Set your ante and deal.
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.
The real odds of Four Card Poker — 3.40% on the simple strategy, exact Aces Up math. Fun credits only, no real money.
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