What is Chinese Poker?

Chinese Poker (十三張) is a popular card game in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and some part of southeastern Asian countries.  It is also called “Russian Poker”, “Pusoy”, or “Pepito” in various part of the world.

THE BASICS

First of all, make sure you have anywhere from two to four players to play, with four being the preferred number.

Each player is dealt with 13 cards, the objective of the game is to set your cards into 3 levels of poker hands ranging from the strongest on the bottom to the weakest on the top. The bottom and the middle hand will be 5 card poker hand while the top hand will be 3 cards.

As you can see from the above example, the hand is built from the bottom up by hand strength. The bottom Full House of Jacks is stronger than the 2 Pairs of 8s and 4s while the 2 Pairs of 8s and 4s is stronger than the Pair of Queens on top.  Scoring is done by comparing each level of your hand with your opponent’s hand.

In the example above, Player A wins the bottom with a Full House of Jacks. Player B wins the middle with 2 Pairs of Kings and 2s, and Player A wins the top with a Pair of Queens. Player A wins 1 point from Player B (2 Won – 1 Lost). Don’t worry, we will explain the difference among various Scoring methods later.

INVALID HANDS

If you set an invalid hand (e.g. middle is stronger than bottom), you will lose to each opponent as if you’ve lost on all 3 levels plus any royalties.

ROYALTIES

If one or more of the following is in your winning hand, you win the Royalty points instead of the standard 1 point for that level.

STRAIGHT FLUSH - Bottom level = 5 points, mid level = 10 points

FOUR OF A KIND – Bottom level = 4 points, mid level = 8 points

FULL HOUSE – Mid level = 2 points

THREE OF A KIND – Top level = 3 points

SPECIAL 13-CARD HANDS

(Rules for invalid hands still apply)

Points are collected even if opponent fold.  Only loses to higher 13-card hand

ALL PAIRS – Player wins 3 points from each opponent. All pairs consist of 6 pairs and 1 single card, the single card must be the 1st card on top with all pairs following it.

All Pairs

ALL STRAIGHTS – Player wins 3 points from each opponent.  Straights on all levels, from the strongest on the bottom to the weakest on the top.

All Straights

ALL FLUSH – Player wins 3 points from each opponent. Flush on all levels, from the strongest on the bottom to the weakest on the top.

All Flush

DRAGON (13 Card Straight) – Player wins 13 points from each opponent. Flush on all levels, from the strongest on the bottom to the weakest on the top.

Dragon

DRAGON FLUSH (13 Card Straight Flush) – Player wins 26 points from each opponent. All cards of the same suit from 2 to A, from the strongest on the bottom to the weakest on the top.

Dragon Flush

SCORING METHODS

1-3    1 point +/- per level won/lost, no bonus point for winning all 3 levels

1-4    1 point +/- per level won/lost, 1 bonus point for winning all 3 levels

1-6    1 point +/- per level won/lost, 3 bonus points for winning all 3 levels

2-4    1 point +/- per level won/lost, 1 bonus point for winning 2 or 3 levels

FOLD

When you fold, you will lose the following points:

3 points to EACH opponent for 1-6 scoring method

2 points to EACH opponent for all other scoring methods

However, if the opponent has a 13-card special hand, the points you lose to your opponent is determined by the type of 13-card hand he/she has.

EXAMPLE

Let’s use one of the above example to illustrate the different scoring methods

On the example above, Player A won 2 points against Player B under the 2-4 method, but only won 1 point under the 1-3, 1-4, and 1-6 methods.

Chinese Poker Pro provides a low cost, convenient, and risk free way to practice and play Chinese poker. It comes with an in app tutorial and how to guide for quick references, options to set your preferred scoring methods, and hinting button to show you how a hand should be set. It lets you play against 3 AI opponents, which makes it a perfect app for you to brush up on your Chinese Poker skills anytime, any day, and anywhere.

Chinese Poker Pro is currently only available on iPhone and iPod Touch.  Check back later for the upcoming Chinese Poker for Android release.