Chinese poker

The Chinese poker is a card game played mostly in Asian communities (southern China, Hong Kong …). It is also called Thirteen (thirteen cards).

Rules

Preparation of hand

The game of Chinese Poker requires a deck of 52 cards that are distributed in 4 packs of 13 cards each. This is for the player to have his cards into three parts. Following the value of combinations of poker, each party must be weaker than the previous one.

He prepares a first package (the bottom package) of five cards he just has before him (hole cards). Then he has a second package of five cards (lower than the previous one). Finally, it offers a last packet from the three remaining cards (respecting the rule that this package should always be weaker than the previous packet). So he has before him two packs of five cards and a pack of three cards face down.

When each player has finished preparing his hand, players return their package. In principle, we first return the package ‘upper’, the less strong, and compared to that of his opponents.

Special figures

Six pairs and a half: the player’s hand contains 6 pairs.
Three straights: the player’s hand allows him to make a straight in each packet.
Three flushes: player’s hand allows him to make a flush in each package.
The thirteen: the player’s hand contains no pair! The player’s 13 cards are so different! This is also sometimes called “kick the dragon.”

When the player finds that he can perform these special figures, he made an announcement to other players by showdown his game. If several players make announcements, anteriority of announcement prevails, except for the thirteen who is superior to other announcements.

Scoring

When the packet of a player is stronger than the packet of another player, it earns a point and the other player lost one point.

Some special combinations allow the package to be worth several points:

Three of a kind on the top package: three points,
Full on the middle of the pack, two points,
Four of a kind on the middle of the package: eight points,
Flush in the middle of the pack: ten points,
Four of a kind on the bottom package: four points,
Flush on the bottom package: five points.

When you realized an announcement, you earn three points on the opponent regardless of his cards. If you realize a Thirteen, you earn thirteen points on each opponent.

Examples

Example 1

Comparison of 2 hands:

	John	Adele	Winner
Top	6♠ 6♣ 4♥	A♥ R♦ D♦	John
Middle	10♦ 10♠ 9♣ D♠ 8♣	9♥ 9♦ 5♥ 5♦ 4♣	Adele
Bottom	3♥ 3♦ 3♠ 2♥ 2♦	R♠ V♠ 9♠ 8♠ 7♠	John

In total, John has a score of one over Adele. Adele has a score of -1 compared to John.

Example 2

Comparison of 4 hands:

	John	Adele	Anne	Mathew
Top	A♥ R♦ D♦	D♠ D♥ 5♥	A♦ R♣ V♣	D♣ V♠ 8♠
Middle	4♠ 4♥ 6♥ 5♣ 3♣	V♥ V♦ 7♥ 7♣ 4♣	8♦ 8♣ 5♠ 4♦ 3♠	A♣ A♠ 7♦ 5♦ 3♥
Bottom	10♠ 9♣ 8♥ 7♠ 6♣	R♠ R♥ 6♦ 6♠ 3♦	9♥ 9♦ 9♠ 2♣ 2♦	10♥ 10♦ 10♣ 2♠ 2♥
Score	-3	+3	-1	+1

Example 3

Comparison of 4 hands in the presence of special figures:

	John	Adele	Anne	Mathew
Top	8♥ 8♦ 8♣	A♥ 7♥ 7♣	5♥ 5♠ R♠	A♦ A♠ V♣
Middle	A♣ D♣ 9♣ 6♣ 3♣	V♥ V♦ R♦ 5♣ 3♣	4♠ 4♦ 3♦ 3♠ 7♦	R♣ R♥ 9♥ 9♦ 2♣
Bottom	V♠ 10♠ 9♠ 8♠ 7♠	10♥ 10♦ 10♣ 6♠ 6♥	D♥ D♦ D♠ 2♠ 2♥	6♦ 5♦ 4♥ 3♥ 2♦
Score	+27	-11	-9	-7