hi and welcome to our instructional video
that is designed to make you smarter gambler my name is Steve Bourie
on the author of the American casino guide which is the number one
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American casino guide in this video
Michael Shackleford who is also known as The Wizard of odds
and the author of gambling 102 explains all about three card poker
He tells you how to play, what that you can make and the best strategy for
playing
now here's michael Shackleford. We're gonna talk today
about three card poker. Three card poker is without a doubt one of the most
successful new
table games in recent years
the thrust three card poker is
it's a three card poker game the player against the dealer to higher card wins
the way it begins is the player makes an ante wager
and and an optional pair plus wager . I'll talk about the ante wager first
after the player makes his ante wager, the dealer will give the player three cards
and himself three cards face down the player may look at his own three cards
and then he must make a decision he either has to raise his bet
or fold. If the player chooses to raise
the raise bet must be equal to the ante wager
after the decision has been made the dealer will turn over his cards
The dealer needs a queen high
or better to open, otherwise it will be as if
the dealer folded and the player will win the ante wager only
If the dealer does open then
it will be a showdown, player's hand against the dealer's hand
the higher hand wins. If the player has the higher hand
then both the ante and the raise will pay
even money if the dealer has the higher hand they both lose
and in the unlikely event that they're both exactly the same
it will be a push. Next let's talk about the pair plus wager
this as a side bet that pays based only on the poker value
of the player's hand, it doesn't make any difference what the dealer has.
The pair plus, that pays anywhere from
even money for a pair up to 40-1
for a straight flush. The common pay table
for the pair plus goes 1, 3, 6,
30, 40. Some casinos have a more liberal pay table that goes 1,
4, 6, 30,40 but unfortunately you don't see that
very often anymore. Next let's talk about the house advantage on three-card poker
The house advantage on the ante bet is 3.37 percent
that means that for every dollar the player bets
on the ante he can expect to lose 3.37 cents
The house advantage on the pair plus bet
assuming the usual 1, 3, 6, 30, 40 pay table
is 7.28%. If you're fortunate enough to be in a casino that has the
liberal 1, 4, 6, 30, 40 pay table
that lowers the house advantage on the pair plus to 2.32 percent
Finally there's something called the ante bonus
the ante bonus pays if the player has at least a straight
and he doesn't need to beat the dealer to get paid for this
it pays anywhere from an equal amount to the ante wager
up to five times the ante wager depending upon the player's hand.
Next let's talk about strategy. The strategy for three card poker
is to raise with a queen, 6,
4 or better it's that simple
if the player has a king high or better
he always raises, a jack high or less
the player should fold but with exactly a queen high
then you look at the second card if it's a 7 or higher
the player should raise, five for lower
fold and if it's exactly a six then you need to look at the third card
then if that's a five or higher raise,
three or less fold and if it's exactly a four
you should also raise. So Queen, 6, 4 is the worst
hand that the player should raise on. Finally a word of advice
dealers on all of the
shall we say carnival games or new poker based games
often don't understand the rules correctly or make careless
errors in scoring the hands. A very frequent error made
is the dealer not paying the ante bonus
if the player loses. It's absolutely
a rule in the game that the ante bonus pays no matter what the dealer has
so if you get a straight and the dealer has a higher straight and doesn't pay
that ante bonus
stop the game before the dealer takes the cards away
and demand to be paid. I've seen that mistake so many times
so with any new poker based game
know the rules of the game cold before you sit down at it, because I see
dealer errors all the time and they usually go in the dealers favor
so don't be afraid to speak up
if you think than error has worked against you.
If you want to know more about me or hundreds of different casino games
it's all on my website wizardofodds.com and my book Gambling 102
has strategies for the most popular casino games.
Don't forget that you can see more of our educational gaming videos on our
YouTube channel
just go to youtube.com/americancasinoguide