Rather confusingly, Fan Tan can refer to two completely different games; one is the traditional game played in ancient China using small beads and a betting board, and the other is a card game that goes by many different names but is often referred to as Fan Tan, especially in America.
Neither game is likely to be found in casinos in the UK or even in Europe of the USA, but you might find the odd online version of the traditional game played with the beads.
Evolution Gaming certainly had a live casino version at one point, so it isn’t a forgotten game, and indeed we will use this version as a reference in this article.
In Macau, however, there are a few casinos offering Fan Tan at the gambling tables.
The card version is more of a game to play at home with friends and family though, and as far as we are aware it has never been available to bet on online or in any legal casino.
We are going to cover both games in this article, but if you know which one you want you can skip to it using the links below:
- Jump To:
- Fan Tan Bead Game
- Fan Tan Card Game
What is Fan Tan?
The traditional game originated in ancient China, but has since gone on to spread around the world, and was frequently played in illegal Fan Tan dens in America in the early 1900s – although it would be fair to say that its popularity is muted now, especially in the West.
If you ever found it in a casino or online it would be played with identical small beads, but one of the reasons it has been able to survive for so long is because it can actually be played with any collection of small items, such as buttons, small stones… frozen peas – although we wouldn’t suggest that last option.
It’s a guessing game at the end of the day, since you have to predict how many beads will be left over once the pile has been sorted into groups of 4, so it’s incredibly simple too, which makes it accessible to anyone.
It’s supposed to be played with two ‘dealers’, one who uses a cup or some other sort of container to collect a random number of beads from the pile, and another who deals with the bets. The online game does away with the second dealer for obvious reasons, but if you ever found it in a casino they may well have two members of staff at the table.
It’s a slowish game anyway due to the sorting of the beads, so it would be even slower if one dealer had to do everything.
The name derives from the phrase ‘covering coins’ but doesn’t translate as that, and since it is centuries old it’s hard to know exactly how it came to be called Fan Tan. The main bet type is called a ‘Fan’ however, and the equipment used to play it are:
- Tan ching – Playing mat
- Tan koi – Cup or cover
- Tan pong – Stick or rod used to remove objects
…so it all ties together.
When it comes to the card game though, Fan Tan is just one of many names the game goes by.
Perhaps better known to some Westerners as Sevens, it is also sometimes referred to as Parliament in the UK, or as Card Dominos or simply Dominos. Which is confusing, isn’t it?
To be fair the game is reminiscent of dominos due to the structure and the way the cards are played, but it isn’t a straight copy.
The object of the game is to be the first in the group to get rid of all of your cards, as there is no second place in Fan Tan; you either win or you lose.
Each player takes a turn to dispose of a single card from their hand, with the cards needing to be laid sequentially in suits. This means that not every player will be able to dispose of a card on every turn.
The winner takes the pot, which itself will build as the game goes along depending on what happens during each player’s turn.
This is because players must add to the pot in certain situations, and there is no choice involved in this. So the size of the pot cannot be known before the game begins, but equally, a player cannot decide to play it safe and bet lower amounts, because if the situation dictates they must add a chip, then they must add a chip.
The whole deck of cards is used in Fan Tan, between 3-8 players can play but 4-6 is probably the best range, and Aces are low.
How to Play Fan Tan (Beads)
Although the game itself is very different to roulette, if you strip away the specifics it is a similar concept.
The player is making a bet on something that is random and out of their control, so it is a guessing game at its most basic level.
The table will contain a large glass cover that will be used to house many identical white beads. It’s a lot like a cake cover on a cake stand, with a handle at the top that the dealer can use to lift and manoeuvre it.
There is also a smaller container that is not see through, a bit like the main part of a cocktail shaker, known as the Tan koi.
This won’t always be the case – traditionally two handfuls of beads were placed on the table by the dealer then quickly covered with a ceramic bowl – but some variation of this setup will be used.
The dealer will use the Tan koi to collect a random number of beads from the larger pile under the glass cover, and will move them to the middle of the board. The rest of the beads are covered and not used until the next game begins.
At this point, no one knows how many beads are in the Tan koi, and players can place their bets up until the dealer removes the Tan koi to reveal the beads.
The dealer will then begin to separate the beads into groups of 4 using the Tan pong – which is a stick made just the right size to collect 4 beads at a time – so that everyone can see the result is fair.
Once the last possible grouping of 4 has been created, there will be either 1, 2, 3, or 4 beads remaining in the middle, and that remaining number will be used to determine which bets win, and which bets lose.
Fan Tan Bet Types
The basic bets in Fan Tan won’t cause anybody sleepless nights.
The first bet type is called a Fan bet, in which you are simply betting on whether the remaining number of beads will be 1, 2, 3, or 4, and those numbers are displayed in the middle of the betting board where your chips can be placed to make the bets.
Next there are the odd/even and big/small bets, just like with roulette. Odd or even needs no explanation, and big numbers are 3 and 4 while small numbers are 1 and 2.
Once the betting board expands though, you would be forgiven for getting a bit confused.
It is actually really easy to understand but the way the board looks is a little alienating.
There are 5 other bet types, and they all have funny names:
- Nim Bets – The first number shown, on the left, is the primary number you are betting on to win. The secondary number, shown on the right, will result in a push. The two numbers not shown will result in a losing bet.
- Hong Bets – As above, but there are two secondary numbers that will result in a push instead of one, meaning the bet covers three numbers in total.
- Kwok Bets – Both numbers shown here will result in a pay out if they come up, but the two numbers not shown will result in a loss.
- Ssh Bets – As above, but three numbers are included as winners, with only one number resulting in a loss.
- Tan – A mix of them all. Two numbers serve as primary numbers which will pay out, and a third single number serves as a secondary number which will result in a push. This means only one number can result in a losing bet.
Depending on where you play, not all of these bet types could be included – for example, in the live casino version that Evolution gaming made there was no Hong bet – but the majority of them will be there.
In terms of payouts, the game works a little differently to normal because it pays out true odds minus a 5% commission, which looks like this:
| Bet Type | # Options | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| Fan | 4 | 2.85:1 |
| Odd/Even | 2 | 0.95:1 |
| Big/Small | 2 | 0.95:1 |
| Nim | 12 | 1.90:1 |
| Tan | 12 | 0.95:2 |
| Hong | 4 | 0.95:1 |
| Kwok | 4 | 0.95:1 |
| Ssh | 4 | 0.95:3 |
So it isn’t a game where you can win big unless you also bet big, which makes it a good option for people who like to play for longer periods but bet smaller amounts each time.
How to Play Fan Tan (Cards)
There is some flexibility with the rules to Fan Tan, so different groups may handle certain elements of the game in different ways, but the heart of the game will always remain the same.
To begin with, every player is given the same number of chips, and will ante one chip each to start the pot.
The cards are then dealt as equally as possible to all players around the table. This might mean that some players have one card more than some others; for example, if four players were taking part they would each end up with 13 cards from the 52 card deck, but if there were five players the cards won’t split equally because:
- 52÷5 = 10.4
This is ok though, since the player/s with an extra card will go first (which is an advantage since the object of the game is to get rid of your cards before anyone else), and you can also opt for those with fewer cards putting an extra chip in the pot at the start of the game.
One rules that doesn’t change though, is that the first card to be played must be a 7.
Depending on the rules you are playing, the person with the 7 of diamonds may automatically play first, but equally, you might start with the player to the dealer’s left (or the first player with an extra card).
If the starting player does not have a seven they must add a chip to the pot and the next player takes their turn, until a 7 is played.
From this point on, each player must either place a 7, or add a card either side of a 7 that has already been played in numerical order.
This means that if a 7 of clubs is the only card on the table and the next player does not hold a 7 from a different suite, their only option is to place either the 6 or the 8 of clubs next to the 7 of clubs.
In this way, the cards will eventually all end up in a line that is ordered numerically, suite by suite.
Each player must play a card when it is their turn, and if they do not have a card that can be played, they must add a chip to the pot and hope for better luck when their turn comes around again.
The game continues until any player uses the last card in their hand, meaning they are the winner of the pot that has been building throughout the game.
Before they take the pot though, each losing player must count their remaining cards and add the same number of chips to the pot; so if they had 2 cards left it would cost them an extra 2 chips. In other words, you have to pay for your remaining cards.
This is the end of the round, so the cards are collected, shuffled, and a new game begins until the agreed number of rounds have been completed and an overall winner is declared.
Difference Between Fan Tan Games
Without stating the blindingly obvious aspects that set them apart, the major difference is that the card game of Fan Tan has a tactical element to it, while the bean counting Fan Tan game does not.
Players at the card table can see what cards are already on the table, as well as the cards in their own hand. They also know that every single card in the deck is in play.
This means that they can use this information along with information gleaned by the way other players are behaving to make an educated guess about who may be holding which cards.
The player can then play tactically in situations where they have a choice of cards to play, and aren’t forced to act by only having a single playable card in their hand.
Flip to Fan Tan the bead game, and tactics is not an option, since it is a game of luck and chance.
The player is simply guessing the outcome of the remaining number of beads, and can have no impact on the game itself.
The player can come up with staking strategies like you might with roulette, but that’s about it.
There is arguably the possibility of ‘getting to know’ the game, for instance learning that the Tan koi being used tends to collect approximately x numbers of beads, and this could potentially open the game up to a kind of advantage play, but the success of this would be questionable.
The other key difference, is the Fan Tan card players are competing against each other across a number of rounds to find an eventual winner.
Fan Tan bead players are competing against the house, and each game is independent of the last.