Sit down in a high-stakes mixed game in Vegas right now and you will hear a game get called that was not in the rotation a year ago. Seven cards. Two boards. No folding, no betting rounds, and no way to duck out of a hand you do not like. Every deal goes to showdown — and how wild it gets is entirely up to how many players you sit down with.
It is called Taiwanese Poker, it has been quietly taking over private and high-stakes games in Vegas and beyond, and it is now live on Phenom.
You will find it in the lobby two ways. Taiwanese Poker is the classic game, exactly as it is dealt in those Vegas mixed games. Taiwanese Jokers is ours — we added two wild jokers to the deck, a first for the game and a Phenom Original you cannot play anywhere else.
Why This Game Is So Much Fun
Taiwanese is the rare poker variant that is genuinely easy to learn and genuinely hard to master. Four reasons it hooks people fast:
- You never fold. There are no betting rounds and no folding. Every hand you are dealt is a hand you play to showdown. Nobody sits and waits.
- Everyone acts at once. All players set their cards simultaneously, so there is no waiting on the guy tanking in seat four. Hands move fast.
- Two boards, one setup. Your seven cards play against two separate community boards. A setup that dies on Board 1 can win outright on Board 2 — you are never drawing dead to the whole hand.
- You cannot foul. Unlike Open-Face Chinese, there is no ordering requirement between your rows, so there is no catastrophic misfire waiting for a new player. You can sit down and play your first hand competently.
It also lets you pick your own variance. Heads-up, Taiwanese is a fun game that is not too swingy — the most you can win or lose against one opponent in a single hand is 20 points, so things stay gentle and you can play a long session without white knuckles.
Add players and that changes fast. You are scored against every opponent separately, so a six-handed table runs five separate scorelines on every single deal. The game even makes you cover it: you need enough points in front of you to pay a Home Run to every other player dealt in. The more players at the table, the bigger the swings get.
A Cousin of Chinese Poker
If you already play Open-Face Chinese on Phenom, you are most of the way there. Taiwanese sits in the same Chinese poker family, and the core idea is identical: you take the cards you are dealt, arrange them into a Top, a Middle and a Bottom row, and compete for points rather than betting chips.
Where it departs from OFC is what makes it its own game:
- Seven cards, not thirteen. One setting decision instead of five rounds of placement.
- Community boards. Your rows play against shared boards, Hold'em and Omaha style, rather than standing on their own.
- No ordering rule, no fouling, no royalties. Each row is scored as its own independent game.
- Simultaneous, not turn-based. A full hand takes about a minute.
Think of OFC as the marathon and Taiwanese as the sprint.
Taiwanese Jokers: A Phenom Original
Here is the part you will not find anywhere else. We took the joker mechanic our OFC players already love and brought it to Taiwanese for the first time.
- Two wild jokers are added to the deck, making it 54 cards.
- Jokers are dealt to player hands only — never to a community board.
- A joker plays as the best possible card for the row you put it in.
A single joker can turn a throwaway Bottom row into a Home Run. It rewards players who know what their four Omaha cards are actually capable of, and it makes every setting decision live.
Taiwanese Jokers is exclusive to Phenom — if you want to play it, this is the only place it exists.
And if you would rather keep it pure, original Taiwanese Poker runs right alongside it: same rules, same scoring, standard 52-card deck, no wilds. Both games are in the lobby today and you can sit at either one.
How a Round Works
The Deal
Every player receives 7 cards, face down and hidden from opponents. Tables run 2 to 6 players — and six-handed uses the deck exactly, with 42 cards to the players and 10 to the boards.
Setting Your Hand
Place your cards into the three rows: 1 card on Top, 2 in the Middle, 4 on the Bottom.
Use Recall to pull your cards back and start over, and Confirm to lock your setup in. All players set at the same time — nobody sees anyone else's arrangement until every hand is locked.
The Boards
Once every player has confirmed, two 5-card boards are dealt face up in the middle of the table.
Both boards are live for every player. Your seven cards play against Board 1 and against Board 2 — two showdowns from a single setup.
Showdown
Every row is compared row against row, board by board: your Top vs their Top on Board 1, your Middle vs their Middle on Board 1, and so on across both boards.
In multi-way games, you are scored against each opponent separately.
Scoring
Points are added up per row, per board, per opponent, then settled at the table's point value. Every point carries a dollar value set before the game starts, so a hand worth 20 points at $0.50/pt is worth $10.
Building Each Row
This is where Taiwanese Poker differs from every other set-building game — each row uses different rules.
Top — 1-Card Hold'em
Your single card plays with the five board cards, Hold'em style. Your best five-card hand can even be the board itself.
Middle — 2-Card Hold'em
Your two cards play with the board, Hold'em style. You may use both, one, or neither of them.
Bottom — 4-Card Omaha
Omaha rules apply: you must use exactly two of your four cards and exactly three from the board. No more, no less.
Because the Bottom is worth the most points and is the most restrictive row, it usually deserves your strongest four cards.
Scoring System
Each row carries a different value:
Row | Points |
|---|---|
Top | 1 point |
Middle | 2 points |
Bottom | 3 points |
You win the points on every row you take and lose them on every row you drop. Tied rows are worth zero to both players.
That makes each board worth 6 points, and the full hand worth 12 points against a single opponent.
Home Run
If you scoop an opponent on both boards — winning all three rows on Board 1 and all three rows on Board 2 — you score a Homerun.
A Homerun pays an 8-point bonus on top of the 12 points you already won:
6 + 6 + 8 = 20 points
That is the maximum you can win from one opponent in a single hand, and the reason a marginal Bottom row is worth defending.
Jokers
Similar to the joker variant of OFC, Jokers can be used as wilds to be played as the best possible combination the player can make. This adds for a fun twist on traditional Taiwanese.
- Jokers are only dealt to the player hand and are not dealt on the board.
- The deck contains 2 Jokers.
Quick Tips for New Players
- Protect the Bottom. It is worth half the points on each board — three of six.
- Remember the Omaha rule. Four pretty cards on the Bottom mean nothing if you cannot make two of them play with three from the board.
- Set for two boards, not one. A hand built to smash one specific board will often miss the other. Balanced setups scoop more often.
- Chase the Homerun, but count first. The 8-point bonus is worth more than the Top and Middle rows on both boards combined.
- Watch the percentages. Once the boards are out, Phenom Poker shows live win percentages for every row so you can see exactly where each board stands.
Sit Down and Play
Both games are live in the Phenom lobby right now, under the Chinese family alongside OFC:
- Taiwanese Poker — the original. Standard 52-card deck, no wilds.
- Taiwanese Jokers — the Phenom Original. 54 cards, with two wild jokers dealt to hands only.
Tables run from 2 to 6 players.
Deal in, set your seven, and go chase a Home Run.
