands, unlike Hi/Lo games where a card may be used in 2 separate hands.)

Here's how the game is played:

Players arrange their cards into three hands, two five card hands and one three card hand. These hands are called the back, middle and front hand.

The hands are scored and points are totaled before the next round. The objective in Chinese Poker is to arrange a set of hands that will beat the other players hands, just like most variations of poker. There are many ways to arrange the thirteen cards given to you and the only rules you have to follow are that the back hand must be of a higher value than the middle hand, and the middle hand must be higher than the front hand. The value of each hand is determined by standard poker rules - but the front hand (with only three cards) cannot make a flush or straight.

After arranging the hands all players compare their hands to each other and the winner in each individual game receives a number of points, determined by how many hands they have won.

Scoring Simplified:

The most common scoring method for Chinese Poker (or common online at least) is called '2-4 scoring'. This scoring may seem complicated, but in general if your hands outrank at least two out of the three hands of another player, you win over that player.

A player that wins two out of three hands gets two points.

A player that wins all three hands gets four points.

Simplified Scoring is Based on Full Scoring Rules:

The player with the higher Back hand gets one point.

The player with the higher Middle hand gets one point.

The player with the higher Front hand gets one point.

Bonus points, if any, are added to each player's total.

The player with the higher total gets an additional point called the overall point.

The player with the higher total collects the difference between the two scores.

Without bonuses a player can potentially win 12 points, 4 points from each of the other players.

1-4 scoring

This is the same as 2-4 scoring only there will be no overall point for winning two out of three hands.

1-6 Scoring This system is sometime called the 'mandarin way'. In this system winning two out of three is worth one point and winning all three is worth six points.