Chinese Poker was a virtually unknown game until its introduction in the United States just a few years ago. Since then, it has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity and has particularly captivated the high-stakes community, always on the lookout for new games to master.

As with all new variants, poker players have rushed to try and decipher the game before the competition, hoping to win the maximum from inexperienced opponents. Now NutsBet, a web app, aims to help players optimize their Chinese Poker game with a powerful new calculator and simulator, which gives players the ability to mathematically determine their best starting starting hands, a crucial aspect of the game.

NutsBet was created over a six month period by a team of software developers and poker players who wanted to take the game to a higher level.

“Chinese Poker is a game which is based purely on math, and unlike Texas Hold’em, there is no element of bluffing,” said NutsBet Head of Advertising Nick Tomaszewicz. “With the assistance of mathematical calculations, users have the chance to become very strong and serious players.”

Chinese Poker is believed to have been invented in Finland, before becoming popular in Russia, then taking hold in the US in 2012. Poker pro Brandon Cantu has been credited with popularizing the game after seeing it played at the Aviation Club poker room in Paris. High stakes poker players like Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey soon added the game to their rotation, and enjoy playing it at nosebleed stakes.

Like Hold’em, the game is easy to learn, but difficult to master. Usually played by two or three opponents, players must use a total of 13 cards to create three rows of hands. The back-hand consists of five cards and must be stronger or equal to the middle five card hand. The remaining three cards must be weaker than the middle hand, and straights or flushes do not count. The objective is to win points by making hands higher than your opponents in each row.

“The human brain, despite being the best computer on the planet, is not able to work out the optimal amount of calculations during a hand in such a short amount of time – meaning that players using NutsBet have a solid advantage,” said Tomaszewicz. “In only a split second, the computer crunches literally thousands of combinations and produces only the best hand.”

Tomaszewicz says that both newcomers and professional Chinese Poker players can benefit from the NutsBet calculator.

“Amateurs can use the tool to get comfortable with winning card layouts and hands, while professionals can learn to master the game by practicing on tough layouts,” said Tomaszewicz.

Tomaszewicz calls the calculator an educational program, and doesn’t believe it can be exploited for players to get a leg up on their competitors in online games.

“Players do not receive an unfair advantage as the program cannot be used in online tournaments,” he said. “The program is only designed to train and educate people to lay out the cards correctly and analyze their game.

As a web app, NutsBet does not require users to install any software and can be accessed on both desktop and mobile browsers. Tomaszewicz says that there is nothing else like it online.

The NutsBet calculator is free to try, but is priced by the number of calculations you’d like to simulate, with prices ranging from $9.99 for 25 calculations to $99.99 for 350 calculations.

Pro poker players often make much of their money playing against competitors who are unfamiliar with the game at hand. While Hold’em has been perfected by many, the rise of Chinese Poker might create another gold rush for those who best understand the game.