Three card poker also called tricard poker is a poker-based game that has recently become somewhat popular in American casinos. It actually consists of two separate games, pairplus and ante-and-play. The players can choose to play either or both of the games.
Pairplus
Pairplus is a simple bet on the cards with a payout for all hands of a pair or better. Below are are probabilities and six examples of actual payout tables used by some casinos.
Probabilities - Three Card Poker
Ways to draw 3 cards out of 52 = 22.100| Hand | Combination
| Percentage
|
| | | |
| Straight flush | 48
| 0.2171%
|
Three of a kind
| 52
| 0.2353%
|
| Straigh | 720
| 3.2572%
|
| Flush | 1096
| 4.9593%
|
| Pair | 3744
| 16.9412%
|
| Queen High | 9720
| 43.9819% |
| None | 6720
| 30.4072% |
| | | |
Payoff Tables for Pairplus| Hand | Table 1
| Table 2
| Table 3
| Table 4
| Table 5
| Table 6
|
| | | | | | | |
Straight flush
| 40 to 1
| 40 to 1 | 35 to 1
| 50 to 1
| 40 to 1 | 40 to 1 |
Three of a kind
| 30 to 1
| 25 to 1
| 25 to 1
| 30 to 1
| 30 to 1
| 30 to 1
|
| Straight | 6 to 1
| 6 to 1
| 6 to 1
| 6 to 1
| 5 to 1
| 6 to 1
|
Flush
| 4 to 1
| 4 to 1
| 4 to 1
| 3 to 1
| 4 to 1
| 3 to 1
|
Pair
| 1 to 1
| 1 to 1
| 1 to 1
| 1 to 1
| 1 to 1
| 1 to 1
|
House advantage
| 2.32%
| 3.49%
| 4.58% | 5.10%
| 5.57%
| 7.25%
|
| | | | | | | |
ANTE AND PLAY :
Normal ante-and-play gameplay
For ante-and-play, the player places an ante bet before receiving his cards. The player is then dealt his cards and after seeing them, the player can fold his cards and lose the ante bet, or raise by placing out a bet of equal money to the ante bet. If he chooses to play, there are three possibilities. The first is that the dealer does not 'qualify'. To qualify, the dealer must have a hand of a queen high or better. If the dealer does not qualify, the ante bet is paid out even money, but the play bet is simply returned. If the dealer does qualify, the player wins if his hand is of higher value than the dealer's, and gets paid out even money on both his ante and play bets. If the dealer's hand is of higher value, the dealer takes the Ante and Play bets. Rules vary on what happens when the hands are of exactly equal value: some say that the player simply gets his money back, but others say that the player is paid even money on his bet.
