Chinese Poker

1. Chinese Poker is occasionally spread in casinos, but more often it's a pastime among idle high stakes gamblers during downtime.

Rules and Scoring

Chinese Poker is played by evenly distributing 52-cards to four players (13 apiece), each making their own sequence of three hands, consisting of 5,5, and 3 cards.

The hands must be "set" in order of decreasing value from the bottom 5-card hand, but one common variation involves playing "2-7 in the middle," thus requiring the best lowball hand to be set as the middle 5-card hand.

After the hands are set, scores are compared and payout are made using points (which have a dollar value attached). Typically you earn one point for every segment of the hand that you bested the other player and four points if you "scoop" or win all three segments.

Other popular scoring variations involve "royalties," extra points paid out for hands such as quads or a royal flush.