Three card poker is unusually easy to analyse: there are only 22,100 possible hands, so everything about the deal can be counted rather than estimated.
Two things decide what the game costs you. Which bet you make, and which pay table the casino runs.
The two bets
Ante and Play is the main game, played against the dealer, at about 3.37% of your ante. The dealer qualifies with queen high or better 69.59% of the time, and correct strategy is one line: play Q-6-4 or better.
Pair Plus ignores the dealer and pays on your own hand. It costs 2.32% or 7.28% depending on a single row of the pay table.
The ranking that catches people out
A straight beats a flush here. Our hand rankings page derives that from the counts: there are 720 straights and 1,096 flushes, so the straight is rarer and ranks higher.
Every page in this section
- Hand rankings — all 22,100 hands counted, and why the usual order reverses.
- Pair Plus — what each pay table costs, and the one row that matters.
- Ante and Play — the qualification rate and the single strategy rule.
For the same treatment of other games, see our blackjack rules, video poker and craps bets sections.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does a straight beat a flush in three card poker?
- Yes, because straights are rarer with three cards: 720 of them against 1,096 flushes.
- What is the strategy?
- Play any hand of Q-6-4 or better, fold everything else.
- Which bet is better, Ante/Play or Pair Plus?
- Ante/Play at about 3.37% on most tables, against 7.28% for a reduced Pair Plus.
- How often am I dealt a pair or better?
- 25.6% of the time.
Hand frequencies and Pair Plus returns on this page are counted by enumerating all 22,100 three-card hands. The Ante/Play house edge is the exception: deriving it requires comparing every player hand against every dealer hand, so that figure is attributed rather than computed here. Pay tables vary by casino; read the felt.