Chinese Poker

It seems like there is a growing interest in Chinese Poker among some of the more advanced Japanese players in the JPPA. Bluejay has been commenting regularly on his blog about his Chinese Poker play in Vegas - he's in town now for the games at the Bellagio, it sounds like, but he's also playing a fair amount of Chinese Poker from the sounds of it. He seems to be in with a number of poker pros and known players, so maybe he picked it up from them?

Jumbo was also practicing dealing Chinese Poker to several of us at the JPPA who were curious about the game. He seemed pretty familiar with the rules and bonuses, so I assume he is also a regular player. I tried it out and it was kinda fun, reminding me a lot of pai gow poker. I also found that pokerroom.com has a beta version of Chinese Poker you can play for free money versus other human players, which was a pretty amusing way to pass 30 or 40 minutes. Still, if there's some deep appeal to this game for long-time poker players, I am having difficulty seeing it.