Pok Deng, Bai Buu, Oicho-Kabu and Other Nine-Point Card Games Compared

What Pok Deng is: a Thai point-comparison game for 2 to 17 players

Pok Deng is a Thai card game built on one simple idea: get closer to nine than the dealer. It is a point-comparison game, not a poker game, so you are not building straights or flushes to beat a ranking table. You are adding up card values and hoping your total lands higher than the dealer's².

The table seats one dealer and anywhere from 1 to 16 players, so 2 to 17 people can join a single hand. In practice, most games run with 4 to 8 players, because everyone gets their own two cards and the round settles faster with fewer hands on the table². The game uses a standard 52-card deck, no jokers, and play moves either clockwise or counterclockwise depending on the table¹.

If you have played baccarat, the shape will feel familiar. In baccarat, no matter how many players are seated, only two hands are dealt: the Player's and the Banker's³. Pok Deng flips that. Every player gets a hand, and every player is playing directly against the dealer rather than against a single opposing hand. That is the biggest structural difference between the two games, and it is why Pok Deng tables feel busier and more social than a baccarat table.

The game is also known as Pok Kao or Pok Eight Pok Nine, named after the two best hands you can be dealt². The name changes by region, but the rules stay the same across Thai and Southeast Asian tables.

Card values and how hands are counted

Counting in Pok Deng works the same way it does in baccarat. Number cards count their face value, J, Q and K count as 10, and A counts as 1. Once you add up your cards, only the units digit of the total counts².

That last part is the whole game. If your two cards total 14, your hand is worth 4. If they total 19, your hand is worth 9, which is the best total you can have. The tens digit is discarded entirely.

Baccarat uses the same rule. Once the points value reaches a double digit, the second digit becomes the value of the hand, so 10 is worth 0, 11 is worth 1, and 12 is worth 2³. Face cards, 10 and two-card totals of ten all count as zero, and 9 is the highest card⁵.

Here is how the values break down side by side:

The difference is that in baccarat, face cards and 10 are worth zero outright⁵. In Pok Deng, they are worth 10, which then reduces to zero once you take the units digit. The end result is the same, but the counting step is slightly different, and it matters when you are adding three cards instead of two.

Pok Eight and Pok Nine: the best hands and when they are revealed

If your first two cards total 8 or 9, you have a Pok. Pok Eight and Pok Nine are the best hands in the game, and you must reveal them immediately rather than waiting for the dealer to act².

Pok Nine beats Pok Eight. Both beat any three-card hand that is not itself a Pok, so if you are holding a Pok, you are in a strong position before anyone calls a third card².

The reveal rule is what makes Pok Deng move quickly. The moment a player has a Pok, the hand is turned face up and the table knows where that seat stands. There is no slow build, no drawing round, no decision to make. You either have it or you do not.

This is different from baccarat, where a natural 8 or 9 stops the draw but the hands are not revealed until the round plays out³. In Pok Deng, the reveal is immediate and public.

The third card rule and the dealer's capture option

If the dealer does not have a Pok, every player may call a third card. One card each, and you are not required to take it². This is where the game gets interesting, because you have a choice that baccarat players never get.

In baccarat, the third card rule is fixed. On any total from 0 to 5, the Player draws a third card unless the Banker has 8 or 9, and the Player's hand always stands on 6 or 7³. The Banker's draw is then determined by a table that depends on the Player's third card³. Nobody at the table decides anything. The rules decide for you.

Pok Deng gives the decision back to the player. If your two-card total is 4, you can call a third card and hope to improve, or you can stand and hope the dealer's total is lower. That choice is the core of the game.

Before the dealer calls a third card, the dealer has a capture option. The dealer may capture, using their two cards to play against players holding the same number of cards as the captured ones². This is a defensive move that lets the dealer lock in against certain hands before the draw changes the table.

Deng and payouts: from double to five times the bet

Pok Deng pays more than even money on special hands. The multiplier is called deng, and it ranges from double to five times your bet depending on the combination².

Here is how the payouts work:

A two-deng hand pays double your bet if it wins. That happens when your two cards are the same suit or the same rank². A three-deng hand pays triple, and that covers three cards of the same suit, or three cards in sequence².

A run is three cards in sequence, such as 2-3-4 or 5-6-7 or Q-K-A. K-A-2 and A-2-3 do not count as runs, because 2 is the lowest card and A is the highest².

Sam Lueang, also called krabueang, is three court cards, J, Q and K. It ranks above a non-Pok nine and pays triple if it wins². Tong is three of a kind, and it ranks above a non-Pok nine and above Sam Lueang. It pays five times the bet².

For comparison, Three Card Poker pays even money on both the Ante and Play bets when the player has the higher hand, so a winning $1 bet returns $2⁶. Pok Deng's special hands pay considerably more, which is part of why the game has stayed popular in the region.

Special positions: legs, cut legs and the buey leg

Pok Deng has a set of betting positions that do not exist in baccarat, and they are worth understanding before you sit down.

A single player may place bets in several parts. Each part is called a leg, and each leg receives that leg's cards. This is a way to spread risk across multiple hands in the same round².

A Cut Leg, or Cut Luck, is a leg placed among other players' positions to take their luck. You are effectively borrowing another seat's fortune for the hand, and you receive the cards dealt to that leg².

The buey leg is a leg placed behind the dealer. It receives the last set of cards after the dealer, and the point is to cut the dealer's luck². If you have ever seen a player at a baccarat table sitting in a position that seems to be behind the dealer's hand, this is the Pok Deng equivalent, and it is a deliberate strategic choice rather than a random seat.

These positions are why Pok Deng tables can look crowded even with only a handful of players. One person can hold several legs at once, and the layout of the table matters as much as the cards.

Where Pok Deng is played in Asia

Pok Deng is offered at some Asian casinos, and it is more common in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and some Chinese territories¹. It is not a game you will find at every casino in the region, and it is not typically a headline table the way baccarat is.

If you are in Macau, the table games you will find regulated and widely available include baccarat, blackjack, poker variants and three-card baccarat, but Pok Deng is not one of the standard Macau offerings⁵. Macau's regulated table games are set out in detail, and Pok Deng does not appear among them.

In South Korea, the games offered at casinos and through licensed operators include:

• horse racing
• cycling
• boat racing
• poker
• blackjack⁸

Casino floors in Korea offer roulette, blackjack, baccarat, tai sai, poker, slot machines and video games⁹. Pok Deng is not part of that list.

In the Philippines, poker rooms operate under gaming licenses, and the licensed poker operator list is published by the regulator¹⁰. Pok Deng is not a standard Philippine casino game either.

So the practical answer is this: if you want to play Pok Deng, you are most likely to find it in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam or parts of China. If you are in Macau, Korea or the Philippines, you will find baccarat and other point-comparison games, but not Pok Deng specifically. In Japan, there is no legal casino to visit¹.

For the legal status of gambling in each of these places, and what visitors, residents and citizens are allowed to do, the country guides cover the details that matter before you travel.