AUTHOR: Jerry "Jet" Whittaker TITLE: The 'Other Games' of Poker: Chinese Poker DATE: 9:01 AM ----- BODY: Phil Hellmuth loves it. So does Men "The Master." Barry Greenstein
reportedly dropped a seven figure amount to Ted Forrest in a month-long
match at this game, and Steve Zolotow has a World Series bracelet in it.
Phil Ivey alledgedly has been known to play it for $2,000 a point just to
kill time on airplanes. And at any major tournament on the circuit today,
there's guaranteed to be a number of high-stakes games running on the side.
The game is Chinese Poker (sometimes called '13 Card Poker'), and for many a
poker professional it ranks somewhere between guilty pleasure and serious
addiction. Chinese poker can be played with two to four players and is
played for "points," with each point worth a set amount of money. A
low-stakes game between friends might be played for $1 or $5/point, while a
side game at the World Series of Poker might run more in the $100-$300/
point range. No chips are needed, only a pencil and paper to keep score.
Each player is dealt 13 cards face down which they will need to arrange into
three different poker hands- two five-card hands and one three-card hand.
These are called the back, middle and front hands. The back hand must be the
highest-ranking hand of the three, while the middle hand must be of a lower
rank than the back hand but higher than the front hand. Hands are ranked
like in any other poker game from a royal flush all the way down to high
cards. The exception is that in the front (three-card) hand, straights and
flushes do not count. A player's objective in Chinese poker is to set each
of their three hands in a way that will beat the other players'
corresponding hands. Once everyone has arranged their cards, each player's
three hands are set face down on the table in front of them with the back
hand closest to the player, the middle hand in front of the back hand and
the front hand up top. Hands are now turned face up, with each player
comparing their three hands to each of the other players' three hands. Back
hands are compared to back hands, middle to middle and front to front. --------