Play Telesina Poker Online for Real Money

Telesina is a poker game that originated in Sanremo. It’s often referred to as a variation of five-card stud, though it’s actually a combination of stud and community-card poker. The game uses a strip deck, where all cards 2-6 have been removed, so the maximum number of players in Telesina is six. This is a crazy game which can be hard for typical poker players to adjust to. For example, flushes beat full houses, so in many cases it is the suit rather than the cards’ rank which determines the hand’s winner. This is all described below.

Play Telesina Poker Online at NoIQ Poker – Join Here

Telesina starts with each player making an ante bet and then receiving two cards, one face down and the other face up. The player with the lowest card is required to make at least a bring-in bet (a forced fraction sized bet), but he can also choose to make a full-sized bet. Action then rotates clockwise with players having an option to fold, call or raise. After this initial betting round is complete, players receive a second upcard and have an additional betting round. On this and future betting rounds, the player with the highest exposed hand acts first. This process completes two additional times leaving each player with their initial down and upcard, as well as 3 additional upcards. A sixth card that players can use to make a hand is then introduced This card is called the Vela.

The Vela is a community card, meaning it’s dealt face up for all players to use. After the Vela card is dealt, a final betting round takes place; then, once complete, players reveal their down card, and the best five-card Telesina hand is awarded the pot.

Telesina hand rankings are different than that of traditional poker games. We’ve included an explanation of the hand rankings below. Please pay attention carefully, noting that an Ace can be used as either high or low in making a straight (10-9-8-7-A = lowest straight; remember there is a strip deck); the winner in a flush vs flush scenario is determined by suit rather than by highest card; and in Telesina a flush beats a full house.

Telesina Hand Rankings

Here are the hands ranked highest to lowest.

Straight Flush: Five cards in a sequence and all in the same suit.

(Ace is high and low so 10-9-8-7-A is considered to be in sequence; also, when two players have a flush, it’s not the highest rank that breaks the tie but rather the highest suit. Telesina suits in order of highest to lowest are hearts, diamonds, clubs, and then spades).

Four of a Kind: Any hand containing four cards of the same rank.

Flush: All five cards of the same suit.

(Note: A flush beats a full house in Telesina. Also in a “flush vs. flush” situation the winner is determined by boss suit rather than highest rank. The order of suits from highest to lowest is hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades)

Full House: Three of a kind with a pair.

Straight: Five cards of sequential rank

(Note: In Telesina an Ace can be used as high or as low; therefore, the lowest straight is T-9-8-7-A and the highest is A-K-Q-J-T. If two players have a straight, the player with the higher straight wins; if they have the same same straight, the suit of their highest card is used to determine the winner, with the order of rank from best to worst being hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades.)

Two Pair: Two pairs of matching rank, with one unrelated card.

(Note: tie breakers are determined as in traditional poker: highest pair; if same, then second pair; if same, then kicker. The only case when suit would come into play is in the rare case when both players have the same two pair and same kicker. In this case the pot would be awarded to the player whose kicker ranks higher by suit - if both use the Vela card as their kicker, their top pairs are compared, and the player with highest suit wins the pot.)

One Pair: two cards of a matching rank and three unrelated side cards

(Note: if two players have the same hand, first kicker always decides winner. This is first looked at by rank, for example if one player has J-J-A-5-3 and another J-J-K-3-2 no suits are used because J-J with an ace kicking wins the pot. However, if both players had an Ace kicker the pot would be awarded to the person with the highest suit.)

High Card: A hand that has not qualified for any of the hands above.

(The person with the single highest card would win the pot. No kickers are used, if two players highest card is of the same rank the highest suit wins. Once again the suits in order of highest to lowest are hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades.)

Interesting Telesina Poker Facts

Another name for Telesina is Teresina.

The 32-card deck used in Telesina is sometimes referred to as a French-deck.

In a Telesina, there are only 204 possible five card combinations to make a flush, which is why it’s ranked higher than a full house. With this same deck, there are 1344 possible five card combinations to make a full house.

The best place to play Telesina poker online is, noiqpoker.com

Sanremo is a city with approximately 57,000 residents, located on the Mediterranean coast of western Liguria in north-western Italy. It’s widely accepted that this is where Telesina poker was invented.