What it is
Pair Plus is a standalone bet on your own three cards. The dealer's hand is irrelevant: you are paid if you hold a pair or better and you lose otherwise. You lose 74.4% of the time, which is the high-card frequency.
Every schedule, computed
| Pay table | SF | Trips | Straight | Flush | Pair | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original (4 on the flush) | 40 | 30 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2.32% |
| Reduced (3 on the flush) | 40 | 30 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 7.28% |
| 35-33-6-3-1 | 35 | 33 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 7.66% |
| 40-30-5-4-1 | 40 | 30 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5.57% |
The original Pair Plus paid 4 on a flush and cost 2.32%, which was a reasonable bet. Reducing the flush to 3 takes it to 7.28%, more than three times as expensive.
Why the flush row does the damage
Because a flush is the most common paying hand after a pair. There are 1,096 flushes among 22,100 hands, or 4.96% of them, so one unit off that row costs about 4.96 percentage points of return on its own.
That is the whole gap between the two schedules, and it is the same trick as 6:5 blackjack and 8/5 video poker: shave one row that players do not check, leave the game otherwise identical.
How to check
The pay table is printed on the felt beside the Pair Plus circle. Find the flush row. If it says 4, the bet is reasonable. If it says 3, it costs more than three times as much and the straight row is worth checking too.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the house edge on Pair Plus?
- 2.32% on the original schedule paying 4 for a flush, and 7.28% on the common reduced schedule paying 3.
- Why does the flush payout matter so much?
- Because flushes are the most common paying hand after a pair, at 4.96% of all hands. One unit off that row costs about the same in percentage points.
- How often does Pair Plus lose?
- 74.4% of the time, which is exactly how often you are dealt no pair or better.
- Does the dealer's hand matter for Pair Plus?
- No. It pays purely on your own three cards.
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.