Teen Patti: An Indian Gaming Classic with Plenty of Fresh New Options

The History of Teen Patti

Teen Patti (3 Patti) has been a classic Indian card game for hundreds of years.  Whether you know it as Teen Patti, Flash, Flush, or Tri-Card, chances are good that you’ve played this game at some point.  What began as a variation of a 16^th-century English game called three-card brag, Teen Patti is now a full-fledged part of Indian gaming culture.  Online 3 patti lets you play this centuries-old game for real money from anywhere on your mobile device.

Basic Teen Patti Rules

If you’ve never played 3 Patti before or if you just want to brush up on the Teen Patti rules because it’s been a few years since you played, here are the basics.  Each game is played by 2 to 10 players with a standard deck of cards, with the goal of having the strongest three card hand and winning the pot.  It’s that simple and you can learn the Teen Patti rules in only a few minutes with a little help from a written guide.

The strongest hands to have in 3 Patti, in descending order from strongest to weakest, are three of a kind (also called a trio), straight flush (also called a pure sequence), straight (also called a sequence), flush (also called a color), a pair, and a high card. 

Each hand typically begins with players making an obligatory bet, commonly an ante or a set of blinds, which are used to get the betting pot started.  Once everyone has their cards, the first player to act must make a choice whether to look at their cards and play their hand seen, or not look and play their hand blind. 

More Teen Patti Rules: Blind vs. Seen

The first choice a player makes, to play their hand seen or blind, provides advantages and disadvantages for each option.  A seen hand has the clear advantage of knowing how strong a hand you have, but in addition a seen hand will have more options later in the hand.  Playing with a seen hand gives you the ability to ask for a sideshow (also known as a backshow), which is an option not available to a player with a blind hand.

In the alternative, a blind hand is at an obvious disadvantage because the player does not know the strength of their cards.  Furthermore, a blind player is not allowed to be part of a sideshow, neither asking nor receiving.  But not to worry, a blind player still has the option to become a seen player when their turn to bet comes around again.

If a player decides to play seen and has a weak hand, they can always pack and wait for the next hand to be dealt, hoping for better luck.

Even More Teen Patti Rules: Sideshows/Backshows

We’ve already established that seen players can ask for a sideshow and blind players cannot, but what is a sideshow, anyway?  If a player asks for a sideshow, they are invoking a 1 vs. 1 showdown with the player who bet immediately before them, who must also be playing a seen hand.  The player on the receiving end of the sideshow then has a choice to make: do they accept the sideshow request or refuse it? 

If the receiving player refuses the sideshow request, the requesting player must place a bet to remain in the hand and then action continues to the next player.  In the alternative, if the receiving player accepts the sideshow request, the two players in the sideshow compare their hands privately and the lower hand must pack (fold).  In the unlikely event that the two players are tied, the player who requested the sideshow must pack and the receiving player remains in the hand.

Teen Patti Betting

Each player who wants to remain in the hand must bet to do so.  An advantage of the blind player is that they have a cheaper cost to keep playing.  A blind player must only match or double the current bet to stay in the hand, while a seen player must double or quadruple the current bet to remain in the hand.  Even though playing blind lets you make smaller bets to stay in the hand, it definitely requires an extra bit of luck to win a hand while playing it blind.

Teen Patti Strategy

Requesting a sideshow is a strategic move that can isolate and eliminate a single opponent, but also has the potential to send you packing from your Teen Patti hand.  A player who refuses a sideshow might be doing so out of fear of packing because they have a weak hand, but they also might have a very strong hand and refuse a sideshow in order to build a larger pot.  Requesting a sideshow can help you obtain valuable information about your opponent’s hand based on their response to the sideshow request.

Of course, if your opponent accepts your sideshow request and has the weaker hand, you’ve just gotten one step closer to winning the huge pot you’ve built!

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The End of an Online 3 Patti Hand: Who Wins?

Each real money hand of Teen Patti will end in one of two scenarios.  Either everyone except one player has packed, in which case the single remaining player wins the pot, or everyone except two players have packed, in which case one player will request a show.  If that happens, both players show their hands and the better hand wins.  In the case of a show and a tie, the player who did not ask for the show will be the winner.

Betting amounts in the show will vary depending on the blind vs. seen status of each player.  The cost of the show will be the current stake if both players are playing blind or both players are playing seen.  The cost changes, however, when one player is blind and the other player is seen.  In that scenario, the player requesting the show must bet twice the stake if they are seen and half the stake if they are blind.

Online 3 Patti: Where Can I Play for Real Money?