Teen Patti hand rankings◈

All six hands, strongest to weakest — with a worked example of each and the rule for settling ties.

All Teen Patti hands, in order

There are six Teen Patti hands. In order from strongest to weakest they are trail, pure sequence, sequence, colour, pair and high card — and the ordering follows how rare each one is, not convention.

Two things about the Teen Patti hands catch people out. A sequence beats a colour, which is the reverse of poker. And within the runs, A-2-3 is the highest, ahead of A-K-Q. Both are explained below.

The ranking chart

Teen Patti is dealt from a standard 52-card deck with no jokers, and every player gets exactly three cards. Because the hand is only three cards long, the ranking order is not the same as poker's — a sequence beats a colour here, which catches out most people coming from a five-card game.

The six hands, illustrated

Same order as the chart above, drawn out. The example shown for each is the strongest version of that hand.

How each hand works

1. Trail — three of a kind

Three cards of identical rank. Aces are highest and twos lowest, so A-A-A beats K-K-K and 2-2-2 is the weakest trail. There is no suit requirement.

2. Pure sequence — the run in one suit

Three consecutive ranks in a single suit. The ace counts at both ends of the run, and this is where almost everyone gets it wrong: A-2-3 is the highest run, not A-K-Q. The order is A-2-3, then A-K-Q, then K-Q-J, and so on down to 4-3-2 as the lowest.

One more restriction: 2-A-K is not a valid run. The ace can sit at either end, but the sequence cannot wrap around through it.

3. Sequence — the run in mixed suits

The same consecutive ranks, but the suits do not match. Ordering is identical to the pure sequence: A-2-3 highest, then A-K-Q, then K-Q-J, down to 4-3-2.

4. Colour — three of one suit

Any three cards of the same suit that do not form a run. Colours are compared on the highest card first; if those tie, the second card decides, then the third.

5. Pair — two matching cards

Two cards of the same rank and one unmatched card. The pair is compared first, so a pair of kings beats a pair of queens regardless of the third card. Only if both pairs are identical does the third card decide.

6. High card — nothing at all

No pair, no run, no matching suits. The highest card plays, then the second, then the third. A-K-J is the strongest high-card hand; 5-3-2 is the weakest hand in the game.

Settling ties

When two players hold the same hand type, work through the cards in descending order until one is higher:

• Trails — compare the rank. Higher rank wins.
• Sequences — compare the runs by rank order, remembering that A-2-3 sits at the top.
• Colours and high cards — highest card, then second, then third.
• Pairs — the paired rank first, then the unmatched card.

If the hands are still identical, standard Teen Patti splits the pot. No suit outranks another. Some households play a suit order of spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs to break the tie — agree this before you deal, because it is a local convention rather than a standard rule.

Why a sequence beats a colour

In five-card poker a flush beats a straight, so newcomers often assume the same applies here. It does not, and the reason is arithmetic.

With three cards drawn from 52, there are 1,096 possible colours but only 720 possible sequences. The sequence is rarer, so it ranks higher. Every step of the Teen Patti hierarchy follows the same principle: the harder a combination is to make, the more it beats.

Common questions