How to play
Teen Patti, Hindi for “three cards”, is the game that comes out at Diwali parties across India. At home it’s a betting game between friends. This table turns it into a casino game: you play your three cards against a dealer’s three, with a fresh 52-card deck shuffled before every hand.
- Pick a chip (10, 50, 100 or 500) and place an Ante. If you like, also put chips on Pair Plus, a side bet on your own hand. Each bet runs from 10 to 500.
- Press Deal. Your three cards land face up; the dealer’s stay face down.
- Look at your hand and choose:
- Play (+N) puts a second bet equal to your Ante on the Play spot;
- Fold gives up the Ante. Pair Plus is still paid if your hand earns it.
- The dealer turns over. To qualify, the dealer needs at least a Queen-high hand.
- Dealer doesn’t qualify → Ante pays 1 to 1, Play comes back untouched.
- Dealer qualifies → higher hand wins. A win pays 1 to 1 on both Ante and Play; a loss takes both; an exact tie returns both.
When you deal, the game sets aside enough credits to cover the Play bet, so you can always afford to play the hand. Clear and Rebet work as usual between hands, and the Bonus pay table panel opens to show every payout.
Indian hand rankings
The order of hands is where Teen Patti parts company with Western three-card poker. Highest first:
| Rank | Hand | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trail (three of a kind) | 4♣ 4♦ 4♠ |
| 2 | Pure sequence (run in one suit) | 9♠ 10♠ J♠ |
| 3 | Sequence (run, mixed suits) | 5♦ 6♣ 7♥ |
| 4 | Color (same suit) | 3♥ 8♥ Q♥ |
| 5 | Pair | K♣ K♥ 2♦ |
| 6 | High card | A♠ 9♦ 5♣ |
Two details matter:
- Trail outranks pure sequence. In a single deck there are 52 possible trails and only 48 pure sequences, so a trail is actually slightly more common. Teen Patti ranks it higher anyway, by tradition.
- Runs have a special order. A-K-Q is the best run, A-2-3 is the second best, and then K-Q-J, Q-J-10 and so on down to 4-3-2. The ace-low run isn’t the weakest, as it would be in poker; it’s near the top.
Within the same rank, higher cards decide: a pair of 9s beats a pair of 8s, and with equal pairs the third card breaks the tie.
Bonus payouts
Two bonuses pay on your hand regardless of the dealer.
| Hand | Ante bonus (only if you Play) | Pair Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Trail | 5 to 1 | 40 to 1 |
| Pure sequence | 4 to 1 | 30 to 1 |
| Sequence | 1 to 1 | 6 to 1 |
| Color | – | 4 to 1 |
| Pair | – | 1 to 1 |
The Ante bonus is paid even if the dealer beats you, as long as you played. Pair Plus doesn’t care whether you play or fold.
The odds
Out of 22,100 possible three-card hands, a pair turns up in about 1 hand in 6, a color in about 1 in 20, a sequence in about 1 in 31, a trail about 1 in 425 and a pure sequence about 1 in 460.
Because the bigger payout (40 to 1) goes to the slightly more common trail, Pair Plus here returns a bit more than the Western version: its house edge is 2.14%. With the right Play/Fold decisions, the Ante and Play together carry an edge of 3.35% of the Ante. Both figures come from counting every possible deal.
Strategy
Play Queen-6-4 or better, fold the rest. Any pair or better: always play. With high card, play if your top card is an ace or king. With a Queen on top, compare the next card to 6 and the last to 4: Q-7-2 plays, Q-6-4 plays, Q-6-3 folds, Q-5-x folds. Anything Jack-high or lower folds.
Why fold at all? Folding loses one unit. Playing a weak hand risks two, and the dealer qualifies most of the time.
Pair Plus is optional, not a hedge. It’s a separate bet with its own edge. It pays even when you fold, but it doesn’t reduce what the main game costs.
Don’t chase the special runs. A-2-3 being the second-best sequence makes for fun hands, but it doesn’t change how often runs appear.
If you know Western three-card poker, try Three-Card Challenge for the version with poker rankings.
If you enjoy Teen Patti, try Temple Tome or Tens or Better next.
