Play is in clockwise order and starts with the player left of the dealer.

Unlike standard Chinese poker, players do not receive all thirteen cards at once.

Therefore, fouling plays a large factor, and strategies are devised to avoid it.

Players can set all cards in three or fewer rows depending on their preference.

For example, if a player receives A♣ 2♦ 3♠ 4♥ 5♣ as the first five cards he or she can set them all on the back or middle row if desired.

Players in fantasyland set their hand face down when it is their turn to act.

Another way of stating how to stay in fantasyland would be one must score a 10-point royalty or higher in any sub-hand.

Thus, unlike most poker games, being second-best at the table is good enough to win money.

Many variations of scoring are in common use; refer to the external links for more information.

Points are added to the winner and subtracted from the loser as the game progresses.

Royalty points are also scored based on the number of players involved.

Royalties, or bonuses as they are sometimes called, are extra units that may be awarded to players with particularly strong hands.

Other variations play with naturals and can be scored the same as standard Chinese poker or to the players preference.

The Carnivale of Poker is a smaller tournament series that had a brief run, organized by the WSOP.

This is mainly due to not being mainstream like other variants of poker such as no-limit hold'em.

These factors make live tournaments logistically difficult and unprofitable for operators.