3-Card Poker Guide: Rules, Strategy & More!

As a standard 52-card deck casino game, 3-card poker is one of the easiest games to learn and play. If you are familiar with poker at all, then it really is simple. The most important thing to remember is that, unlike poker, a straight is higher than a flush in 3-card poker. Otherwise, the order of hands is exactly as in poker: straight flush (Ace, King, Queen highest), three of a kind, straight, flush, a pair, high card.

• Betting: Another slight difference from regular poker is that you will play against the dealer's hand, not other players. First, you need to bet at least the ante bet and then decide if you want to play the pair plus or six-card bonus side bets. Remember, the play bets require you to match your original ante bet exactly if you wish to raise it, so only make the ante bet with the funds to back it up.
• Dealing: Different casinos will have different ways of dealing with the cards. If they use a shuffling machine, you may be handed a pack of three cards from the machine dispensed with all your cards in consecutive order from the deck. If they deal the game by hand, it's more likely everyone, including the dealer, will receive one card at a time until everyone has three, meaning your cards are a bit more random. The machine-dealt game is faster, but some still like the handheld game due to its better randomization of the cards. Some casinos may let you look at your hand immediately, while others may ask you to wait until all the cards have been dealt. This is in case of an error. Regardless of when you are allowed to look, please be aware that in case of any mistake, your hand will be void, no matter how good. Some casinos would rather you not look to ease the pain if the hand has to be voided. 
• Play: Unlike blackjack, you can place your play bet when you are ready. You don't have to wait your turn. The dealer will only qualify with a queen. You need to decide if you like your hand enough to double your original bet by making the play bet. Millions of hands of computer play have shown that you need a Queen/Six/Four or better hand to raise against the dealer's hand. This is not a hard and fast rule — we're talking a few hundredths of a percent for hands close to the Queen/6/4/ cutoff, but you will have the best odds if you stick with it. So you fold your ante wager when you don't have at least a Queen/6/4. Otherwise, you make your play bet and hope that you will get both the ante and play bets.
• Pay: Once everyone has decided whether to fold or raise their ante wager, the dealer will turn over their hand, revealing their three cards. They will then turn over each player's hand that chose to stay in and pay and take accordingly. If they don't have at least a queen high, only the player's ante bet can be paid, and the play bets are pushed back. If the dealer has at least a queen, then the ante bet and play wager are paid if the player has a better hand than the dealer's hand. They lose if the dealer has a better hand ranking. If both dealer and player have cards of the same rank, then it is a push and neither wins. Then, the dealer will pay the ante bonus for any qualifying hands; a straight generally pays 1x, three-of-a-kind pays 4x, and a straight flush pays 5x. Please note that this ante bonus is paid regardless of whether the dealer had a higher-ranking hand. With this paytable and raising the play bet only when you have a Queen/6/4, the house edge on 3-card poker is 3.37%. It drops closer to 2% when play wagers are taken into account. The dealer will then pay the winning six-card bonus and pair plus bets. Once this is completed, the action will begin again with a new betting round.

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Another slight difference from regular poker is that you will play against the dealer's hand, not other players. First, you need to bet at least the ante bet and then decide if you want to play the pair plus or six-card bonus side bets. Remember, the play bets require you to match your original ante bet exactly if you wish to raise it, so only make the ante bet with the funds to back it up.  

Different casinos will have different ways of dealing with the cards. If they use a shuffling machine, you may be handed a pack of three cards from the machine dispensed with all your cards in consecutive order from the deck. If they deal the game by hand, it's more likely everyone, including the dealer, will receive one card at a time until everyone has three, meaning your cards are a bit more random. 

The machine-dealt game is faster, but some still like the handheld game due to its better randomization of the cards. Some casinos may let you look at your hand immediately, while others may ask you to wait until all the cards have been dealt. This is in case of an error. Regardless of when you are allowed to look, please be aware that in case of any mistake, your hand will be void, no matter how good. Some casinos would rather you not look to ease the pain if the hand has to be voided.  

Unlike blackjack, you can place your play bet when you are ready. You don't have to wait your turn. The dealer will only qualify with a queen. You need to decide if you like your hand enough to double your original bet by making the play bet. Millions of hands of computer play have shown that you need a Queen/Six/Four or better hand to raise against the dealer's hand.

This is not a hard and fast rule — we're talking a few hundredths of a percent for hands close to the Queen/6/4/ cutoff, but you will have the best odds if you stick with it. So you fold your ante wager when you don't have at least a Queen/6/4. Otherwise, you make your play bet and hope that you will get both the ante and play bets.  

Once everyone has decided whether to fold or raise their ante wager, the dealer will turn over their hand, revealing their three cards. They will then turn over each player's hand that chose to stay in and pay and take accordingly. If they don't have at least a queen high, only the player's ante bet can be paid, and the play bets are pushed back. If the dealer has at least a queen, then the ante bet and play wager are paid if the player has a better hand than the dealer's hand. They lose if the dealer has a better hand ranking.

If both dealer and player have cards of the same rank, then it is a push and neither wins. Then, the dealer will pay the ante bonus for any qualifying hands; a straight generally pays 1x, three-of-a-kind pays 4x, and a straight flush pays 5x. Please note that this ante bonus is paid regardless of whether the dealer had a higher-ranking hand. With this paytable and raising the play bet only when you have a Queen/6/4, the house edge on 3-card poker is 3.37%. It drops closer to 2% when play wagers are taken into account. The dealer will then pay the winning six-card bonus and pair plus bets. Once this is completed, the action will begin again with a new betting round.  

The real key to winning at 3-card poker is making your play wagers with a Queen/6/4 or higher, paying close attention to the pay tables, and being cautious about placing any of the high house advantage side bets. Casinos can be very sneaky about claiming that rule changes benefit the player when, in fact, they don't. 

A certain ultra-luxury Las Vegas Strip property introduced a mini royal payout on their 3-card poker game, which paid 50x with a mini royal flush in spades, 10x on another mini royal, and 4x on a straight flush, and 3x on any three-of-a-kind. Despite all the fanfare, this paytable has almost double the house advantage at 6.79%

While the pair plus bet can be very alluring when you see player after player turning over straight flush after straight flush, it's another example of casino cunning. When the game was first introduced, the Pair Plus Bet paytable looked like this:

• Straight Flush 40x
• Three of a Kind 30x 
• Straight 6x
• Flush 4x
• Pair 1x

This had a very reasonable house edge of just 2.32%. But by changing the straight from 6x to just 5x and the three-of-a-kind from 30x to 25x, the casinos could almost triple their advantage on pair plus bet to 6.75%. Interestingly, some online 3-card poker games are showing signs of reverting to the older, better paytables, probably due to the lower overhead cost for online games.

Unlike regular poker, where you usually work with at least a five-card poker hand, this casino game requires a little ingenuity to get its three cards into proper poker rankings. You will only need three cards to make a straight or flush, but it is easier to make a three-card flush than a straight, so you will need to flop their rankings when you talk about a mini royal flush, which will only be the Ace King Queen of the same suit so that is also easier to make.

1. Straight Flush — Any combination of cards that are in numerical order with the same suit.
2. Three of a Kind — A hand containing three cards of the same rank.
3. Straight — A hand that contains cards in numerical order. 
4. Flush — Any combination of cards that have the same suit.
5. Pair — A hand containing two cards of the same rank.
6. High Card — The worst hand you can win with in poker. It is the highest-ranking card in your hand.

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One of the things most people like about 3-card poker is the bonuses on the ante wager, the pair plus bets, or, in more recent years, the added six-card bonus bets. This adds to the excitement and thrill of the game when a larger jackpot hand is hit, and because they have lower volatility, you see lots of smaller jackpots very frequently. But as mentioned, the trick here is finding games that offer bonus paytables that aren't extortionist. Refer to the table below for more info on each type of 3-card poker bonus.

RTP, or return to player, is the amount of money you should get back after millions of hands have been spent playing the game. It is the opposite of house edge, and the two numbers together should always add to 100% since the money returned to the player, minus the money the house keeps, is 100% of your wager. If you see a house edge of 3.5%, you should know that the RTP will be 96.5%. (96.5+3.5=100).

As a general rule of thumb, keep the ante bet at 5x for the straight flush, 4x for the three-of-a-kind, and 1x for the straight; the other paytables can get expensive fast. If you are in one of the states that offer online gaming, consider shopping around for better 3-card poker paytables, as they are more widely available online.  

You can play at these real money online casinos if you live in or visit New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, West Virginia, Delaware, or Michigan. But don't worry — online gambling is expanding quickly and will soon be available in even more states. Thanks to the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) players in these states can play with users across state lines. This opens up a ton of opportunities for new states that join the online poker landscape. If you want to play free poker online or just practice, you can download these online casino apps and play in demo mode.

North of the border? Check out our page on online poker in Canada instead!

Every reputable 3-card poker site will have some responsible gambling measures in place. The most important thing to remember is that gambling is for entertainment purposes only. Always bet with your head, not over it. Have a specific and affordable bankroll when you begin to play. Do not spend more than this bankroll; have a specific win point or time frame in mind. When you hit that limit, stop and walk away.

Many online casinos offer tools limiting how much you can deposit or how long you can play; you should take advantage of these when you sign up to ensure you gamble responsibly. If you ever feel like you need a time out, you can find the tools to stop your online gambling for 24 hours, a few weeks, or even longer on the websites as well.

If you are playing at brick-and-mortar casinos and believe you have a problem, contact your state's gaming control agency, or please call or visit the 1-800-GAMBLER site for info. For those seeking responsible gambling resources, help is out there.  

Confidence is key to being a successful 3-Card Poker player. Take advantage of the following poker guides to help boost your poker play:

• Where to Play Online Poker
• Online Poker Strategy
• Poker Glossary

Also, to learn more about online casinos, please refer to our addition casino education content below.

• Casino Gambling Information
• Casino Gambling Biases
• Gambler's Fallacy
• Are Online Casinos Rigged or Legit?

Online poker is currently legal in Nevada, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut, and Delaware. For more legal information regarding your state, take a look at our online casino legalization tracker.

Did you know that social poker is also an option through Clubs Poker, a social casino operating in 45 US states?