Three Card Poker

Three Card poker is a new and wildly different variation of the game that is quickly gaining popularity in live poker rooms across the globe. Three Card poker (also commonly referred to as Tri-card Poker) is actually two games in one. Players can opt to play either game or both. While it adheres to many of the same basic rules of poker, the hand changes mean they sometimes apply in dramatically different ways.

What Is Three Card Poker?

Like all other poker games, Three Card poker is based around the traditional 52 card deck. It traces its origins to a British game called Brag which underwent many changes before coming to America as Casino Brag, which slowly evolved into its current form which gained popularity under the name of Three Card poker.

Unlike its predecessor Brag which is known for its elements of bluffing, Three Card poker is not played against other players but against the dealer, making bluffing unnecessary if not wholly ineffective. Three Card poker is comprised of two parts. The first is the normal play-and-ante (or Play/Ante) game, and the second part is the Pair Plus (or Ante Bonus) game.

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Three Card Poker Rules

In the Play/Ante portion, the player antes before the cards are dealt. Three cards are then dealt to each player facedown, and three are dealt to the dealer facedown. Each player views their cards and then either raises or folds. Folding results in a forfeit of the ante bet, while a raise must be made in the exact same amount as the original ante bet. After the players fold or raise, the dealer reveals their three cards.

For a player to win the Play/Ante game, the dealer must first qualify. In Three Card poker, a qualifying hand for a dealer need only include a Queen high. If the dealer does not qualify, then the ante bet returns even money and the raise is just returned. If the dealer qualifiers and the player hand wins, then both ante and raise bets return even money. If the dealer qualifies and wins then the player loses both the ante and raise bets. In the event of a tie, the rules vary from one casino to the next with some returning the player’s bets and others paying even money on bets.

The only change made in poker combinations used for Three Card is that the combinations are now limited to three cards, meaning that a straight flush is the highest combination with three consecutive suited cards, followed by three of a kind, then a straight, then a regular flush, then a pair, and finally the high card. Obviously the lowest playable hand in light of the dealer’s qualification is a King high (unless the casino pays out on ties, in which case it would be a Queen high).

To play the Pair Plus game, you place a separate bet in the bonus or pair plus betting circle. Where players may choose to raise or fold in the Play/Ante portion of the game, Pair Plus only players will just wait it out and either win or lose depending on the strength of their hand. They do not compete with the dealer but rather with the odds, with anything above a pair paying out based on a bet schedule.

In this way, it is possible for Three Card poker players to get paid out twice on good combinations--once for the regular Play/Ante bet and again for the Pair Plus bet—which also helps to reduce the house edge.

Three Card Poker Strategy

The most basic strategy for playing Three Card poker is to use the dealer’s qualifying hand as the basis for your raising. The idea is not to totally mimic the dealer’s hand, but to one up it. Because of this, most experts advise raising on at least a Queen 6 4 combination. This may seem like an odd cutoff, but in truth the odds of this hand winning are as close to even as possible, making it the safest bet. Any secondary card above the six increases your chances and thus is also playable, as is any high card above a Queen.

It is important to remember in Three Card poker that a high card is now a viable hand, and furthermore that three suited cards is now a flush. Traditional poker players often find it hard to adapt to the two-part construction of Three Card poker and its new set of combinations, but many other players find it an exciting variation of the original game.