Three Card Poker and Four Card Poker: A Full Guide

Three Card Poker and Four Card Poker take the idea of poker and remove the opponents. You play against the dealer alone, and the strategy fits on a single card.

Three Card Poker: ante, play and pair plus

You place an ante and receive three cards face down. The dealer receives three, with only one exposed. You then decide to fold, losing the ante, or to make a Play bet of equal size. For the Play bet to qualify, the dealer must hold at least a queen-high hand; otherwise the ante pays even money and the Play bet is returned.

The optimal strategy is famously short: play any hand of queen-six-four or better, fold everything else. Because you fold roughly a third of the time before the Play bet is committed, the combined house edge on the ante and play bets comes to about 3.4%.

The Pair Plus side bet

Pair Plus is a separate wager on the quality of your own three-card hand. Any pair or better pays, regardless of what the dealer holds, which makes it popular and independent of the main game.

It is also expensive: the standard paytable carries a house edge of 7.3% or more. It is best thought of as an optional flourish, not a route to profit.

Four Card Poker and its quirks

Four Card Poker deals five cards to the player and six to the dealer, with the dealer discarding one and keeping the best four. Players may make an Ante bet, a Play bet or both, and may wager one to three times the ante when playing.

The best four-card hand wins, and the rankings differ from five-card poker: four of a kind beats a straight flush, and straights outrank flushes. The ante bet alone carries roughly a 3.4% edge; the play wager is close to even.

Frequently asked questions