The Rise and Rules of Chinese Poker: A Fascinating Journey

Chinese Poker made its debut at the World Series of Poker in 1995 with two tournaments: one for $1,500 and another for $5,000 with rebuys. In 1996, the $1,500 tournament had 62 players, while the more expensive one had only 10 participants. Despite its initial popularity, Chinese Poker was removed from the WSOP schedule due to low participation and significant time constraints.

Standard Chinese Poker is played with 2 to 4 players, each receiving 13 cards to be arranged into three boxes: lower (5 cards), middle (5 cards), and upper (3 cards). The strength of combinations must decrease from the lower to the upper box; otherwise, a penalty is incurred. The new variant of Chinese Poker involves players receiving 5 cards initially and placing them in any order, followed by drawing one card at a time until they have three boxes with 3, 5, and 5 cards respectively.

The scoring system in the new variant includes bonuses for specific hands, such as a straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, and royal flush, with varying point values depending on the box. Jason Mercier announced a new official scoring system for open Chinese Poker on his Twitter. During the EPT in San Remo, Jason Mercier and Sean Deib played open Chinese Poker with Russian players, with bets ranging from €5 to €1,000 per point. Andrey Zaichenko mentioned that the new rules in open Chinese Poker make the game more expensive, including a feature called Fantasy Land. Jason Mercier wrote a blog post on PokerStars about his love for open Chinese Poker, mentioning a 34-hour playing session in San Remo.