Tri Card Poker is gaining in popularity fast this is a simple variation of the game poker and offers lots of fun twists to it. Typically Tri Card Poker is player with 1 deck of 52 cards. What’s unique about Tri-Card Poker is that it’s actually two games combined. The first game is called the Play/Ante game when players are pinned against the dealer to see who ends up with the highest hand. The second game is the Pair Plus game, this is where players will wager against whether or not you will be dealt a pair or better. Some casinos will allow players to bet on either of these two games but some require a player to make an Ante bet before betting on the Pair Plus game.

This is how the game is played, you’ll notice on the table that there are three betting circles in front of each char, each circle has a name, the top is labled Pair Plus, this is where the player will place their chips to make that wager, under that the two circles are named Ante which is where they’ll make bets to play the Ante game.

To start playing, the players will make their bets, usually at this time the cards are being shuffled with an electronic card shuffler or by hand, after all of the bets are made, the dealer will distribute three cards to each player, starting from the first player to the left of the dealer and winding around the table clockwise, the game is played.

The Ante/Play, when a player decides to bet on this game, they can make a decision to either fold or play after they’ve looked at the hand they’ve been given, if the player would like to continue this game, they’ll need to make an additional bet in the circle marked “play”. This bet will need to be equal to the Ante bet they already have placed. From there, after all of the players have made the decision to continue, the dealer will reveal his three card hand, in order for the game to continue the dealer will need to qualify with a hand of a Queen or higher. When the dealer does not qualify, the players will be paid out even money on the Ante wager and the bet in the “play” circle will be returned to them. When the dealer’s hand is qualifying with a Queen or higher, the dealer’s hand is compared to the player’s hand. If you beat the dealer, you’ll be paid even money for both bets placed. If the dealer’s hand wins, you’ll lose both bets. Sometimes, there are ties in the game of Tri Card Poker, it doesn’t happen often but if i does, the player wins!

Some might want to know how the rankings work, because there are only 3 cards vs. the typical five in poker games, the rankings are different. The cards are ranked from highest to lowest like this:

Straight Flush. Three cards of the same suit in sequence.
Three of a Kind. Three cards of equal rank.
Straight. Three cards in sequence of mixed suits.
Flush. Three cards of the same suit.
Pair. Two cards of equal rank.
High Card. The highest card in your hand.

On certain hands there is a bonus on the Ante bet which does not require an additional wager, if a player obtains a straight, three of a kind or a straight flush, the player will be paid a bonus whether they have made a bet on the dealer or not. This bonus is paid out soley based on the pay chart posted at the table, so all casinos are different. Most casinos follow this pay table:

Straight Flush 5:1
Three of a Kind 4:1
Straight 1:1 for the Ante bet.

Simple Strategies, for the Ante part of the game, a player should fold if they have a hand lower than a Queen 6, 4. A player should continue if they have a hand that is higher. Determining a Queen 6 – 4 is easy, you start with your high card and compare it to a Queen, if its higher you pay. If the first card is an actual Queen but the second is lower than a 6 a player will still want to stay in the game. If it’s lower than a 6 a player will want to fold.

For the Pair Plus part of the game, the wager is based soley on if the hand is a pair or higher. In this game it does not matter if the dealer qualifies or beats the player if they have a bet on the Ante. When a player’s hand is a pair or better, they win if they don’t have a pair, they lose. With this game, typically a pair is dealt out 25% of the time.