3 Card Stud Rules and Basic Strategies

The games are played with a standard 52 card deck. The cards are distributed to the dealer in groups of three by an automatic shuffling machine. The player's table layout is shown at the right. Poker rules and payouts are printed on the table at each player spot, just like this: . . (Note:) These are FULL PAYOUTS. Always look for these! 3 Card Hand Values:  The first thing you will probably notice from the hand rankings list at the right is that a straight has a higher ranking than a flush. That's simply because there are fewer ways to make a 3 card straight than a 3 card flush. Aces play both high and low to a straight in this game. An ace high straight flush is the highest hand you can get but unfortunately, this is just a straight flush and not a mini-royal flush with extra bonus considerations.

How to Play 3 Card Poker Ante Play

In three card poker play begins with the ante. Players can make a wager on the Ante, Pair Plus or both. The Dealer will then deal three cards to everyone at the table, including himself. The game now begins.

If a player has made an anti bet, he must decide whether or not to play the dealer in three card poker. If so he must double his bet. If the player does not like his cards he may fold and forfeit his original bet.

If a player has decided to play against the dealer and loses, he would lose his entire bet, including the doubling of the original wager. This is providing that the Dealer does not have at least a Queen-High the player would not lose. In this case the dealer would not qualify to play against you and you will collect even money on your original 3 card poker wager.

When the Dealer is beaten and qualifies to pay, you will receive a sum of money. Providing the dealer qualifies in 3 card poker, you will receive even money on both your Ante and the Additional Money you raised to stay in the hand.

However, if you manage to get a Straight, Three of a Kind or straight flush you may even be entitled to a Bonus Payout.
 

In Three Card, Tri Card Poker Ante/Play, the only thing the expert player needs to know is how high his or her hand should be to produce the best possible long term results, if played. The answer to that question is Q-6-4 or higher.

PairPlus

The only decision the player has to make in this game is how much to bet, therefore there really is no strategy involved.  At full payout the low house advantage of less than 3 1/2% makes it about as attractive as any table poker game you can find. The payouts are very generous and you should get a pay hand of some sort about 25% of the time. Pairplus is a simple game in which you are dealt three cards, paid out according to their value and not playing against the dealers hand. Just remember that the win/loss swings are more volatile than in Ante/Play. Most places allow you to make unequal bets on the two games. A conservative bet would be two units on Ante/Play and one unit on Pair Plus, or equal bets. A more aggressive approach is to place more on Pair Plus than on Ante/Play. Many good players prefer to gradually increase their conservative ratio bets when they are running good, to get ahead before they get aggressive and load up on the Pair Plus side.
This is a simple game in which you are dealt three cards and are paid according to their value. The dealer's hand is not involved. There is no raising or discarding. Below is the payoff table for Pairplus.

Payoff for PairPlus

The house advantage percentages referred to are based on the full payout tables shown above.