How to Play Three Card Poker

Three Card Poker was invented in 1994 and is now one of the most common table games in casinos worldwide. The appeal is speed and simplicity, you get three cards, decide whether to play or fold, and compare your hand to the dealer’s three cards. The whole thing takes about 30 seconds per hand. House edge on the main bet is 3.37%, which is reasonable for a carnival-style game.

How a Round Works

You place an Ante bet before receiving any cards. Optionally, you can also place a Pair Plus bet at the same time (more on this below).

Three cards are dealt face-down to you and to the dealer. You look at your cards and make one decision: fold (lose the Ante) or play (match the Ante with an equal “Play” bet). You cannot raise or re-raise, it’s always exactly one Ante’s worth to continue.

Once you’ve acted, the dealer reveals their hand. To qualify, the dealer needs Queen-high or better. If the dealer doesn’t qualify, the Ante pays even money and the Play bet pushes. If the dealer qualifies and your hand beats theirs, both Ante and Play pay even money. If the dealer qualifies and beats you, you lose both bets.

Three Card Hand Rankings

Three Card Poker uses different hand rankings than standard five-card poker because with only three cards, some hands are more difficult to make.

Note that Three of a Kind ranks above a Straight, and Straight ranks above Flush, the opposite of five-card poker. In a three-card hand, a straight is harder to make than three of a kind, and a flush is harder than a straight, so the rankings reflect actual probability.

The Strategy: When to Play vs Fold

Optimal Three Card Poker strategy is simple: play any hand of Q-6-4 or better; fold anything worse. This single rule gets you very close to the mathematical optimum. In practice:

• Any pair or better: always play
• Queen-high with a 6 or higher second card: play
• Queen-high with a 6 as second card: play only if third card is 4 or higher
• Less than Q-6-4: fold

The threshold is Queen-high because the dealer qualifies with Queen-high or better. Folding a strong jack-high hand looks painful, but mathematically you’re better off not matching the Ante against a dealer who qualifies more often than you’d beat them.

The Pair Plus Side Bet

Pair Plus is an optional side bet that pays based on your hand quality, the dealer’s hand is irrelevant. Standard payouts:

The house edge on Pair Plus is about 2.32% with these payouts, slightly better than the Ante+Play combination. Casinos vary the paytable, which can push the edge up significantly. The Ante+Play bet at 3.37% is the one to focus on; Pair Plus is optional entertainment.