Faceoff.

YOUR GUIDE TO THIS VERSION

Know your table.

This guide’s sequence convention: A-2-3 highest, then A-K-Q. Some tables reverse these two. For wilds, rank aces high when identifying a highest or lowest printed card. Natural and wild-assisted equal hands have no automatic priority.

The rules that matter.

• Build a 20-card deck: the five named ranks in all four suits.
• No special short-deck category promotion: trail still beats pure sequence, then sequence, colour, pair, high card.
• There is no A-2-3 because twos and threes are absent.

From first card to final reveal.

1. Build the royal pack. Set aside every card from two through nine. Count the remaining 20 cards before shuffling.

   Check all four suits are present for 10, J, Q, K and A. This version supports two to six players.

2. Agree the table. Set a base boot, chip ceiling and stopping point. Agree sequence order and tie handling. Read this game’s twist aloud.

   Deal Different uses the stated house rules. Sequence orders and tie conventions vary, so settle them before dealing.

3. Build the pot. Collect one agreed boot from each player, shuffle thoroughly and offer a cut.

   The boot is the opening contribution. Later blind and seen contributions are handled differently; they are not Poker calls.

4. Deal from the short pack. Deal one card at a time clockwise until everyone has three private cards. Leave the rest face down.

   Do not accidentally restore low cards from the set-aside packet. No burn cards are required.

5. Apply this variation. Keep only tens, jacks, queens, kings and aces. Compare ordinary three-card Teen Patti hands.

   Ask each player to identify the changed rule before the first decision. Follow the explicit conventions on this page.

6. Go round the table. Start left of the dealer and continue clockwise. A player may pack, play blind or look and play seen.

   Blind: contribute 1–2 times the current stake. Seen: contribute 2–4 times. A blind contribution becomes the next stake; a seen contribution sets it to half that amount. Pack means leave this hand.

7. Reach a comparison. If everyone but one packs, stop: that player takes the pot. With two left, an eligible player may pay for a show.

   Blind show costs one current stake; seen-versus-seen costs two. A seen player cannot demand a show against a blind player. Optional sideshows are covered in Learn Teen Patti. A cap-triggered group reveal is a separately agreed house rule.

8. Read, award, reset. Reveal eligible hands and apply this variation’s rule. Resolve ties using the agreed convention, award the pot and move the deal clockwise.

   Guide convention: at a paid two-player show, an exact tie loses for the requesting player. At an agreed forced group reveal, split ties. No suit is intrinsically stronger.

Where these rules come from.

Octro-documented format. This teaching guide states its own boundary conventions where the short source leaves them open. Explanatory presentation and examples by Deal Different.

Curated by Maanas Chopra · reviewed October 2026 · session times are estimates