My good friend, Ishan, is hands down the best Teen Patti player in our group. My other old buddy, Shanker, is someone I don't know anyone who plays Rummy better than him. When these two meet up, we always have to decide whether we'll play Teen Patti or Rummy. Overall, Teen Patti is more popular, so Ishan is usually the big winner after the party. But Shanker is never upset about it because he has his own circle where he often plays Rummy, and there, he is like a king.
However, based on my observation, Ishan and Shanker are truly two completely different people, just as Teen Patti and Rummy are two completely different games.
Ishan is very outgoing and can talk your ear off all day, but he's not a boring person. He can turn ordinary topics into captivating conversations, making the atmosphere never cools down. At the Teen Patti table, he uses all sorts of tactics, constantly telling everyone to be careful, or acting incredibly excited. Then, right before a major showdown, he'll look absolutely determined, as if he could crush anything. Playing Teen Patti with him is truly a torture. You can’t help but feel his hand is strong, and you often fold even with a good hand, only to find out later he was just bluffing. Yet, many times, when you actually get a monster hand and his words makes you decide you must call his bet, you flip your cards only to find out his is even bigger. He seems to be performing all the time, but in the momentary gaps between his acts, he manages to read everyone's mind—he's genuinely sharp.
Shanker is much more reserved, but he's the kind of reserved that carries a certain slyness. Although he doesn't talk much, he enjoys cracking a joke at key moments, sometimes making everyone laugh with a single line. He might not be great at observing facial expressions, but when playing Rummy, he is excellent at noticing what cards others discard. After just one or two rounds, he pretty much knows exactly what cards everyone needs and what they don't. Yet, you can't sense that he is entirely confident at this point. He just plays a few more rounds, and you start to feel slightly anxious because you just can't get any card you want, and just as you feel that anxiety—he suddenly goes Gin! It's always a complete surprise.
After hearing me out, you probably have a picture of my two friends in your mind, and I feel their personalities very much reflect the nature of these two games. The core of Teen Patti lies in performance. You have to make your opponent believe the information you are conveying. The better you convey it, the more the game's script will be guided by you. Rummy seems more like a game of self-construction and assessing the situation —don't let your opponents build their hand better than you build yours.
So, a good Teen Patti player is more like an aggressor, and a good Rummy player is more like a builder. There is no judgment on who is better or worse.
