Three-card Poker

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!