Set your ante and deal.
Your call: raise the Play bet (equal to your ante) or fold?
Free game, fun credits only, no real money. Optimal play: raise on Q-6-4 or better, fold otherwise. Pair Plus is a higher-edge side bet.
The dashed gold line is the exact Ante-Play house edge, 3.37%, under perfect Q-6-4 strategy. Short runs swing wildly; the more hands you play, the tighter the observed edge hugs it, a long-run certainty, not a per-hand one. For contrast, the Pair Plus side bet runs at 7.28%.
Three Card Poker is two bets in one. The Ante-Play game is a genuine strategy bet: play correctly and the house keeps just 3.37% of your ante. The Pair Plus side bet is a pure payout gamble on your own three cards. Every figure below is exact: Pair Plus enumerated over all 22,100 hands, Ante-Play over the full deal space.
(element of risk 2.01%)
(1-3-6-30-40 paytable)
playing (Q-6-4+)
What each bet really costs
| Bet | House edge | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Ante-Play (correct strategy) | 3.37% | The bet to make: element of risk just 2.01% |
| Pair Plus (1-3-6-30-40) | 7.28% | Fun, but ~2× the Ante-Play edge: a side bet, not a strategy |
The exact hand frequencies (of 22,100 hands)
Notice the quirk: a straight beats a flush here: with only three cards, a straight (720 hands) is rarer than a flush (1,096), so it outranks it. That's the reverse of five-card poker.
| Hand | # of hands | Probability | Pair Plus pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight flush | 48 | 0.217% | 40 to 1 |
| Three of a kind | 52 | 0.235% | 30 to 1 |
| Straight | 720 | 3.258% | 6 to 1 |
| Flush | 1,096 | 4.959% | 3 to 1 |
| Pair | 3,744 | 16.94% | 1 to 1 |
| High card | 16,440 | 74.39% | n/a |
The whole strategy: "Queen-Six-Four"
- Play any hand of Q-6-4 or better; fold everything worse. That single rule is optimal, it gets the Ante-Play edge down to 3.37%. You'll play about 67% of hands.
- The dealer needs Queen-high to "qualify." If the dealer doesn't, your Ante pays 1:1 and your Play bet pushes: a small gift that's already baked into the 3.37%.
- The Ante Bonus pays no matter what (even if the dealer beats you): a straight pays 1:1, three of a kind 4:1, a straight flush 5:1.
Is Pair Plus worth it?
It's the fun bet, one big hand pays 30:1 or 40:1, but the edge depends entirely on the paytable, and casinos quietly shift it. The common Pair Plus (1-3-6-30-40) keeps 7.28%; the older, better Pair Plus (1-4-6-30-40) (flush pays 4) is only 2.32%. Always check what the flush pays.
| Pair Plus paytable | House edge |
|---|---|
| Pair Plus (1-3-6-30-40) (flush pays 3) | 7.28% |
| Pair Plus (1-4-6-30-40) (flush pays 4) | 2.32% |
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