PLAYING HONGKONG POKER

Chinese poker or Hongkong poker, known as “Xito” in Vietnamese, is the Asian version of Poker and is similar to the popular casino game Texas Hold'em. It is a highly skilled game in which the objective is not only to win but to win the most from the opponents.

Fascinating. Can you tell me more? Feel free to take several posts to do it. I have a feeling your 20th will be interesting...

Please could you confirm which land based or online casinos this game is available. Also, if you have it, could you give a summary of the game. Thanks

Quote: cevineleven

Chinese poker or Hongkong poker, known as “Xito” in Vietnamese, is the Asian version of Poker and is similar to the popular casino game Texas Hold'em. It is a highly skilled game in which the objective is not only to win but to win the most from the opponents.

That's different. In Texas Holden, you'd never want to win the most from the opponents.


ZCore13

Xito Instruction

Overview
Xito is the vietnamese version of Poker and is similar to the popular casino game Texas Hold'em. It is a highly skilled game in which the objective is not only to win, but to win the most from the opponents.

Playing Xito
Xito is similar to games like Hold'em Poker, and as such it is fairly straight forward: when it is your turn, you either have to Raise or Call or Fold, depending on what you think is best for you with the current cards you hold. Mastering Xito however requires much practice.

Xito uses only 28 cards from 8 to Ace in a standard deck. When a game starts, each player has to contribute an ante, an intial amount of money, to the game pot, the winning prize. Each player is given 2 cards: the first card is shown to only the player and is hidden from all others; the second card is shown to all.

The game proceeds in 4 rounds. At any time, the round contribution is the amount of money each player has to put into the game pot to be alive in the round. The due of a player at any moment is the difference between the current round contribution and the amount the player has previously contributed to the game pot for the round.

When having the turn, a player can either Fold, Check/Call, or Bet/Raise. Here are the meaning of each playing type:

Fold: to give up. The player does not contribute any more money to the game pot, and the player is considered out of the game.
Bet/Raise: to raise the round contribution and to pay the new due.
Check/Call: to leave the current round contribution unchanged and to pay the due.
You can see the due for a Call and Raise on the game window when it is your turn. Simply speaking, these amounts are the amounts you need to contribute to the game pot to make a Raise or a Call play respectively. The game program hides all other details. The round ends when everyone plays Call.

A Xito game ends after at most 4 rounds. If there are more than 1 players still alive, their hidden cards are revealed, and whoever has the highest Poker hand will get all the game pot. If there is a tie, the game pot is equally divided between the winners.

Note: Vinagames uses limit (instead of no-limit) betting. The server only allows at most 4 raises in each round. The raise amount in the first 2 rounds is one bet, and the raise amount for the last 2 rounds are twice the bet. The first player of each round is selected as the person who has the highest potential poker hand from an observer's point of view (i.e. with no information about the hidden card).

Xito sets and values
A Xito set contains from 2 to 5 cards. They belong to one of the following types, in the order of decreasing values. The set is very similar to Chinese Poker or Paigow.

-Straight Flush: 5 cards of the same suit forming a consecutive sequence
-Quadruple: set containing 4 cards of the same rank
-Full House: 3 cards of the same rank, and 2 remaining cards also of the same different rank.
-Flush: 5 cards of the same suit.
-Straight: 5 cards forming a consecutive sequence
-Triple: set containing 3 cards of the same rank
-Two Pairs: set containing 2 pairs of cards of the same rank
-Pair: set containing a pairs of cards with the same rank
-Trash: all cards have different rank
When comparing 2 cards, and when determining if a set is a consecutive sequence, only the ranks of the cards count. The order of the card rank in increasing order is 8 9 10 J Q K A.

When 2 Xito sets are compared, their types are compared first. A set with better type is better. If the type of the two sets are the same, the cards making up the sets are compared in lexicographic order, first, those determine the set type, then the extra cards.

So Xito is played with a very short Deck. Standard Short Deck Hold'em has 6 to A, Xito is 8-A, only 28 cards.

Obviously, the probabilities of straights, and pairing is very high. 5-card flushes will be very infrequent.

Also, when each player is dealt two cards then one of the cards is face up. That's unusual and gives all players much more informationon which to make decisions. Other than these two (major) differences, it seems to be like Texas Hold'em.

(Edit: I assume there are five common cards in the middle like Texas Hold'em, but the rules are not clear.)

(Edit: Also not clear whether A-8-9-T-J is considered to be a straight, analogous to Short Deck Hold'em)

Okay, I'll start off the math frenzy here. Assuming this is 7 ranks and 28 cards, and 7 cards to make a 5-card poker hand and that A-8-9-T-J is not a straight:

HAND__Combinations___Prob.

Royal___1096___0.000926


SF (6 cards)__84___0.000071

SF (5 cards)__1764___0.001490

4oak______14168____0.011966

Boat+Pair (3+2+2)____15120_____0.012770
Boat (2xTrips, 3+3+1)____6720_____0.005675
Boat+ 2 singletons(3+2+1+1)__161280____0.136212

Flush (6 cards)__336___0.000284
Flush (5 cards)__14952___0.012628

3oak + 4 singletons
Straight, no flush___15180___0.012821
No straight or flush___91080____0.076923

3 pair +1 singleton (counts as 2 pr)__120960____0.102159

2 Pair + 3 singletons
Straight, no flush___68040___0.057464
No straight or flush___408240____0.344786

1 Pair + 5 singletons
6-card Straight, no flush___71568___0.060444
5-card Straight with entrained pair, no flush__49700___0.041975
5-card Straight with unentrained pair, no flush___12264___0.010358
No flush or straight__114184___0.096436

No Pair + 7 singletons
7-card Straight, no flush___15540___0.013125


Apparently, I've missed something because my probabilities are adding to 0.998510

my probabilities are still adding to 0.998510, so these are approximate, but after correcting two off-setting errors in Flush and Royal Flush from the post above, these are the (approx) poker hand probabilities for a 7 card hand dealt from a 28 card deck (8 to Ace) with J-T-9-8-A defined as NOT a straight.

Hand	Combinations	Probability
Royal Flush	1012	0.000855
Straight Flush	1848	0.001561
4oak	14168	0.011966
Boat	183120	0.154657
Flush	15372	0.012983
Straight	232292	0.196186
3oak	91080	0.076923
Two pair	529200	0.446944
One Pair	114184	0.096436
No Pair	0	0

I haven't checked my code, I just cycled through all the 7-card hands in a short deck. As most the numbers are the same here they are...

RF	1 012	0.085 470%
SF	1 848	0.156 076%
Quads	14 168	1.196 581%
F House	183 120	15.465 694%
Flush	15 372	1.298 267%
Straight	241 320	20.381 068%
Trips	91 080	7.692 308%
Two Pairs	529 200	44.694 436%
One Pair	106 920	9.030 100%
	1 184 040

Quote: charliepatrick

I haven't checked my code, I just cycled through all the 7-card hands in a short deck. As most the numbers are the same here they are...

RF	1 012	0.085 470%
SF	1 848	0.156 076%
Quads	14 168	1.196 581%
F House	183 120	15.465 694%
Flush	15 372	1.298 267%
Straight	241 320	20.381 068%
Trips	91 080	7.692 308%
Two Pairs	529 200	44.694 436%
One Pair	106 920	9.030 100%
	1 184 040

Thanks, Charlie. MY numbers are apparently in error in One Pair and Straights - and since most straights are also "One Pair" I am certain that is where my error lies.