Chinese Poker Tonight

[ImprovinNewbie]

I just learned how to play chinese poker and i think my friends (mostly not INTO poke even though we play a lot) will really dig this game. has anyone had a CP home game and have any advice. reasonably small stakes for $5 tourney donks and a strategy for a tiny home game with the boys. my only strat right now is to get hammered and play real small and just have fun....

[Gone Forever]

Are you playing with bonuses in place? Let's say you're playing $.25 a point. If you win the top hand you get a point, win 2nd hand a point, win all 3 hands you get a point PLUS a bonus for scooping of 1 point.

Even if you aren't, you're going to want to prevent yourself from getting scooped AT ALL COSTS.

Soo... try to put a pair on top whenever possible.

Say the biggest hand you can make is a King high straight. But that leaves you pretty much nothing for your other hands.... Let's say QT6 up top and a two small pair in the middle.

QT6
93322
9TJQK

The way the hand is structured it is very vulnerable to getting scooped.

Now lets say you break up your straight and you can make 3 more pair. This leaves you with 5 pair.

Now we can restructure the hand to look something like this:

KQQ
J9933
TT622

Now I know this is a horrible hand in back, BUT, now you have a monster up top. A King high straight in back is going to lose more than it wins, so, breaking it up and replacing it with two pair is not really going to change the outcome of that particular hand. You're going to lose pretty much either way.

A side effect that also happened when we broke up the straight is that your middle hand, while still being two pair, has gotten slightly stronger. This may have transformed your hand from a near garaunteed loser to a winner.

The important thing is that it's going to be much harder to get scooped.

Now I don't know about you guys, but, we also play with bonuses for certain hands.... Like if you can put trips up top you get a 1 point bonus. A boat in the middle is a 1 point bonus. Quads is a 2 point bonus and a Straight flush is a 3 point bonus. In back, Quads and straight flushes get you bonuses.

I've never seen printed rules for this game, so, I have no idea if this is actually how the game is supposed to be played, but, we dig it.

G O N E F O R E V E R

[flatline]

I play winning 2 of 3 is 1 point, scooping is 3 points.
Winning quads is 2 points.
Winning st8 flush is 4 points.
Winning royal is 6 points.
Winning trips on the bottom is 2 points.

We play sometimes when waiting for another game to start. I like it, but a lot of people don't really like it. Then again, most home game players these days are "OMG anything but NLHE sucks!".

[ImprovinNewbie]

thanks for the insight about putting a decent hand up front to avoid being scooped! we will be playing with scoop bonus and i doubt any others. hopefully people will get into it, we play a lot of holdem but i think they are not so into poker even though card games are always fun. i think this will suit my buddies more. ill TR later.

[Lottery Larry]

[ QUOTE ]
I've never seen printed rules for this game, so, I have no idea if this is actually how the game is supposed to be played, but, we dig it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Conjelco has a book on Chinese Poker available, but the website's having issues right now so I can't confirm

[Gone Forever]

[ QUOTE ]

I think Conjelco has a book on Chinese Poker available, but the website's having issues right now so I can't confirm

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, I'll have to try and remember to go look in a little while. If you, or anybody else, happens accross some rules / scoring systems for this game could you guys please post a link or some info?

Thanks!

G O N E F O R E V E R

[Gone Forever]

[ QUOTE ]
thanks for the insight about putting a decent hand up front to avoid being scooped! we will be playing with scoop bonus and i doubt any others. hopefully people will get into it, we play a lot of holdem but i think they are not so into poker even though card games are always fun. i think this will suit my buddies more. ill TR later.

[/ QUOTE ]

My pleasure. I hope everybody has fun. I sure wish I knew more people that wanted to play this game. Hopefully everybody digs it.

Oh, here's something to look for in the future:

I don't know how fast your friends will pick up on the game, but, as they get more experience playing, watch for people who set there hands quickly. This is usually a good indicator that they have a strong hand (or what they think is a strong hand).

Picking up on this will let you know if you should run with a mediocre hand or if you should try to stack the top to avoid getting scooped. We call this the "tuck-and-roll".

G O N E F O R E V E R

[Gone Forever]

[ QUOTE ]
I play winning 2 of 3 is 1 point, scooping is 3 points.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm... you should implement the scoop bonus of 1 point. If you're playing a point per hand then winning 2 of 3 is 1 point because technically you're winning 2 but having to pay back the 1 that you lost. Another reason to put the bonus on the scoop is because it doesn't happen all that often so it makes it extra special. =)

[ QUOTE ]

We play sometimes when waiting for another game to start. I like it, but a lot of people don't really like it. Then again, most home game players these days are "OMG anything but NLHE sucks!".

[/ QUOTE ]

I know! It sucks. I play at a couple different home games and two out of the 3 are Hold'em ONLY. I guess I shouldn't be that mad about it because I destroy them, but, a little more variety would be nice.

G O N E F O R E V E R

[ImprovinNewbie]

nothing special to report.... i got drunk, played ok and we all had fun. we just kept point score and no money exchanged hands this time but im pretty sure i have an edge over my boys just cause of good card sense. i really really dig CP and so did my friends and im sure we will play this a lot.

[Gone Forever]

Cool. In the future, post some hands or some questions as I would love to discuss this game with other people that love to play it. Anybody, everybody.

G O N E F O R E V E R