Online Poker

Three-card Poker Details

admin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:44:02 +0000

ANTE AND PLAY
The second game requires you to place a bet in the ante square before you get your cards. Once your hand is dealt, you can fold and lose your ante bet. Or, if you like what you see, you can match your ante bet with an equal bet in the play circle directly below it. Now the dealer turns over his poker hand and sees who has the higher hand.

QUALIFYING
In three-card poker, the dealer must “qualify,” that is, he must have at least a Queen high in his hand. Of course, if he has a pair or better, it’s a qualifying hand. But if he has something like Jack, Nine, Seven, the hand doesn’t qualify. If the dealer doesn’t qualify, it doesn’t matter what you have in your hand - the dealer will pay even money for your ante bet but push your play bet.
If he does qualify, and your hand is higher, you’ll get paid 1 to 1 on both your ante and your play bets. If you’ve got a really good hand, like a three of a kind or a straight flush, you’ll get paid extra on your ante depending on the casino’s bonus pay tables. If his hand is higher, you obviously lose both ante and play.
Interestingly, if you decided to stay in with lousy cards, it doesn’t matter if the dealer’s cards are higher than yours if he doesn’t qualify; you still win the ante but push the play.

Three-card Poker

admin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:40:13 +0000

Three-card poker is actually two games in one; players have the option to bet different amounts on either one or both. As the name implies, it is a poker-based game played with three cards, and three cards only. No draws.
The first game (the top circle) is called pairplus and is so named because you get paid whenever you have at least a pair in your hand. It doesn’t matter what the dealer has because you’re paid strictly on what sort of three-card hand you have. If you have a pair, you get paid even money. If you have a three-card straight or a three-card flush, you get paid even more (the amount varies by casino). And if you have three of a kind or, even better, a three-card straight flush, then you can really rack up the dough.
Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, and it was . . . when it first came out. Since three-card poker premiered in 1999, the once-generous pay tables have been scaled back, making the game less lucrative than it used to be. For example, players used to get 4 to 1 on a flush and 6 to 1 on a straight (with only three cards, it’s actually harder to get a straight than a flush), which gave the house an edge of only 2.3 percent. Then someone got the bright idea to change a flush payout to 3 to 1. That one tiny change triples the house edge to 7.28 percent!