Teen Patti is a traditional Indian card game which has grown over the years to be popular in all of South Asia. Many Indians grew up playing the game with friends and family – but recent advances in smartphone and gambling technology mean that people are now choosing to play Teen Patti online. It’s up to you if you wish to play for fun or to play Teen Patti cash for real money.
In this article, we explain how to play, the legality and where to play.
Teen Patti Game
Teen Patti translates to three cards in English, तीन पत्ती in Hindi. You can find it’s origins in 16th Century Britain, where Three Card Brag was first played. Three Card Brag was one of the first versions of Poker where you had to bluff your way through a card game after being dealt a hand. Hence one of it’s other names – Indian Poker. Today the rules of the Teen Patti game as we know it, are a simplified version of those in Poker, most popular across South Asia, but mostly in India.
Teen Patti is also known as Flash, Flush, Three Card Brag or Indian Poker.
The game of Teen Patti is played in groups of 2 to 10 people with a traditional deck of 52 playing cards. The length of time a game lasts depends on the number of players and the variation of the game you choose to play. Players can play for fun, but usually there will be a gambling element to it. We find it to always be much more fun when you play Teen Patti for real money. We will take a look at the betting element of the game in more detail shortly.
How to play real cash Teen Patti
As with any game, you need to know what the aim of the game is. To win a Teen Patti game you need to have the best three-card hand you can – initially to raise the pot and get into the showdown – then to ultimately win the showdown. Let’s first take a look at how to play the game of Teen Patti before we move on to explaining different hands.
How to Play Teen Patti:
- Dealer hands out 3 cards to each player
The dealer, usually a previously nominated player, deals 3 cards to each player on the table. He or she will place the cards face down on the table in an anti-clockwise direction.
- The Teen Patti game begins
Once every player has their 3 cards they will begin to play and bet in an anti-clockwise direction. The move they choose will depend on the strength of their cards and on their ability to bluff.
- Players begin to fold
As the pot begins to grow in value, players will choose to continue to add into it or will fold and leave the game. This will carry on until there are only two players remaining.
- The showdown
During the final showdown the two remaining players will reveal their hands. The player who has the highest ranking hand will claim the pot.
- Repeat
Once the hand is finished the winner will take over the duties of the dealer and deal everyone back in. There’s no limit on how long a Teen Patti game will last – usually when most players have run out of money!
Hands
The hand you are dealt in a game of Teen Patti is all important. Here are the various hands you can hold, they are ranked from least valuable (nopair) to most valuable (three of a kind). The probabilities of being dealt one of these hands is reflected in how valuable they are in the game ie. no pair is most likely to happen, therefore is least valuable.
Betting
It’s possible to play any card game without gambling, Teen Patti included, but let’s face it the game becomes much more interesting and exciting when there is real money at stake. Now we know how to play the game and the value of each hand, let’s take a look at the various betting elements of the Teen Patti cash.
Entry Fee
Before the cards are dealt each player will pay to enter the game. This is commonly known as the ante, but is essentially an entry fee which all players put into the pot. The ante is usually an equal amount for each player which is pre-determined before the game. If you’re playing online or in a casino, different tables will have different antes, so it’s down to you to decide how much money you want to risk.
As well as getting the pot started, an ante also discourages tight play. If there were no ante a player could fold at the start of every round without losing any of his own money. With an ante in play, a player will lose every time they fold, so they are encouraged to carry on – this means more players stay in the game for longer and the pot size increases rapidly. A more exciting game then occurs.
Blinds
Blinds are unequal forced bets that imposed on two players per round – before they look at their cards. Usually the two players to the left of the nominated dealer. As the dealer changes in each round, so do the players who have to place the blind bet. The remaining players will then look at their cards before deciding how to react to the blind bet – they will have to call or raise to stay in the hand.
The reason for adding blinds is to add an element of randomness to the Teen Patti game, and also to get the pot building straight away.
Blind bets should not be confused with choosing to play blind, which you can read about in the strategy section of our Tutorial further down the page.
Call and Raise
Now we’ve covered the ante and the two forced blind bets, the regular betting starts. This is where the size of the pot really starts to grow rapidly. It begins with the player directly after the two blind bettors.
Each player has the option to 1. fold, or 2. place an additional bet. If they fold they obviously surrender their chances of winning this round. If they choose to place another bet, this is known as chaal. It will be in the form of a call or a raise. If they choose to ‘call’ then they simply match the bet of the previous person, or if they choose to ‘raise’ they will increase the bet of the previous person. If they do choose to raise then this will be the new level of chaal in the game.
Usually games of Teen Patti will have rules imposing limits on the raise. These do vary, but commonly you cannot exceed twice the amount of the previous player’s chaal.
Online Teen Patti Cash Tutorial
Now we’ve covered all the basics of the Teen Patti cash game, you should have a good idea of what you’re doing. You know how to play Teen Patti, what value the hands hold and what the different bets mean. But we don’t want you to just be a novice, we want you to become an expert player. Read our tutorial to take your your Teen Patti cash skills to the next level.
Probability
As we mentioned earlier in the section on hands, each hand has a different value based on how likely it is that you are dealt it. The less probable it is, the more value it holds. The table below shows the likelihood of each hand in descending order – three of a kind being the most valuable hand. It’s important you know the probability you have of winning a Teen Patti game so you know whether you should be folding or playing chaal.
| Hand | Probability | Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Three of a kind | 0.24% | 424.00:1 |
| Straight flush | 0.22% | 459.42:1 |
| Straight/sequence | 3.26% | 29.69:1 |
| Flush/colour | 4.96% | 19.16:1 |
| Pair | 16.94% | 4.90:1 |
| No pair/high card | 74.39% | 0.34:1 |
| Total | 100.00% | 0.00:1 |
Strategy
- Bluffing – this is a vital part of the game and is a strategy that all successful players need to employ at some point. At times you will need to bluff to other players that you have a worse hand than you actually do, and at other times you will need to bluff that you have a better hand than you actually do. Obviously if you have a really bad hand (a low pair or even worse) there’s little point of bluffing as the laws of probability suggest that you won’t beat your fellow competitors.
- Sideshows – these can be a regularly used tactic when there is no sign of players wanting to fold. It’s only a good option to take if you have a strong hand, and can be a good way to “remove” other players from the game. Although it is likely to alert other players to your strong hand and prevent the pot from increasing much further.
- Playing Blind – you can choose this option if you want to avoid someone taking a sideshow bet with you. If you play blind you are choosing to not see the cards dealt to you at any point in the game. Much of the time you will pay a lower ante or a reduced chaal if you choose to play blind.
Glossary
- Teen Patti – the game also known as Indian Poker. It’s a card game which takes its origins from Three Card Brag and is played with a 52 card deck. The game of Teen Patti originated in India and is know played all over Southern Asia.
- Chaal – a player bet in which they have to choose between a ‘call’ or ‘raise’. Both of which are known as playing chaal.
- Call – when you match the bet of the previous player.
- Raise – when you decide to increase the bet of the previous player.
- Pot – where all bets go. The pot builds up over the game until the winner collects it at the end.
- Ante – the entry fee a player has to pay to participate in a game. This is a fixed amount which all competing players must pay. It serves to get the pot growing straight away.
- Blind – an enforced bet that the two players directly after the dealer have to make. The blind is added to the pot and gets the ‘ball rolling’ as it were.
- Trail – another name for a flush.
- Sideshow – a side bet you can have with another player. You can invite another player to show each other your cards. If you have a better hand you win the bet and stay in the game while they have to fold. If the other player has a better hand then you are out of the game.
- Fold – when you choose to remove yourself from the game as you think you have little chance of winning and don’t want to risk anymore money.
Teen Patti Online
With the advances in technology and ease of access on your phone, playing Teen Patti online is fast becoming the way all Indians want to play their favourite casino game. We are also starting to see a lot of Teen Patti app downloads – a preferred option for many.
There are a number of different versions of the online game of Teen Patti for you to choose from. You can play on your own, you can play against other real life players (similar to Poker) or you can play against a dealer in the live version.
Teen Patti Live for Real Money
This is our preferred version of the online game. Live Teen Patti is where a real life dealer is available to deal the cards via live streaming. You can even interact with them in real time usually via a live chat function.
Live casino was born to make classic casino games like Roulette and Blackjack a more immersive and exciting experience. It’s only in recent times that some game providers have started to offer Teen Patti in the same way.
Super Spade and Ezugi are two great examples of game providers who have started to do this to a decent level. They can be considered pioneers in the sphere of live Teen Patti cash games. Here is an example of what it looks like playing Teen Patti Cash for Real Money from Evolution Gaming.
Ezugi have a large portfolio of live casino games and have recently added Teen Patti to is as well. Ezugi are a company based in Romania which is also where they house their live casino studios. Once you enter the live casino lobby, you can choose your dealer and table just like you would in real life. In this case, simply hunt for the Teen Patti dealer which you like the look of.
Teen Patti is still a fairly niche game for online casinos, so don’t expect to find it everywhere. Refer to our list of casinos above for this games availability.
Is it possible to trial live dealer Teen Patti Cash for free first before playing for real money? Absolutely! Software provider Bombay Live is the first to provide a demo experience of their live dealers which include their version of Teen Patti Cash called Teen Patti 1Day. Try it out by visiting their official website here.
Can you Play Online Teen Patti for Real Money?
With a lot of online casino games you can choose to play for free and not risk any of your own Rupees, but also not win anything, or you can play for real money. This isn’t the case with live casino games though. If you choose to join a table via the live casino lobby you will have to play for real money. So yes you can play Teen Patti for real money at online casino sites. If you want to play for free you will have to look for separate free-to-play sites.
To play Teen Patti for real money you have to be 18 years of age and be able to provide a form of ID which is registered to your address.
Is it Legal to Play in India?
The gambling laws in India are somewhat complex, so it’s hard to say if it’s completely legal to play Teen Patti online for real money in India. The game is considered a game of luck rather than a game of skill, therefore by law it is illegal if you play within the country. However, the current gambling laws in India also have no mention of online gambling, so if the casino website is hosted outside the country then it isn’t considered illegal.
Where to Play Online Teen Patti for real cash
There are more and more options for us to choose from when we are deciding where and how we want to play Teen Patti cash. The decision is fairly similar to that of online casino in general – do you want to play on mobile, do you want to play via a website or do you want to download a Teen Patti app. Let’s assume you will be playing mobile Teen Patti, then you have a choice between a website or an app. In this section we are going to take a look at how to play Teen Patti on each platform, and where the best place to do it is.
Top 3 Patti Real Money PayTM Cash Sites
If you want to play Teen Patti online then it’s important you choose the right place to do it. You don’t want to be playing a substandard version of the game or deposit your money to a site which has a bad reputation. It’s our belief that the best version of the game is Teen Patti live. Therefore, when researching the best place to play Teen Patti online we only considered those sites which have the live version. We also looked at the following factors before making our suggestions:
- Teen Patti Game Provider
- Real Money Casino Bonus
- Trust
- Deposit Options
- Other Casino Games Available
JeetPlay is our top choice for Indians to play online Teen Patti at. It’s a casino made by Indians, for Indians.
Online 3 Patti Real Money Apps
We have downloaded and played Teen Patti on the apps of both 1xBet and Dafabet. With 1xBet you can download both the app and the apk depending on what type of smartphone you have. However, Dafabet only offer the Android version at this moment in time.
Once again we believe 1xBet should be your choice of Teen Patti app to download. We’ll leave it up to you as to whether you download the IOS or Android version.
FAQ
It’s a traditional Indian card game which has its origins set in the old English game of Three Card Brag. Nowadays it can be considered a simpler version of Poker – hence it’s other name of Indian Poker. Players are dealt three cards, place their bets and have to bluff and strategise their way to winning the final showdown when they reveal their cards.
Yes there are many sites where you can play online. We suggest you look for an online casino which offers a whole host of casino games rather than a specific Teen Patti website or app.
Yes you can play ‘Indian Poker’ for real money. It’s considered a game of skill rather than luck, therefore you can play Teen Patti for real money online or offline in the country of India.
This is down to personal choice but we think the best Teen Patti app to download is 1xBet or Dafabet.
Yes nearly all versions of the 3Patti are available on both types of smartphone. You can download the Teen Patti app or play via the mobile website.
Yes there are many Teen Patti apk’s to download. We suggest downloading the 1xBet apk from which you can play the game.
Indian Poker is simply another name for Teen Patti. It’s also known as 3patti, Three Card Brag and Flush or Flash.
Yes this is simply a shortened or alternative version of the name. Both mean ‘three cards’ in English so it makes sense to write it in either numbers (3patti) or letters as is more commonly seen.
