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 fours. 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 twos?"

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% of the ante or 2% 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%. 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%.

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.