Mac Texas Holdem 
Three Card Poker Rules
Premise
Three Card Poker is an interesting casino game where players are dealt three cards and try to make the best poker hand possible. The best hand is a straight flush and the worst hand is having absolutely nothing. Playing Three Card Poker is sort of like playing two different games at once, as there are two different styles in which to bet, and players can bet in one or both of them.
Pair Plus (aka Pairplus)
The Pairplus style is extremely simple. A player makes a bet, and is then dealt three cards. The player gets paid according to the strength of the hand, with a pair being the minimum hand required for payout. Here is a sample payout table for pairplus.
| Qualifying Hand | Payout |
| Straight Flush | 40 to 1 |
| Three of a Kind | 30 to 1 |
| Straight | 6 to 1 |
| Flush | 4 to 1 |
| Pair | 1 to 1 |
Ante and Play
The other style is known as Ante and Play. This bet is made against the dealer, who must have at least queen high to qualify against the player. The player will make an ante bet before receiving any cards. After looking at the cards, a player can raise with the play bet, which must be equal to the ante bet. The other option for the player here is to fold. The player will lose their ante bet and their pairplus bet, if one was made. Losing the pairplus bet is inconsequential, however, due to the fact that if the pairplus bet paid anything, folding would be idiotic as a player would have a good chance to beat the dealer. There are four possible results if the player doesn’t fold:
- If the dealer’s hand does not qualify, then the player wins even money on the ante bet and takes back the play bet.
- If the dealer qualifies and the player wins, the player will receive even money for both the play and the ante bet.
- If the dealer qualifies and beats the player hand, the player will lose both of their bets.
- The dealer could qualify and tie with the player. In some casinos the player takes back the bets, while in other casinos, the player wins all ties.
In addition to all of this, there is also a bonus that applies only to the ante bet. This extra bonus will payout on the ante bet if the player has an extremely powerful hand, which could be a straight, a three of a kind, or a straight flush. The dealer’s hand is irrelevant when determining a bonus. For instance, a player could have a straight and be beat by a dealer three of a kind, but the player would still collect on the ante bonus. Here is a sample Ante Bonus payout table.
| Qualifying Hand | Payout |
| Straight Flush | 5 to 1 |
| Three of a Kind | 4 to 1 |
| Straight | 1 to 1 |
Three Card Poker Strategy
As pairplus is simply get dealt cards and get paid out, there is no strategy for that section. The basic Ante and Play strategy is to make the play bet with queen high or better, as this is the dealer’s minimum qualifying hand. However, many experienced players won’t raise with just queen high, but will rather require at least one other card of at least middle value, such as 6, 7, or 8. This is because this will give them better odds to beat the dealer if the dealer just barely qualified with queen high, as then the determining card would be the next highest card for both the player and the dealer.
Where to Play Three Card Poker (For Free)
Now that you've learned how to play three card poker, you might be interested to find out where you can play three card poker. Lucky for you we have a list of free online casinos that have three card poker. After you're done perfecting your new skill, try and play for real money.
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