3-Card Casino Poker: Tactics and Strategies for Success

Book excerpt: Three Card Poker brings together the strategy of poker with the excitement of jackpot style bonuses. In this game each player plays only against the Dealer (just like in Black Jack) and not against the other Players which adds a special allure to the game for those who do not choose to go head to head against other players on regular poker tables. The game is also played with a single deck which can be used to your advantage as described later in this document. In Three Card Poker, a multi-hand variation of poker, you can play up to either 2 or 3 different hands simultaneously against the dealer's hand. The number of hands you can bet on during a single session varies by casino. For instance, at the time of publication Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut allowed 3 simultaneous hands per player but Twin River only allows 2 simultaneous hands per player. If you beat the dealer's hand straight-up you will win both the Ante Bet and the Play Bet. You will also receive an extra payoff on the Play Pair Plus amount where you must get a Pair of any kind or a better premium hand like a Straight, Flush, 3-of-a-Kind or Straight Flush to win an additional amount. If you have a premium 6 Card hand (combining your 3 cards with the Dealer's 3 cards into a 5 card Bonus hand) you will win an additional amount if the casino offers that option based on the 6 Card Hand payout amounts which also vary by casino. Our advanced strategy recommends that you play 2 different hands per shuffle with 3 bets each, in order to be able to offset one poor hand with a possibly higher hand. This might appear to produce a net detrimental or negative effect but when combined with increasing your wagers by 50%, only once, after a total loss in the previous hand, at your sole option and risk, it appears to produce a desirable diversification effect over the long term based on our personal experiences. You potentially Win At 3 Card Poker on as many of 4 of the betting spots if and only if the following conditions are true.There are 3 or 4 ways to win in Three Card Poker. By the same token there are also 3 or 4 ways to lose at Three Card Poker:1)Beat the dealer's qualifying hand or observe a non-Qualifying hand in the Dealer's Hand and win an even money payout on your Ante wager2)Beat the dealer's qualifying hand and win an even money payout on your Play wager without any commissions charged like in Baccarat.3)Receive a bonus when your hand qualifies for one of the Ante bonuses (Red Diamond) or the Pair Plus Bonuses (Yellow Circle) 4)Receive a bonus when 5 of the best cards in your hand plus the dealer's hand qualifies for one of the 6-card bonus (White Circle) hand rankings.5)Of course you will lose all 4 of your bets if you do not have a Pair or better or a another Bonus hand and your hand is lower than the Dealer's Hand. (Bummer!) HandDescription of Payouts on your handsExampleStraight FlushPayout of 40 to 1 on the Pair Plus Amount with Three cards of the same suit in sequence[8d-9d-10d] Three of a KindPayout of 30 to 1 on the Pair Plus Amount with Three cards of equal rank[Ah-Ac-As]StraightPayout of 6 to 1 on the Pair Plus Amount with Three cards in sequence of mixed suits[7d-8s-9h]FlushPayout of 3 to 1 on the Pair Plus Amount with Three cards of the same suit[2s-6s-10s]PairPayout of 1 to 1 on the Pair Plus Amount with Two cards of identical rank value[3d-3h-5c]High CardPayout of Nothing on the Pair Plus Amount when you do not even have a Pair [Qh-8d-6c]