3 Card Poker Strategy Guide and Information
Three Card Poker is played against the house so there's no way to gain an advantage over the casino without cheating. But that doesn’t mean it's not worth learning the proper strategy anyways. Any time you apply the proper strategy to a casino game, you still lower the house edge and make it more likely that you walk away a winner.
Ante & Play Strategy
The best possible strategy for 3 Card Poker is surprisingly simple. All you have to do is remember to fold if you have anything lower than Queen-6-4 and stay in if you have Q-6-4 or better. That's it!
You rate your hands in comparison to Q-6-4 starting from the highest card and working down. For example, say you have a hand like Q-8-2 and want to know if this hand is considered better than or worse than Q-6-4.
You start out by looking at the top card in each hand and seeing which one is higher. In this example the top card is the same. So now we have to move down to the second-highest card. The 8 is higher than the 6 so we can stop here. The Q-8-2 hand is considered higher so we would want to stay in with this hand.
Pair Plus
This is the side bet in 3 Card Poker in which you are paid out according to the strength of your hand. There is no strategy applicable to this bet unless you have the option to decline it. The house edge on the bet is about 7.28% but it varies from casino to casino. If possible, it's best to just skip the Pair Plus bet.
Some casinos offer a payout of 3 to 1 instead of 4 to 1 on flush hands. If you play at a casino that pays 4 to 1, the house edge on the Pair Plus bet is only about 2.3%. A house edge that small is better than average so don't feel too bad if you want to gamble it up a little.
Your luck will swing drastically in the short run with Pair Plus because the house edge is so small. In the long run you cannot beat the casino in Pair Plus but, in the short term, almost anything can happen.
Deposit Bonuses
There's not a ton of strategy you can use in 3 Card Poker but if you use the strategies listed above, you'll lower the house edge a good bit. Now if you combine that with the deposit bonuses that some online casinos offer, you can really do well for yourself with a little luck.
Most online casinos don't allow players to play even money games when clearing their bonuses because too many people would sign up, clear the bonus and cash out all kinds of free money. Three Card Poker isn't an even money game but it's pretty close.
You'll want to check the terms of your individual online casino but most casinos allow 3 Card Poker to count towards the clearing requirements of their deposit bonuses. So if you sign up at a casino site and get a $400 bonus, you can clear that bonus with 3 Card Poker and a low house edge.
For additional and more basic information, visit our main 3 Card Poker page.