How to play
Andar Bahar comes from South India, where it’s a fixture of family card evenings and festival gatherings. The names mean “inside” and “outside”, the two sides of the table. All you decide is where your chips go; after that the deck does the talking.
A single 52-card deck is shuffled before every hand.
- Choose a chip (10, 50, 100 or 500) and bet on Andar, Bahar, one or more of the card-count ranges, or any mix of them. Each spot takes 10 to 500 credits in steps of 10.
- Press Deal. One game card goes face up in the middle. Only its rank counts; the suit is ignored.
- Cards are now dealt one at a time, alternating: the first to Andar, the second to Bahar, the third to Andar, and so on. A counter shows how many have been dealt.
- The first card that matches the game card’s rank ends the hand, and whichever side it landed on wins.
With the game card out, three cards of that rank are left among the 51, so somewhere in the deal one of them has to turn up. The hand can end on the very first card or run as long as 49 cards.
A results strip keeps track of recent winners (A for Andar, B for Bahar). Clear and Rebet handle your chips between hands.
Main bets
| Bet | Pays | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Andar | 0.9 to 1 | 51.5% of hands |
| Bahar | 1 to 1 | 48.5% of hands |
Why does Andar pay less? It receives the first card, then the third, the fifth and every odd-numbered card. Getting first look at the deck gives it a small but real advantage, and the reduced payout balances that. A 100-credit win on Andar returns 190; on Bahar it returns 200.
Card-count side bets
These ignore which side wins and bet on how many cards are dealt, counting the matching card but not the game card.
| Cards dealt | Pays | Chance | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–5 | 2.5 to 1 | 27.1% | 5.13% |
| 6–10 | 3.5 to 1 | 21.7% | 2.33% |
| 11–15 | 4.5 to 1 | 16.9% | 7.03% |
| 16–25 | 3.5 to 1 | 21.8% | 1.90% |
| 26–30 | 14.5 to 1 | 6.1% | 5.47% |
| 31–35 | 25 to 1 | 3.7% | 3.87% |
| 36–40 | 50 to 1 | 1.9% | 3.27% |
| 41 or more | 120 to 1 | 0.8% | 4.13% |
Notice the 16–25 range covers ten counts while its neighbours cover five, which is why it pays like 6–10 despite starting later. Short hands are the most likely single outcome: with three matching cards still out, the chance of hitting one early is highest, then fades steadily.
The odds
All of these numbers are exact. There are 20,825 equally likely ways to place the three remaining matching cards among 51, and counting them gives the figures above. The main bets work out to a house edge of 2.15% on Andar and 3.00% on Bahar. Bahar wins less often and pays only even money, so even though Andar’s payout looks worse, it’s the better bet.
Strategy
Andar is the cheaper side. The 0.9 payout feels like a penalty, but Andar’s first-card advantage more than covers it. Over many hands, Andar costs about 21.5 credits per 1,000 bet and Bahar about 30.
For side bets, 16–25 and 6–10 are the value picks. At 1.90% and 2.33%, they’re cheaper than either main bet. The 11–15 range, at 7.03%, is the most expensive spot on the table.
Long shots are fun, not smart. 41-plus at 120 to 1 is a nice story when it hits, but it does so in fewer than 1 hand in 120, and the edge is still 4.13%.
Combining doesn’t cancel the edge. Covering both Andar and Bahar loses a bit on every hand. Mixing a main bet with a range bet simply adds two separate edges.
The strip predicts nothing. Each hand is a fresh shuffle, so a run of Bahar wins means nothing for the next game card.
For another one-card-decides game, try Dragon Tiger, or the Indian three-card table Teen Patti.
If you enjoy Andar Bahar, try Asia Poker or Baccarat next.
