Three-Card Poker Strategy
Poker, which boasts an estimated 50 million players in the United States alone, gets an additional boost with the emergence of three card poker, also known as tri-card poker, or simply, tri-poker.
Three-Card Poker Strategy
As if it is not thrilling enough that three-card poker offers two card games in one, what makes for even more excitement is that the two games are extreme opposites. One is a game of chance, the other a game of skill. The clincher is that you get to bet on either game, or both games, and you can wager different amounts for each of the two games. The stakes go higher one after the other, but wait until you find out about the three-card poker strategies. This game has the word "poker" in it for a reason.
3 Card Poker Betting Tips
To start with, the house has a 3.4% advantage in three-card poker. Either way, your three-card hand needs to be one pair or better—to be entitled to a payout, in the case of a Pair Plus, and to have a chance of beating the dealer's hand, in the case of an Ante/Play.
Optimal 3 Card Poker Strategy
Always play a Q-6-4 or higher. Never play anything lower. (See optimal Ante/Play strategy below.)
Also, If you have a Queen or better, place a bet in the "Play" spot. Otherwise, fold. (See optimal Ante/Play strategy below.)
A dealer will qualify with a Queen on approximately 2/3 of the hands.
Four out of every 10 "Ante" hands will win an Ante bonus.
Be aware that lower payouts, especially in Pair Plus, are used in many places that double and triple the house advantage against the player.
Avoid games with a Pair Plus payout of only 3-1 for a Flush instead of 4-1, etc.
Look for full payout 3 card poker games.
3 Card Poker Probabilities
| Hand | Combinations | Probability |
| Straight Flush | 48 | 0.0021719 |
| Three of a Kind | 52 | 0.0023529 |
| Straight | 720 | 0.0325792 |
| Flush | 1096 | 0.0495928 |
| Pair | 3744 | 0.1694118 |
| Queen to Ace High | 9720 | 0.4398190 |
| Jack High or Less | 6720 | 0.3040724 |
Pair Plus Non-Strategy & Unequal Bets
In a Pair Plus, your only deliberate concern is how much money to bet. Hence, the Pair Plus non-strategy. Equal bets are expected, and safe. Like, you wager two units on Ante/Play and one unit on Pair Plus. What you can do is post what are known as unequal bets. It is allowed in most casinos, and best for handling the volatile win/loss situation in Pair Plus. Say, if you bet more units on Pair Plus than on Ante/Play, you attempt to secure the edge more aggressively. A favored practice is to up your conservative ratio bets slowly while they are going well in order to get a headstart, and then get aggressive and start to fatten up the Pair Plus bets. At full payout, the house edge is a low of under 3 1/2% for Pair Plus, which is not worse than at any other poker table. Do not expect to live off your winnings on a $5 wager but the generous payouts should give you some kind of a pay hand maybe 25% of the time.
Optimal Ante/Play Strategy & Loss Limits
Optimal strategy in Ante/Play advises you to play within loss limits. That is, play hands that have negative expectations, namely, Q-6-4 through K-Q-10—as opposed to those with positive expectations, like Ace High or better . The logic goes that you stand to lose less by playing Q-6-4 or higher and lose more in forfeited ante bets by not playing it. The house advantage is an okay 3.4% for Ante/Play using optimal strategy on high-card-only hands, which is not a bad deal. You can lose 8.66% of your original bet yet win 5.29% on bonus payoffs. All in all, it can make a more beneficial hand in the long term, regardless of the bonus payout table.
You might wonder why optimal strategy begins with Q-6-4 and not, say, Q-7-3. Simply put, Q-7-3 is greater than Q-6-4. In poker, hands are always scored according to the highest card first, the second highest next, the third highest, and so forth, when more than three cards are involved. Between Q-6-4 and Q-7-3, the highest cards are both Queens and negate each other. The second highest cards are then scored to break the tie, in which case, a 7 beats a 6. The third highest cards do not matter in this case because the score is already resolved by the second ones. Q-6-4 is the borderline strategic hand because, if you raise on Q-6-3, you can expect to lose 1.00255 units, which is more than the 1 unit lost by folding. But if you raise on Q-6-4, the expected loss is .993378, which is less than the 1 unit lost by folding.
Raising on any Queen or better, also known as the mimic-the-dealer strategy, brings the house edge to 3.45%, which still is not bad although slightly higher than optimal strategy. Raising on everything, or playing blind, results in a house edge of 7.65%.
Related Pages: 3 Card Poker | 3 Card Poker Game Books | 3 Card Poker Game Sites | 3 Card Poker Game Lessons |
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