How to Learn the Best Strategies Available for Let It Ride

Published: May 22, 2014

Let It Ride is a pretty popular casino poker game that adds in elements of strategy in two different ways. You have to learn to play well with both three cards and four cards, and this trips up a lot of players since most people only have a feel for what should be done with four cards. In this game, you're essentially deciding whether or not to bet on the outcome of your hand making a pair of tens or better and getting a payout from a paytable that's a lot like the tables used with video poker. The better the hand you make, the better the payout you get.

With four cards, it's not too hard to know the best possible strategies. All you have to do is let it ride if you already have a pair or tens or better or if you have a flush draw. Four to an eight-out straight draw is profitable if you have at least one card in it that's ten or higher, but it's a break-even bet if you don't, so you can just play them all if you want without getting into any trouble. If you have four to an inside straight draw with all of the cards ten or higher, then you're also in a break even scenario because of all of the pairs you can make.

With three cards, there's more to pay attention to. Obviously you can let it ride if you have a pair of tens or better, but you can also play some draws. Any three cards to a royal flush should be played, and you should also play with any three consecutive cards to a straight flush that are all four or higher. From there, it gets a little tricky.

There can be gaps in your three-card straight flush draws if you want to play them, but each gap has to be made up for with a card that's ten or higher. For example, 986 has a gap where the seven would be and no high card to make up for it, so you would pull back your bet. However, T97 and T87 both have a high card to make up for their gap. Hands with two gaps need two high cards, so both QT8 and JT7 would be good while Q98 and J97 would not be.