best variations of chinese poker?

[TStoneMBD]

i just recently got into chinese poker and i see why degenerates play this game on 72 hour benders. its fking addicting.

what variations of chinese poker are the most fun? i really know nothing about the game so please explain all the lingo. if you use words like royals ill have no idea what youre talking about.



sorry for a thread in noob format.

[Capitan23]

never heard of chinese poker, ill have to try it

[MarkGritter]

My personal likes:

2-7 (low hands) in the middle

2-4 scoring: Win one point for each hand, plus an overall point.

17-card variant (attributed to Greg Raymer): 5-card high in back, 5-card 2-7, 4-card badugi, 3-card high in front.

Dislikes:

Natural hands or "clean sweep": If you have 12 or 13 cards of one color, or six pairs, or three straights, or three flushes, you can play it as a "natural" which beats any normal hand for a set number of points. I don't think this adds a lot to the game.

1-3 scoring with bonuses: You score one point per hand you win. Special hands (like trips in front or a full house in the middle or quads) score a larger number of hands when they win. This is lame because it's nearly always correct to play the bonus hand, so some of the skill is lost. Also the values vary depending on where you play.

Breaking ties using suits. If both players have, say AAK in the front then the suit of the aces is used to break the tie.

No opinion yet:

1-6 scoring: 1 point for winning two hands, 6 points for winning all three hands.

Andrew Prock variant: Each player gets 12 cards and a bug. (Bug is A, completes straight or flushes for high, or it's whichever wheel card you need for low.) There's also a two card flop. Play 5 for high in back, 5 for low in the middle, and 3 + the flop in front for high.

[monroe]

There are several variants that are playable, just like standard poker. The biggies are CP with all hands high, and CP with 2-7 low in the middle.

We sometimes play CP high with the front hand being evaluated by total points (Aces are eleven, face cards ten) making 33 points the nuts.

The 17-card version mentioned above also gets some play in mid-high stakes games.

And there's no reason why you couldn't play a version with A-5 low in the middle. In fact, I wonder why this isn't more popular than 2-7 Chinese. Of course, the necessary avoidance of straights and flushes (near locks to be losers) in the middle adds a notch to the strategy of 2-7 Chinese.

But, in A-5 Chinese, the fact that Aces are key cards in the middle (though perhaps not as vital as deuces in 2-7) and the front as well (where a pair of Aces is still strong) could very well add more to the strategy than the straight/flush issue in 2-7 Chinese.

I imagine there are many situations where the Ace is critical to making a decent low in the middle, but also useful as part of a pair in front (or even A-high) and your choice (taking into account your back and the cards your opponent might have) can push your EV more than an insignificant ammount in one direction or the other.

Then again, perhaps some rule of thumb could be devised which would effectively negate the advantages a player who correctly played those types of hands would have.

As for other common variations, I will follow the format of the poster above:

Likes:

2/4 scoring.

Natural hands. It is true that they don't add anything to strategy, but they may be rare enough not to matter that much. After about 1200 hands I have only had 11 naturals. We play with 3 flushes, 3 straights, 6 pair, 12 colors (12 of your 13 cards of a single color), 13 colors (all of your cards of a single color), and Dragons (one card of each rank).

Royalties with 1/6 scoring (1/6 scoring gives 1 point for winning 2 of 3 hand segments and 6 points for sweeping). This introduces more strategy, I believe, because in 2/4 scoring it will almost always be an easy decision to put quads or a straight flush in back for the 4 or 5 guaranteed points. With 1/6 scoring, it is more likely that you will have an oppurtunity to break your back hand and gain EV with a 6 point sweep possibility. This is more true the less points you give for royalties (say 2 and 3 for quads and straight flush, respectively).

Dislikes:

Royalties with standard 2/4 scoring. (We play this way anyway, though.) Usually, you will receive bonus points for the following hands: Straight Flush in back (5) or middle (10), Quads in back (4) or middle (8), Trips in front (3), and Full House in the middle (2). How many bonus points you receive can vary from house to house, though.

Breaking ties using suits.

Any variant involving a badugi hand, especially the 17-card version. Doesn't it take too long to set your hand?

No opinon yet:

1/3 scoring. I've played it. That's all.

12-card CP. With a two-card front. Obviously not as deep as 13-card CP. May be good to throw in a CP mix game from time to time to have an advantage over others, like some wild-card games that aren't particularly deep but are profitable thanks to inexperienced opponents.

Super-novel variants like the Prock one above (which I just read about for the first time) or the Phat Mack variant with a community card/cribbage hand in front.

[Tornado69]

is there any online sites where you can play chinese poker ?

[TStoneMBD]

we just played a stud high-low no qualifier variant which was alot of fun and extremely high skill level. it was 16 card CP with 2-7 lowball, badugi and 7 cards for stud high-low. the 7 card hand counts for both high and for low so with 3 different hands theres 4 possible points.

[SGspecial]

[ QUOTE ]
is there any online sites where you can play chinese poker ?

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to play on pokerroom for kicks a while back when they allowed US players, so not sure if they still spread it. No variations then of course, just 13-card high hand variety.

[Gunblade]

Tigergaming.com do both Chinese poker Western and Eastern and also Big 2 another chinse poker variant.
The games irritate as it can start feeling like a game of pure luck as since you must play what you are given. There is very little edge when you learn to play the game well which isn't that hard.
Certainly not as hard as it it to learn Hold em or Omaha [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]