Three Card Poker Guide

Three Card Poker is a fun game that most players enjoy. It’s easy enough that you can learn to play in minutes, especially if you have played traditional poker games. This guide has everything you need to start playing Three Card Poker online today.

The first thing we want to show you are the best casinos with Three Card Poker. We’ve vetted each of these casinos using our B.E.S.T rating system, so rest assured that each casino is safe and has a variety of banking methods and bonuses.

Keep in mind that some online casinos call the game 3-card poker, tri-card or tri card poker. Don’t worry, it is the same game. The rules and optimal strategy are the same. The bonuses you can claim – if allowed – can be used for all variations of Three Card Poker, too.

With that in mind, let’s jump into our guide. Here is everything we cover.

3-card poker’s pretty new compared to other casino card games. A guy named Derek Webb invented the game in 1994.

Shortly after he invented it, he started shopping it around to different casinos to see if anyone would be willing to offer it in their casino on a trial basis.

After a few rejections, Webb got a bite from a casino in Mississippi. There, Derek hustled; he helped integrate the game into the casino and train the dealers, all at no cost.

Webb later parlayed his initial success into trials with Las Vegas and Reno casinos. Between pitching his game and training staff, he was kept busy. Life was looking good.

Then he was hit by a patent infringement lawsuit from Progressive Games.

Derek then met with Joseph Lahti, the president of Shuffle Master. Lahti offered to help Webb defend the patent claims in court.

He also offered Webb $3 million for partial rights to 3-card poker – which Webb agreed to.

But there was a chance Derek could have gotten a lot more. So, he countersued Progressive Games. He claimed their lawsuit against him forced him to sell his (intellectual) property at a lower price than it’d be worth otherwise.

Progressive Games must have thought so, too. Or they didn’t want to see what a judge and jury would think. Because they settled out of court…

…and paid Derek Webb $20 million.

It sounds like we should be investing in games instead of writing about them, doesn’t it?

Anyway, that’s the short and sweet story about where 3-card poker comes from. Now let’s take a few minutes to learn how to play it.

3-card poker is a simple game. We’ll cover how to play it, but keep in mind that each casino may do things differently.

You’ll start by placing your mandatory ante bet. How much you can bet will depend on the casino. You can also make the optional “pairs plus” bet.

If you make both bets, they don’t need to be the same size. For example, you can make a $5 ante bet and $1 pairs plus bet (or whatever limits the casino lets you bet).

After you place your bet, you’ll be dealt cards. These are the only cards you’ll get – there’s no discarding or drawing new ones.

This is important because you need to decide if your 3-card poker hand is strong enough to beat the dealer’s hand as is. And the crazy part is that you don’t know because the dealer’s hand is face down.

You have two choices at this point; you can raise because you think your hand’s strong enough, or you can fold because you think your hand isn’t strong enough.

Fold and you’re done. The dealer automatically wins and gets to keep your ante bet.

However, if you raise, you’ll need to make another bet. Your “raise” must match your ante bet. For example, if your ante bet is $5, your raise must be $5. You’ll have $10 in total in play.

After you make your raise bet, the dealer will flip his hand over. Then both hands will be compared to see who has the strongest 3-card poker hand – you or the dealer.

Here are the three possible outcomes:

If the dealer doesn’t qualify, you’ll get 1:1 on your ante bet. But you push on the raise bet. You’ll get your original wager bet back.

For example, if you bet $5 on the ante and raise and the dealer didn’t qualify, you’d get $10 total for the ante and $5 for the raise. You’ll get $15 total.

In this case, you’d get even money on both the ante and raise. If you bet $5 on the ante and raise – $10 total – you’d get an additional $10 for winning, which makes $20 total.

There are two exceptions. You’ll receive a higher payout for making one of the following hands:

It’s also important to note exactly how you beat the dealer. 3-card poker uses a slightly different hand ranking chart to determine hand strength.

In order from strongest to weakest:

You might be asking yourself why a three of a kind pays better than a straight, or why a flush pays less than a straight. This is totally backward compared to traditional poker.

The answer’s simple – it’s much easier to make a 3-card flush than it is a 5-card flush. The same goes for a 3-card straight. But it’s still difficult to make a three of a kind, especially when you’re only given three cards to begin with.

Pretty simple – here you’ll lose both your ante and raise bet.

If you made a pairs plus bet, that’s also taken care of now. It pays only if you make a pair or better. Anything less than a pair, and you lose this bet.

Here are the payouts:

Those are the common payouts. But keep in mind that they vary from casino to casino.

Once the hands have been compared and the bets paid or collected, the round is over. The cards are shuffled and you make your bet for the next round.

There are quite a few 3-card poker variations and side bets. What’s available will depend on where you play it.

The following are the known variations and side bets and any information about them, including house edge, payouts, and where you can find it.

They call this the “Millionaire Maker.” If you make a 6-card royal flush in diamonds, you’ll go home a millionaire. A royal flush in any other suit will pay out $100,000.

All this on a $5 side bet and a whole lot of luck. You’ll find this offered at Caesars Entertainment casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. You’ll find this online, too, at Evolution Gaming live dealer games. The Caesars version has an 18.10% house edge.

This was mentioned in the last section. This pays on any pair or better hand. Some casinos also offer a mini (3-card) royal flush bonus, which pays 50:1 for a suited AKQ.

A progressive that pays on a mini royal flush in spades. These are the payouts:

This is an Indian version of 3-card poker. The biggest difference is that Teen Patti is played against other players instead of the dealer/casino.

Also called Face Up. The dealer reveals only one card in a head-to-head game, rather than all three. You also make an additional blind bet equal to your ante. There are the optional pairs plus side bet, too.

If you show at least a pair, you can make an additional bet up to 3x the ante. Any other hand is only double (the ante). The blind bet’s a loser if your hand is lower than the dealer’s, a winner if it’s higher, and a push if it’s lower than a flush.

This slot variation was found at William Hill. This offers a hold/nudge option. Each reel is made up of symbols showing all fifty-two cards in a deck. The goal is to line up a winning 3-card poker hand on the winning line.

New to Nevada casinos. This is part blackjack and part 3-card poker. Each round begins with placing two bets – one for your 3-card hand and another for the 21 bonus game. Then three cards are dealt to each player. These are the payouts for the 21 bonus:

If the dealer shows an ace, you can buy insurance. It pays 2:1 like in traditional blackjack.

And if you have a total of more than 21, you can surrender or make two additional bets. This splits your 3-card hand into three different hands.

There are more rules, which you can find here.

This is (reportedly) offered at the Red Hawk Casino near Sacramento. This is a $1 side bet. This is on a ‘for one’ basis, which means you never get your original bet back, even if you win. You can win based on your own hand AND other players’ hands. This has a house edge of 38.57% to 42.53%, depending on how many players (1-6) are playing.

There’s not a ton of strategy for 3-card poker. You only have two choices you can make:

That’s it.

That said, there are a couple of optimal decisions or plays you can make. These are choices that will reduce the house’s edge as much as possible.

The most optimal way to play is this:

Here are a couple of examples:

This strategy reduces the house edge to 3.37%. But it can be higher depending on where you play and that casino’s payouts.

If you don’t use this strategy, the house edge will be between 7.5%-8%. That’s a big difference for failing to use such a simple strategy.

That’s it. That’s all the strategy you need.

As we said, simple.

But that’s not all. If you’re playing live and happen to see one of the dealer’s cards, then follow this advice:

If the dealer’s sloppy enough, you can have as much as a 3.48% advantage over the house.

Last – there’s no strategy for the pairs plus bet. You either make it or you don’t. If you’re concerned about the house edge and making your money last, don’t make it. You’re better off betting 100% of your money on the ante bet.

That said, the house edge is relatively low for a side bet – around 2%-3% – which, when combined with the game’s house edge, makes this a low-risk game all around.

There’s nothing particularly special about playing 3-card poker online. At least, no more than any other game.

But there are a few things you might want to know.

And others. You can see a complete list here.

Their version has the Ante Bonus, which pays no matter the dealer’s hand. And they have the pair plus bonus and a six card bonus, which pays 1,000:1 on a three of a kind or better, regardless of what the dealer has.

For example, if they require slots players to wager 30x their deposit plus bonus, a poker player might need to wager 5x-10x that – or about 150x-300x.

It’s important to keep that in mind before signing up because if you don’t fulfill the requirements you won’t be able to cash out until you do.

Let’s take a look at the different steps you need to take to start playing and give yourself the best chance to win real money.

The most important factor here is to select an online casino that is safe and offers good value for real money online 3-card poker. You might lack the expertise or the time and energy to explore the different options on the web, but that’s where our team of experts can help.

We have plenty of people with years in the industry and we know how to evaluate the tri-card poker casino sites on the internet. We go through an extended review process for each real money gambling site that looks like this.

We perform an extensive background check to learn more about the company that runs the business and the gambling license used by the casino. If we are not satisfied by the result, our review process ends here and the website has no chance of becoming one of our trusted online casinos for real money 3-card poker.

Once we know that a tri-card poker casino is legit, the next stage is to join and make a deposit. A couple of our gambling pros open new accounts and test several different payment options, so they can fund their account. At this stage, we also claim the first deposit bonus to see if it works for real money 3 card poker.

The next step is to play three card poker online for real cash. We can’t lie, this one is our favorite part of the review! We check all variants supported by the best real money 3-card poker casinos to see what’s the house edge, how flexible the limits are, and try the overall experience on various platforms.

A juicy welcome bonus is the bare minimum we expect from the top 3 card poker sites for real money. The best casinos online have many other promotions that provide regular players with a constant stream of exclusive deals.

We always make sure to test the customer support service. Ideally, we expect direct access in real time through a live chat or a toll-free line. The lack of such channels is only acceptable if there’s fast email support. That’s the bare minimum offered by our top-rated three card poker gambling sites.

The payouts are an important part of gambling online for cash and we hate casinos that stall when it comes to paying their players. Requesting some verification the first time is fine and to be expected, but we then want to see fast payouts.

As you can see, our process is designed to cover every single aspect of the real money online three card poker experience. We start with the safety and security of the players, go through the real money 3-card poker games, and test every key action involved in the process.

Here are the top suggestions for your region.

The harsh truth about tri-card poker is that the game comes with a house edge of over 3% and that’s if you play with the optimal strategy. As a result, you can’t expect to win cash in the long run. You are more likely to lose and only good luck can change your fortunes.

However, there are certain ways to improve your chances and the most obvious one is to exploit as many bonuses for real money online 3 card poker as possible.

The most important one almost always is the first deposit bonus for three card poker. It’s the most generous deal you’ll get and it can boost your bankroll right off the bat. That’s why you should carefully explore the terms and conditions to get the maximum value.

The rapid development of mobile technologies in the past decade or so has allowed online casinos to offer three card poker on the go. The simplicity of the game makes it great for quick sessions in various situations.

The best part is that unlike the early modern casinos, the top casino apps these days offer high quality without using too many resources. You can play 3-card poker on the likes of iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows Phones.

We know that many players miss the atmosphere of land-based casinos and don’t enjoy the virtual tables for three card poker. We certainly understand where this is coming from and there is a solution that delivers a similar experience from your home computer or even on a mobile phone.

The HD live streaming services of our favorite gambling sites for 3 card poker use modern technologies to share videos in real time that include real dealers, tables, cards, and chips. They are located either in a land-based casino or in a special studio designed to meet the needs of all players.

A lot of people who like 3-card poker will likely enjoy several other casino games that are built around the same principles. That’s why we decided to share our top alternative that you could play for real money instead of, or as well as, three card poker.

There’s little doubt that video poker is one of the best casino games for real money, especially if you like poker in general. The game is simple, entertaining, and comes with an extremely low house edge if you employ the optimal strategy.

Another game that should suit the fans of 3-card poker is Casino Hold’em. It’s based on the famous Texas Hold’em variation of poker and you could tell if you try it out. The player uses two hole cards and five community cards to build the best combination of five cards and beat the dealer.

The game that probably resembles three card poker the most is Caribbean Stud Poker. The overall gameplay is the same and the main difference is that you have five cards instead of three. The other major factor that needs to be pointed out is the different house edge.

That’s it. That’s 3-card poker.

As we said earlier, this is a simple game to learn and play. The house edge isn’t too bad either if you stick to the one move we shared and resist the temptation to play any side bets.

But no matter how you approach it, 3-card poker is a fun game to play…and a great, fast-paced alternative to traditional poker games.

Give it a shot today.

Here are some questions and answers about 3-card poker.