How to play Four Card Poker — and the real odds
Four Card Poker looks like Three Card Poker with an extra card, but the shape of the game is different: the dealer always plays, ties go to you, and your raise can be one unit or three. One simple rule covers the whole strategy.
The deal: your five against the dealer's six
You place an Ante and get five cards; the dealer gets six, one of them face up. Each side then makes its best four-card poker hand. That one-card difference is the engine of the whole game — the dealer simply has more raw material than you.
How four-card hands rank
Best to worst: four of a kind → straight flush → three of a kind → flush → straight → two pair → pair → high card. Two quirks to note: three of a kind beats a flush, and a flush beats a straight — with four cards, trips are much rarer than either. Aces play high or low: J-Q-K-A is the top straight, A-2-3-4 the lowest.
The one decision: fold, 1×, or 3×
After seeing your five cards you either fold (losing the ante) or raise a Play bet of 1× to 3× your ante. Since you only ever raise with an advantage or fold without one, the practical choice is the two extremes — minimum or maximum.
No qualifying — and ties go to you
Unlike Three Card Poker there's no "dealer needs Queen-high" rule: the dealer's hand always plays, and if you beat it — or even tie it — your Ante and Play both pay even money. Those player-friendly touches are real, but they're more than paid for by the dealer's sixth card. Net-net the game keeps 3.40% of your ante with simple play — though because your average total bet is about 2.2 units, the cost per dollar actually wagered is only about 1.56%.
The Ante Bonus
Big hands pay a bonus on your ante regardless of the dealer: three of a kind 2:1, a straight flush 20:1, four of a kind 25:1. Nothing extra to bet — it's automatic when you play the hand.
The Aces Up side bet
Aces Up is a separate wager on your own best four cards — the dealer is irrelevant. It pays on a pair of aces or better (a pair of kings loses!), up to 50:1 for four of a kind. The exact house edge on the common table is 3.89% — computed by enumerating all 2,598,960 possible hands, no simulation. Fun, but pricier than the main game.
The exact odds
Everything enumerable below is exact; the vs-dealer edge is the published figure, verified by Monte-Carlo in the Lab:
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.
Bankroll reality
Four Card Poker swings harder than most table games: you're often 4 units deep on a hand, and the 25:1 bonus hands are rare. The 3.40% edge is a long-run number — expect bumpy sessions on the way there. Bet what you can afford to lose.
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