Kittiकिट्टी

Players and cards

Two to five people play with one 52-card pack and no jokers. Aces are high, and also count low in the run A-2-3.

Everyone starts the game with 1,000 play chips. They are only a way of keeping score: they have no value outside this table and start again from 1,000 every game.

Hand ranking

Each of your three hands is ranked exactly as in Teen Patti. From highest to lowest:

• Trial (trail): three cards of the same rank. Three aces are the best.
• Double run (pure sequence): three cards in a row, all of one suit.
• Run (sequence): three cards in a row in mixed suits.
• Colour: three cards of one suit that are not in a row.
• Jute (pair): two cards of the same rank.
• High card: anything else.

A-K-Q is the highest run, A-2-3 is second, then K-Q-J down to 4-3-2. K-A-2 is not a run. Hands of the same type compare their highest card first, pairs compare the pair first, and suits never break a tie.

With the 2-3-5 rule turned on, a 2, 3 and 5 in three different suits beats every other hand, even three aces.

The deal

At the start of each deal, everyone with chips puts 20 chips in the pot. The dealer gives everyone nine cards, one at a time, starting with the player on the dealer's right. The deal moves one seat to the right (anticlockwise) every time.

Arranging your hands

Everyone arranges at the same time, without seeing anyone else's cards. Split your nine cards into three hands of three. Swap cards between the hands until you are happy, then press Ready. Arrange for me gives you a good split to start from.

Your hands are always played strongest first, so the table puts them in order for you: your best hand goes into the first show and your weakest into the third.

The three shows

When everyone is ready, the first hands are turned over together and the best one wins the first show. Then the second hands, then the third.

If two or more players tie for the best hand in a show, nobody wins that show.

Winning the pot

Win any two of the three shows and you take the pot. With the in-a-row rule, only the first two or the last two shows count; winning the first and the third is not enough.

Salami: win all three shows and you take the pot, and every other player also pays you 20 chips (or whatever they have left).

Kitti: if nobody wins two shows, nobody takes the pot. It stays where it is, everyone puts in another 20 chips, and the cards are dealt again. A kitti does not count as one of the game's pots.

Four of a kind and four pairs

Four of a kind wins at once. As soon as the cards are dealt, a player holding all four cards of one rank shows them and takes the pot, with no shows. If two players hold four of a kind, the higher four wins.

Four pairs: a player holding four pairs may show them instead of arranging, and call a kitti. The pot stays and the cards are dealt again. Four of a kind is checked first, so it always beats four pairs.

Winning the game

A game is 10 pots won, or 5 or 20 if you choose. A player who runs out of chips sits out the rest of the game, and the game ends early when one player holds every chip.

At the end, the player with the most chips wins. If a kitti pot is still waiting when the game ends, it is shared by the players who still have chips.

Number of pots

Play until 5, 10 or 20 pots have been won. Ten is the standard game. Kittis do not count.

Two in a row

Some tables only pay a player who wins the first two or the last two shows. Turn this on in the setup to play that way.

2-3-5

A 2, 3 and 5 of three different suits beats every other hand. Many families play it, many do not, so it is off unless you turn it on.

House rules this table does not use

Some groups let players fold before the shows, give a tied show to the player who turned their hand over first, or add rounds of betting. This table keeps to the plain game: one stake per deal, everyone plays all three hands, and a tied show goes to nobody.