Chinese card games, as they are actually played

What these games have in common

They are fast. A round of Niu Niu takes under a minute, and a hand of Zhajinhua can be over before the third card is looked at. That pace is the appeal at a reunion table, and it is also the reason stakes climb quietly during a long session.

They also share a habit that catches out anyone who learned poker first: several of them rank the suits. In standard poker two identical hands split the pot, whereas in Big Two the suit decides who wins. Where suits rank at all, the order is a house rule rather than a law of the game. Worth settling out loud before the first deal. If you want the comparison, our poker section sets out the hand rankings that do not use suits.

The last thing they share is that almost none of them has a single authoritative rulebook. Names change by dialect, scoring changes by family, and the version in a phone app may not match the version your uncle plays. Everything below describes the most common Malaysian form, and flags where it varies.

Big Two — 大老二, capsa banting

Four players, the whole deck, thirteen cards each. The aim is to be the first to get rid of every card you hold. Play passes around the table, and each player must either beat the previous play with the same shape of combination or pass.

The ranking is the part newcomers get wrong. Two is the highest card, not the lowest (that is where the name comes from), followed by ace, king, queen, jack, ten and down to three. Suits also rank in most Malaysian games, commonly spades highest, then hearts, clubs and diamonds. Some tables use a different order, so ask.

You may lead a single card, a pair, or a five-card combination. The five-card hands rank straight, then flush, then full house, then four of a kind with a spare card, then straight flush at the top. A combination can only be beaten by a bigger combination of the same size, so a pair cannot be answered with a single or a five-card hand.

The player holding the three of diamonds usually leads the first hand and must include that card in it. Our Big Two page covers the full rules, the scoring at the end of a hand, and the common regional variations in one place.

Niu Niu — 牛牛

Each player gets five cards and tries to split them into a group of three that adds up to a multiple of ten. If you can, the remaining two cards give you your score: add them and keep the last digit. That digit is your bull, so a remaining eight and a six make a bull of four.

If the two leftover cards also total a multiple of ten, you have Niu Niu, the best ordinary hand, usually written as bull ten. If no three of your five cards can be made to reach a multiple of ten at all, you have no bull, which is the worst outcome.

In the most common counting, aces are one, cards two to nine are face value, and tens and picture cards all count as ten. Payouts usually multiply as the bull gets higher, and many tables add bonus hands such as five picture cards. Both the multipliers and the bonus hands are house rules, and they are where most arguments start.

San Gong — 三公

A three-card game, and the fastest on this list. The jack, queen and king are the gong of the name, and holding three of them is the best hand in the game.

Otherwise you add the number cards you hold and keep only the last digit, exactly as in baccarat, which makes nine the strongest ordinary score. Everyone plays against the banker rather than against each other, and the banker position often rotates.

The details vary more here than in any other game on the page: how tens are counted, whether particular combinations pay a multiple, and how the bank passes are all local. If you are joining an unfamiliar table, the scoring is the thing to ask about, not the deal.

Zhajinhua — 炸金花

Three cards each, then betting. This is the one of the five that feels closest to poker, and the one where reading opponents matters. Players can bet blind, without looking at their cards, usually at half the stake of a player who has looked, which is where much of the game's character comes from.

The ranking runs: three of a kind at the top, then straight flush, then flush, then straight, then a pair, then high card. That top pair is the interesting part: three of a kind outranks a straight flush here, the reverse of poker, because with only three cards a set is the rarer holding.

Many tables add local hands. A common one treats a mixed-suit two, three and five as a special holding that beats three of a kind, and some rooms cap the number of betting rounds. Neither is universal, so confirm before the first bet rather than after it.

Thirteen Cards — 十三张, capsa susun

Also called Chinese poker. Four players, thirteen cards each, and no drawing or betting rounds at all. The whole game is in how you arrange what you were dealt.

You split your thirteen into three hands: five at the back, five in the middle and three at the front. The back must be at least as strong as the middle, and the middle at least as strong as the front. Break that order and your hand is fouled, which loses everything for the round no matter how good the cards were.

Each of your rows is then compared with the same row of every other player, and you score a unit for each row you win. Strong rows in unusual places, such as four of a kind in the middle, pay bonus units at most tables. The tension of the game is entirely in the arrangement. A monster hand badly split loses to an ordinary hand well split.

Ask about the house rules first

Nothing on this page is worth arguing about at somebody else's table. These games travelled by being taught rather than by being written down, so a village version, a family version and an app version can all be correct at once.

Four things are worth settling before the first deal: the suit order if suits rank, which bonus hands pay and how much, whether the banker position rotates and when, and what happens to a misdealt or fouled hand. Five minutes of that saves an hour of disagreement, and it is normal to ask — regulars expect it.

Law and playing safely

Played socially for nothing these are simply family games. Once money is staked they fall under the same restrictions as any other gambling in Malaysia: the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953 and the Betting Act 1953. Gambling is additionally prohibited for Muslims under Sharia law. Online versions are not licensed for the domestic market, a position we set out in full on the page about online gambling and Malaysian law.

These games move quickly and are usually played among people who know each other, which makes it easy for stakes to drift upward without anybody deciding to raise them. Agree the limit before the first hand. Written for adults, 18 and over.