Teen Patti Rules: How to Play, Step by Step

Teen patti works with three to seven players, though apps often run tables of five or six. Before any cards are dealt, every player puts the boot, a fixed starting amount, into the pot. The boot also sets the first current stake, which is the number every later bet is measured against.

Each player then gets three cards face down. Play moves clockwise from the player next to the dealer.

This is the rule that makes teen patti different from poker. You may bet without looking at your cards. That is called playing blind, and it is cheaper: a blind player bets at least the current stake and at most twice the current stake.

Once you look, you are a seen or chaal player for the rest of the round. A chaal bet must be at least twice and at most four times the current stake. In other words, a seen player pays double what a blind player pays for the same turn.

The current stake updates as people raise. If a blind player bets above the current stake, their bet becomes the new stake. If a seen player bets, the new stake is half of what they put in, because their bet was doubled.

Example: the boot is 10. A blind player may bet 10 or 20. A seen player at the same moment must bet between 20 and 40.

Bet (chaal or blind): put in an amount inside your limit and stay in the round.

Pack: fold your cards and give up any claim to the pot. Whatever you have already bet stays in it.

Sideshow: ask the previous player for a private comparison (explained below). Only a seen player can ask, and only of another seen player.

Show: available only when two players are left.

A sideshow lets a seen player compare hands with the seen player who bet just before them. You pay your normal chaal bet, then request the sideshow. The other player can accept or refuse.

If they accept, the two hands are compared privately and the weaker hand must pack. If the hands are exactly equal, the player who asked for the sideshow packs. If they refuse, play simply continues.

Sideshows are useful when you hold a decent but not great hand and want to knock out one opponent without paying for several more rounds.

When only two players are left, either one can ask for a show on their turn. They pay for it (apps display the amount on the show button), both hands are turned face up, and the higher hand wins the whole pot.

A round also ends if everyone except one player packs. That player takes the pot without showing their cards.

Many tables set a pot limit. When the pot reaches it, betting stops and every player still in the round shows.

From strongest to weakest: trail, pure sequence, sequence, color, pair, high card. Our teen patti sequence list covers the full order, the A-2-3 question and the odds of each hand.