What you need
- Up to 8 players with one pack. A standard 52-card deck, no jokers. With two packs shuffled together, up to 14 people can play at one table.
- Chips. Everyone starts with the same number. Team Teen Patti uses virtual chips only, so no money changes hands.
- A boot amount. The fixed amount everyone puts into the pot at the start of each round.
The deal
- Everyone pays the boot into the pot. The boot is also the opening stake.
- The dealer shuffles and deals three cards face down to each player, one at a time.
- Betting starts with the player to the dealer’s left and goes round the table.
- After each round, the deal passes one seat on.
In many groups the dealer also chooses the game for their round: Muflis, AK47, Joker Hunt and so on. See all 27 teen patti variations.
Blind or seen
This is what makes teen patti different from poker. You don’t have to look at your cards. A blind player bets without seeing their hand; a seen (or “chaal”) player has looked. Playing blind costs half as much, which makes it a powerful way to keep pressure on the table cheaply. You can look at your cards at any time, but once you have, you pay seen amounts for the rest of the round.
Your turn: chaal, raise or pack
On your turn you have three basic choices:
- Chaal – match the current stake and stay in.
- Raise – double the stake. Everyone after you now has to bet more.
- Pack – fold. You drop out of the round and lose what you have already put in.
The amounts depend on whether you are blind or seen. The stake starts at the boot and only goes up when someone raises:
| Move | Blind player | Seen player |
|---|---|---|
| Chaal (stay in) | 1 × stake | 2 × stake |
| Raise | 2 × stake | 4 × stake |
| Show (two players left) | 1 × stake | 2 × stake |
| Sideshow | — | 2 × stake |
So with a boot of 10, a blind player bets 10 (or raises to 20), and a seen player bets 20 (or raises to 40). If a blind player raises to 20, the stake becomes 20, and the next seen player must bet 40.
The show
When only two players are left, either of them can ask for a show on their turn by paying one more bet. Both hands are turned over and the better hand takes the whole pot. If the hands are exactly equal, the player who asked for the show loses.
The sideshow
While three or more players are still in, a seen player can ask the seen player just before them for a sideshow: a private comparison of the two hands. It costs a normal seen bet.
- If the other player accepts, the two compare cards and the lower hand packs. On a tie, the player who asked packs.
- The other player can refuse, and the game carries on as normal.
- Only the two players involved see the cards. Everyone else just learns who packed.
Winning the pot
A round ends in one of three ways:
- Everyone else packs, and the last player standing wins without showing their cards.
- Two players remain and one asks for a show.
- The pot reaches the agreed pot limit, and everyone still in shows their cards. Pot limits stop a single round from wiping out the table.
Which hand wins?
From best to worst: trail (three of a kind), pure sequence (three in a row, same suit), sequence, color (three of one suit), pair and high card. A-K-Q is the best sequence and A-2-3 the second best. See the full teen patti hand rankings with examples and tie-break rules, and the odds of being dealt each hand.
How to play teen patti online with friends
- Open Team Teen Patti, enter your name and tap Host a table. There is no sign-up and nothing to install.
- Choose one pack (up to 8 players) or two packs (up to 14), the boot (5 to 100), starting chips (500 to 10,000) and the pot limit. You can play yourself or just moderate.
- Share the 4-digit code, the invite link or the QR code. Friends join from their own phones or laptops.
- Each round, the dealer picks the game type and the voice moderator explains it out loud, deals, and calls every show and winner.
- Play blind or seen, chaal, raise, pack, ask for a show or a sideshow. You have 25 seconds per turn; let the clock run out and your hand is packed.
Nobody free to play? Choose Play vs computer and four computer players join your table. They deal and pick game types in turn, just like friends would. Short of players at a table with friends? The host can add computer players to the empty seats before dealing.
More tips: teen patti with friends and family on WhatsApp or Zoom, and the teen patti glossary if anyone at the table is new.