While gambling in India is illegal in many areas, online gaming is growing in popularity across the nation as a whole. As of last year, the gambling industry in India was valued at about 62 billion Indian rupees. Over the next decade, this figure is expected to grow to over 250 billion!

If you're not from India, you may be wondering why this matters to you. Well, it goes to show that India is a significant part of the global gambling market and is more than capable of leaving their mark on it. In fact, this is something that they've already proven with a popular Indian game called Teen Patti.

From its humble origins, this game has expanded to be played in casinos across the globe. Here, we're going to talk about Teen Patti and how you can play this awesome game to win big!

What Is Teen Patti?

Before we can get into the specifics of how to play, it's important that we discuss what Teen Patti is and where it came from. Read on for a short introduction to the game that will keep you as informed and engaged with gameplay as possible when you start placing bets.

The Basics

Teen Patti, also spelled Teen Pathi, is a phrase meaning 'three cards' in Hindi. Since it's a game of Indian origins that utilizes three-card hands, it's no mystery why this is the name!

This desi game is popular not only in India but internationally as well. In 2017, it actually beat Candy Crush as one of the most popularly downloaded gaming apps on Google Play! Not only do players of games from India enjoy games made specifically for Indian people, but many westerners are drawn to games with rich histories and interesting origins. They're more mysterious than games like Candy Crush are, which makes them enduringly popular.

History and Origins

The game originated in India and grew in popularity throughout Southeast Asia. However, it had roots in the 18th-century game of three-card brag. This was an English card game that had similarities to poker.

Brag also used three-card hands and had similar rules to Teen Patti. However, because gambling has been legal in England for a long time, it was generally played in clubs and casinos. When people in India adopted it, they needed to change it to be a game that could be played socially at home.

Gambling has been largely illegal in certain areas of India for many decades, but even in these areas, people could play cards family gatherings. People on the Indian subcontinent adopted and adapted the game to play with family at special functions. Specifically, it became popular during Diwali, but it also was played by larger families and communities on casual social occasions.

Since then, online gambling has grown in popularity and been made legal in many Indian states. Teen Patti is one of the most popular card games in the nation, so it should come as no surprise that many mobile apps and computer websites were developed so that people could play it at home. Since then, Teen Patti has also become popular in land-based casinos that opened up shop.

How to Play

Ready to learn how to play Teen Patti? Awesome! There are many rules that you'll need to learn, but the game itself is overall pretty simple. As long as you memorize the card combinations, you'll be good to go.

Read on for a comprehensive guide on the rules of this awesome game so that you can start having fun and making bank ASAP!

What You'll Need

To play Teen Patti, you'll need:

• 3 to 6 people
• A venue to place your bets (or an online gaming app)
• A deck of 52 cards (no jokers)
• Some gaming chips
• A pot, jar, or anything that can hold the chips

It's that simple!

Rules and Gameplay

While there are many variations of Teen Patti, the general rules are pretty consistent.

Like most casino card games, the first thing that people do in Teen Patti is to place an initial bet. There is usually a fixed amount that players have discussed and are willing to put in the pool before the cards are even dealt. There's also something called the 'boot amount,' which is the minimum amount of cash that can be kept in the pot at the center of the table.

Once the initial bet and the boot amount are collected from all players, each of them will be dealt three cards. Upon seeing them, the players will then make a call (the player will continue the game without raising the bet) or a raise (the player will add cash to the pot.)

If you've played poker, you're likely familiar with these terms. However, Teen Patti is unlike poker in that you need to have all bets placed in equal amounts. his means that once a player makes a bet of three chips against a player that bets six, the former will need to add six additional coins rather than just three to the initial three.

As the game goes on, the number of chips in the pot will, of course, increase. The entire pot will be won by the person who a) stays in the game until it ends and b) has the highest hand.

Card Combinations

Sounds pretty simple, right? Still, you're probably wondering what card combinations are best vs which ones are worst. First of all, it's important to know that aces are ranked high in Teen Patti. You want to have the highest 3-card hand by the end of the game. The following are the most common hands in Teen Patti, ranked from highest to lowest:

• Set/Trail: three of a kind
• Pure Sequence/Straight Flush: three consecutive cards of the same suit
• Run: three consecutive cards that are not of the same suit
• Color: three cards of the same suit that are not consecutive
• Pair: two of the same cards in a 3-card hand
• High card: none of the above situations apply, so the win goes to the player that has the highest total on their cards

Make sure that you memorize these hands before you begin to play!

Tips and Strategy

Now that you know how to play Teen Patti, it's time to talk strategy. Read on to learn some ways that you can maximize your chances of payout and win big!

Do Your Research

In order to play Teen Patti so that you can win, you'll want to do a little research. Look on gambling forums to learn some strategies that have worked for other players. You can then attempt to emulate these strategies and win with them as well!

Speaking of trying out new things, this is a huge part of research. You're going to want to try out various Teen Patti strategies and find out which plays work best for you. If you find yourself winning with a specific strategy consistently, this is the one that you're going to want to keep playing with! Make sure that your bets are very small when you're trying new things so that you aren't out a lot of money when some of them inevitably don't work.

Another thing you'll need to research is what casinos have the highest percentages of payout. Both land-based and online casinos have their pros and cons, so you may want to try out both and see which is more fun for you.

No matter which of these options you decide on, you need to make sure that you choose a casino that has a high percentage of payout. While huge jackpots are amazing, they can't be your focus. It's safer to pick a venue that will allow you to win a small amount consistently than somewhere with a high-risk jackpot. 

Know How to Bet

There are a few different ways that you can bet in Teen Patti, and not all betting patterns were created equal. If you're looking for a way to ensure that you get the maximum percentage of payout, you should try the following strategies:

Play blind. Playing blind happens when you put fewer chips down than you've seen other players do. This gives you a better chance of winning a little bit of money even if you have a weak hand. Even if you lose, you'll still be fine since you didn't put so much money down that you'll find yourself in a bad situation. In the simplest of terms, playing blind is just a way to lower your risk of losing a lot of money in one go.

Choose sideshow. Sideshow (also known as backshow) is a pretty interesting option in Teen Patti that many other games don't offer. You can ask for the previous player- the one that placed the last bet- to show their cards to you. The other player is free to decline this request, but if they accept, you can compare hands. The person with the lower hand is forced to fold.

Place bets regularly. In Teen Patti, you can view your cards at literally any time while playing a hand. After seeing them, you can place your bets while considering how good your cards are relative to other hands. If you bet constantly throughout the game, it convinces players that your hand is fantastic and tricks them into folding. In other words, you're bluffing!

Fold when necessary. Folding is a great strategy in any game when you feel like your cards aren't good. It stops you from needing to add more chips to the pot (and thereby losing more money.)

It's important to note that you should be focused on maximizing the percentage of times that you win rather than the amount of money you win at once. This will keep you getting a steady stream of money that will multiply as the night goes on. If you bet everything at once, you're liable to lose everything all at once, which will not only cut your night short but place you in a bad financial position.

Practice Makes Perfect

As with everything, remember that practice is essential to getting good at Teen Patti. Even after your experimentation is largely over and you know what strategies work, you'll want to keep playing with small bets for practice. The goal of these low-risk games doesn't always need to be winning- you can take some time to focus on improving your game.

In fact, if you look around online, you may find some free sites to play on! If you prefer land-based gaming, invite some buddies over for a game of Teen Patti that doesn't incorporate cash bets. Just say that the winner buys dinner or drinks. This is a fun way to practice your game and spend time with your friends.

Try Your Luck Today!

While there are lots of awesome casino games out there, the Indian game of Teen Patti is fun, exciting, and different from the games that you likely play regularly. It makes a great change of pace! Plus, it gives you a chance to exercise your existing gambling skills while learning new ones.

Now that you know all about Teen Patti, it's time to start practicing this fun and amazing game. Head over to the 'casinos' tab on our home page! Here, you'll find many different online casinos where you can play Teen Patti and other games against both other players and CPUs. There's nothing quite like having fun from the comfort of your home, so why wait? Get started today!