Triple-zero roulette

19 January 2017

By John Grochowski

QUESTION: Three Card Poker question: I was playing at a table that had a 50-1 payoff on mini-royals. It also paid 40 on other straight flushes, 30 on three of a kind, 6 on straights, 3 on flushes and 1 on pairs.

How much does the mini-royal bring down the house edge? Also, how often do you get a mini-royal? I’ve never seen a royal in five-card games like Caribbean Stud, but another player got one at Three Card Poker the night I played.

ANSWER: Just to avoid any confusion, the question here applies to the Pair Plus portion of Three Card Poker, not to the ante-bet portion where you play against the dealer. In Pair Plus, you’re paid on any hand of a pair or better.

The pay table you describe is the most commonly used, except that most tables don’t have the larger payoff on mini-royals. Instead, Ace-King-Queen of the same suit is treated the same as any other straight flush and paid 40-1. Under those conditions, the house edge on Pair Plus is 7.28%.

Given the 50-1 mini-royal payoff you found, the house edge is reduced to 7.10%. So layering the mini-royal payoff onto the common pay table reduces the house edge by 0.18%.

There are 22,100 possible three-card hands in which card order doesn’t matter. Of those, four are mini-royals – one in each suit. So your chances of being dealt a mini-royal are 1 in 5,525. That makes it a fairly rare hand, but an attainable one. Those who play a lot of Three Card Poker will see one from time to time.

Royals in five-card stud games are much rarer events. In five-card games, there are 2,598,960 possible hands in which card order doesn’t matter. Four of those are royals, so you chances of being dealt a royal are 1 in 649,740. Many who play five-card stud games will go a lifetime without ever seeing one.

QUESTION: Have you heard about the new Sands Roulette game at the Venetian? Above the 0 and 00, there is another green space that has a capital “S” and a Sands logo.

Is that a game they had at the old Sands that they’re bringing back? Besides having an extra bet, does it change the game?

ANSWER: The Venetian stands on the site of the old Sands Las Vegas resort, but Sands Roulette is not a revival of an old Sands staple. This is a triple-zero roulette game, with the logo functioning as a third zero. That increases the house edge.

Most roulette wheels in the United States have 38 numbers, with 1 through 36 plus 0 and 00. Payoffs would be at true odds if there were only 36 numbers, but the house has an edge because of the extra possibilities. Single-number bets pay 35-1, but true odds are 37-1. That gives the house a 5.26%.

At Sands Roulette, single-number bets still pay 35-1, but because there are 39 spaces on the wheel, the true odds are 38-1. That increases the house edge to 7.69%.

That applies to other bets, too. Two-number splits, three-number streets, four-number corners, six-number double streets, columns, dozens, red or black, odd or even – the house edge is 7.69%.

In the past, I’ve seen triple-zero roulette games only at charity casino nights, where all the games gave the house an extra edge. In a commercial casino, I wouldn’t even consider playing with an extra 0.