Three Card Poker and the Strategy Needed to Play Correctly

Published: October 9, 2014

If you're looking to get started in casino poker, then Three Card Poker is a good game to start off with. It'll teach you a lot about the basic gameplay that these games use, and it will also teach you the basic ideas that govern most types of casino poker. There aren't a lot of complicated decisions to make, and you actually only have one betting option to choose from, so it's a great way to ease into the genre. Overall, if you learn to play this type of game, then you'll learn a lot and have a good chance to jump off into other games in the genre.

The way this game plays out is that you and the dealer get three cards each. You only get to see your own cards. You have already made an ante bet, and you can decide to fold or raise. Raising means you add another bet that's the side of the ante and take the game to a showdown. At showdown, the dealer has to qualify with queen high or better. If the dealer doesn't qualify, you profit the size of your ante overall. If the dealer does qualify and you lose, you lose both bets. When the dealer loses after qualifying, you profit the size of your ante and raise bets. This is simple enough gameplay, and the strategy in this game revolves around knowing when to raise and when to fold.

Something you need to know about this game is that three-card poker hands aren't the same as five-card poker hands. The order of the hands is different, but you don't actually need to know the order of the hands to play well in this particular game because of how the strategies work out. If you have a pair or better, then you always raise. That part's easy. The hard part is knowing how to play high-card hands.

If you have king-high or ace-high, you always raise. If you have jack-high or lower, then you always fold. However, if you have queen-high, then your second kicker is five or lower, then you always fold. If it's seven or higher, you always raise. However, if it's six, then you only raise if your third kicker is four or higher. If it's a two or three, then you fold. The worst hand you raise with is Q64 and the best hand you fold with is Q63, to clarify.