Have you ever seen the movie Teen Patti? The 2010 Hindi language thriller is a tale of mathematics, betrayal, blackmail, and, of course, the game of teen patti. It’s a cautionary tale about where a risky path can take you, and it also sparked a wave of enthusiasm for the card game of the title.
In this look at the movie and the game, we will look at the story and how easy it is for you to play teen patti like the characters. Keep reading to learn more.
Teen Patti in the plot of the 2010 movie
When the movie Teen Patti was released in 2010, it featured both the famous movie star quality of Ben Kingsley and the new talent of Shraddha Kapoor, as well as performances from Amitabh Bachchan, R. Madhavan, and Raima Sen.
The story follows Venkat Subramaniam (Amitabh Bachchan), who is a genius mathematician and software engineer. Subramaniam is teaching children in his village when he receives a letter from mathematician Perci Trachtenberg (Ben Kingsley). In the letter, Trachtenberg invites Subramaniam to a London casino for high rollers.
The relationship between the two develops when Subramaniam reveals he has cracked a theory that alters the principles of probability and randomness. Subramaniam uses the theory when playing the game of teen patti online. He believes that if a player knows their own cards and those of one other player, they can guess the cards held by the remaining players. Guessing this information helps them to predict who will win the game.
When Subramaniam proves his theory to be correct, he submits a report to the institute that employs him as a teacher. The people in charge ignore his approach, so he makes plans to try the theory out with live players. Subramaniam persuades young professor Shantanu Biswas (R. Madhavan) to gather three students to take part in a live game of teen patti where his theory will be tested.
The three students, Sid (Siddharth Kher), Aparna or Apu (Shraddha Kapoor), and Vikram or Vikku (Dhruv Ganesh), play the game, and Subramaniam’s theory is proven again. He believes he can study it further if more games are played. Biswas tells him he should involve real players who gamble on games of teen patti in underground dens known as addas.
Subramaniam is not interested in making money from his theory, but he agrees to the ideas of Biswas and the team, including the students, explores the addas of Bombay. They are joined by spoiled rich kid Abbas (Vaibhav Talwar), who gets them invites to casinos and private parties.
What begins as something of an adventure descends into a dangerous game. Subramaniam and Biswas lose control, have their money stolen, and fall foul to blackmail before they eventually betray each other. This is definitely not a happy-go-lucky movie, and things do not go smoothly for the main characters. It’s a decent thriller though, and an interesting glimpse at the game of teen patti that may just inspire you to play the game yourself. The question is, how difficult is it to play?
Playing the teen patti game from the movie
Even if you do not have the benefit of any playing theories, it’s not difficult to play teen patti. The basic rules of the game are:
- Every player has three cards at the start of the game.
- The choice of the dealer is made randomly at the start of the game.
- Each game starts with the player to the left of the dealer placing their bet.
- Each player then takes their turn, betting based on the strength of their hand.
- Every game has an unlimited number of rounds and ends when no more than two players are left. The winner is the player who has the highest-ranking hand.
To get a better idea of the game, you can see how you can play the game yourself here. You can learn about the hands and their value as well as ways to make it more likely you will win. Being able to play online means you can get plenty of practice competing against other teen patti enthusiasts.
Over time, the more you play, the more teen patti skills you will have. You can enjoy this traditional Indian card game without encountering the dangers and duplicity that the characters in the Teen Patti movie do.