Set your ante and deal.
Select a chip, then click a betting spot to add it.
Ante reserves enough credits for a 3× Play raise. Aces Up is optional.
Your call: fold, or raise a Play bet of 1× or 3× your ante?
Free game, fun credits only, no real money. Simple strategy: raise 3× with a pair of tens or better, 1× with a lower pair, fold without a pair.
The dashed gold line is the published simple-strategy house edge, 3.40% of the ante. Four Card Poker swings harder than most table games, 3× raises plus a 25:1 Ante Bonus make for a bumpy ride, so convergence takes longer than in our other Labs. For contrast: expert play using the dealer's up card reaches 2.79%, and the Aces Up side bet costs 3.89% (that one is exact).
Four Card Poker is Three Card Poker's bigger sibling: you make your best four-card hand from five cards, the dealer makes theirs from six, and there's no qualifying, no pushes on ties (ties go to you). The Aces Up figures below are exact (all 2,598,960 hands enumerated); the Ante-Play edge is the published figure for the simple strategy, verified by Monte-Carlo in the Lab.
(simple strategy; optimal 2.79%)
(exact, 50-40-8-5-4-3-1 table)
(every no-pair hand)
What each bet really costs
| Bet | House edge | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Ante-Play (simple strategy) | 3.40% | The main game: element of risk just 1.56% |
| Ante-Play (optimal, uses the dealer's up card) | 2.79% | The ceiling: expert play squeezes out a bit more |
| Aces Up side bet | 3.89% | Fun, but a pricier bet than the game itself |
Your best 4 cards from 5: the exact frequencies
Two quirks of four-card rankings: three of a kind beats a flush, and a flush beats a straight: with four cards, trips are far rarer. And on the Aces Up bet, only a pair of aces pays; any lower pair loses.
| Best 4-card hand | # of 2,598,960 | Probability | Aces Up pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Four of a kind | 624 | 0.024% | 50 to 1 |
| Straight flush | 2,072 | 0.080% | 40 to 1 |
| Three of a kind | 58,656 | 2.257% | 8 to 1 |
| Flush | 114,616 | 4.410% | 5 to 1 |
| Straight | 101,808 | 3.917% | 4 to 1 |
| Two pair | 123,552 | 4.754% | 3 to 1 |
| Pair of aces | 81,096 | 3.120% | 1 to 1 |
| Pair, 2s–Ks | 966,456 | 37.19% | loses |
| High card | 1,150,080 | 44.25% | loses |
The whole strategy (the simple version)
- Raise 3× with a pair of tens or better (or anything stronger, two pair and up).
- Raise 1× with a pair of twos through nines.
- Fold everything without a pair. That's 44.3% of hands, the dealer's six cards are just too big an advantage to fight with high card.
- This simple rule gives the 3.40% edge. Experts who also read the dealer's exposed card can reach 2.79%: a real but modest improvement.
- The Ante Bonus pays on your ante no matter what the dealer has: three of a kind 2:1, a straight flush 20:1, four of a kind 25:1.
Why there's no dealer qualifying, and why ties go to you
Unlike Three Card Poker, the dealer always plays, and any tie goes to the player. Sounds generous, but the dealer builds from six cards to your five, which is a much bigger edge than those concessions give back. That asymmetry is where the 3.40% lives.
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