Good shot to win with Three Card Poker

Three Card Poker has one of the easiest strategies among table games. In the Pair Plus portion of the game, where you're betting that your three-card hand includes a pair or better, there is no strategy at all. Just wait to see what the cards bring.

The strategy comes in the ante-bet portion, where your hand has to beat the dealer. There, the best play is to make the bet equal to your ante whenever your hand is Queen-6-4 or better, and fold with less. Folding forfeits your ante, but at least you're not risking the additional bet with a weak hand.

I explained that to a seminar group, and that led to the following exchange with a gentleman who was unclear on just what "Queen-6-4 or better" meant. While all this may seem pretty basic to those who have played poker in its many forms, I get similar questions every time I talk or write about Three Card Poker.

"What if I have something like Queen-4-4?"
That's better than Queen-6-4 because you have a pair of 4s. In poker games other than lowball, pairs are better than an unpaired high card, so you'd bet that hand.

"Any pair? So I'd bet even with a pair of 2s?"
Any pair, yes.

"What about Queen-Jack-2? That's one card higher and one card lower than the 6 and 4."
Poker hands with no pairs or better are judged first by their highest card, and next by their second highest card. Your second highest card, a Jack, is higher than the 6 in Queen-6-4. That makes Queen-Jack-2 a higher-ranking hand, so you make the bet.

"One more. Queen-6-5."
Starting with Queen-6, the hand is judged by the third highest card. The 5 is higher than a 4, so Queen-6-5 is a hand to bet.

Hands that you do not bet are Queen-6-3, Queen-6-2, any hands with no pairs or better in which the highest two cards are Queen-5, Queen-4 or Queen-3, and any hands with no pairs or better in which the highest card is a Jack or lower.

"Can you explain the 'or better' part there? What would be better than a pair in a hand that starts Queen-5?"
If would be better than a pair if all cards are the same suit. Queen-5-2 of hearts, for example, would be a flush, so you'd bet. You also bet straights, so something like 9-8-7 is a hand to bet.
"And if I do this, it'll make me a winner?"

I didn't say that. Like all casino games, Three Card Poker was designed to give a mathematical edge to the house. It's a fairly low one in the ante-bet portion at 3.4 percent of the ante or 2 percent of total action when both your ante and bet are taken into account.

But the only players I've ever heard of getting an edge on the house were in Las Vegas a few years ago, at a table where a dealer was exposing the bottom card of his three-card stack. Knowing one of the dealer's cards changes both odds and strategy -- you're not going to bet Queen-6-4 if you know the dealer has a King or Ace.

But that's a rare situation. Mostly, Three Card Poker is a game that gives us a pretty good shot to win, with the understanding that losing sessions will come more often than winners.

The no-strategy portion of Three Card Poker, Pair Plus, is a case of let the buyer beware. In its original version, it's one of the better bets among table games, with a house edge of 2.3 percent. Payoffs are 40-1 on straight flushes, 30-1 on three of a kind, 6-1 on straights, 4-1 on flushes and even money on pairs.

That pay table is become increasingly rare. Nowadays, the version I see most often drops the payback on straights to 5-1, and increases the house edge to 5.6 percent.

There are other pay tables with other house edges, all higher than the original. You can find several pay tables at Michael Shackleford's wizardofodds.com, a great resource for gambling odds.

While there is no playing strategy for Pair Plus, there is a not-playing strategy. My recommendation: If you see reductions from that original 40-30-6-4-1 pay table, don't play.

One question that always comes up when I mention Three Card Poker pay tables is, "Why do straights pay more than flushes? Don't flushes outrank straights?"

In five-card poker games, flushes do outrank straights. But with three-card hands, straights are less common than flushes, so straights are the higher-ranking hands. The 22,100 possible three-card hands include 48 straight flushes, 52 three of a kinds, 720 straights, 1,096 flushes, 3,744 pairs and 16,440 no-pair hands.

Since the odds are higher against your being dealt a straight than a flush, straights are the higher-paying hands.

Texas Holdem Poker Game

Texas Holdem is the most popular poker variant. Poker is a card game in which players with fully or partially-concealed cards make wagers into a communal pot during the course of a hand, after which the pot is awarded to the player or players with the best combination of cards.
Multiplayer Poker is usually played with a standard 4-suit 52-card deck, but a joker or other wild cards may be added. The game is commonly played in card rooms (often within casinos), in private homes, and increasingly, on the Internet.
The card ranking is as follows: Ace (the highest), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (the lowest), Ace (this may also be the lowest card depending on the variation being used, but it is usually the highest).
There are four suits: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs. No suit is higher than another. All poker hands contain five cards.
The use of Wild Cards depends on the variations and these take on whatever rank or suit the player wants these to take. A wild card can either be a separate card added like a joker or the player may specify a certain card in the standard deck to be wild like deuces, or whatever else.
The number of cards dealt is dependent on what type of game is being played.
During a given betting round, each player in turn may take one of these actions:

• Check which is a bet of zero that does not forfeit a player's interest in the pot;
• Bet or Raise which is a non-zero wager that is greater than preceding bets. All successive players must match or exceed this or else forfeit all interest in the pot;
• Call which is a non-zero bet equal to a preceding bet that maintains a player's interest in the pot; or
• Fold which is a surrender of interest in the pot in response to another player's bet, accompanied by the loss of one's cards and previous bets

Betting usually proceeds in a circle until each player has either called all bets or folded. Different poker games have various numbers of betting rounds interspersed with the receipt or replacement of cards.
Betting limits apply to the amount a player may open or raise, and come in four common forms:

• No Limit
  A game played with a no limit betting structure allows each player to raise any amount of his stake at any time (subject to the table stakes rules and any other rules about raising).
• Pot Limit
  A game played with a pot limit betting structure allows any player to raise up to an amount equal to the size of the whole pot before the raise.
• Fixed Limit
  In a game played with a fixed limit betting structure, a player chooses only whether to bet or not - the amount is fixed by rule. Commonly later betting rounds specify higher bets than earlier rounds.
• Spread limit
  A game played with a spread limit betting structure allows a player to raise any amount within a specified range.