How to Play Chinese Poker
Description
Arrange your 13 cards into three poker hands — back, middle, and front. All hands are revealed simultaneously, and you score point by point against every opponent. No betting, no bluffing — just hand construction.
Objective
Arrange your cards into three separate poker hands that each beat as many of your opponents' hands as possible.
Setup
Two to four players, using a standard deck.
Deal thirteen cards to each player.
Rules
Split your thirteen cards into three hands: a three-card front hand, and two five-card hands — the middle and the back.
Your back hand must beat your middle hand, and your middle hand must beat your front hand, using standard poker hand rankings — since a three-card hand can never form a straight or flush, the front hand is capped at three of a kind.
Once everyone's arranged their hands, reveal them all at once.
Winning
Compare each of your three hands against the corresponding hand of every other player — win a point for each one you beat, lose a point for each one that beats you.
Beating all three of one opponent's hands earns a bonus.
Get your hand order wrong (back weaker than middle, or middle weaker than front) and you automatically lose the maximum against everyone.