Three Card Poker Rules, Strategy and Odds

The Q-6-4 rule that plays Three Card Poker optimally, the real house edge on ante-play versus Pair Plus, and why the hand rankings are not the ones you know.

Updated September 2026 · how these numbers are calculated

Three Card Poker is a fast, simple game with one strategy decision, one good bet and one bet that depends heavily on a pay table nobody reads.

How it plays

Place an ante, a Pair Plus bet, or both.
You and the dealer receive three cards each; yours face up, the dealer’s face down.
Decide: fold (forfeit the ante) or play (place a Play bet equal to the ante).
The dealer reveals. The dealer qualifies with queen-high or better.

Situation	Ante	Play bet
Dealer does not qualify	Pays 1:1	Pushes
Dealer qualifies, you win	Pays 1:1	Pays 1:1
Dealer qualifies, you lose	Lost	Lost
Tie	Push	Push

Pair Plus is settled separately and pays on your hand alone, regardless of the dealer.

Hand rankings — not the ones you know

With three cards, the order changes. A straight beats a flush, because a straight is rarer.

Hand	Combinations	Probability
Straight flush	48	0.22%
Three of a kind	52	0.24%
Straight	720	3.26%
Flush	1,096	4.96%
Pair	3,744	16.94%
High card	16,440	74.39%
Total	22,100	100%

Three of a kind beats a straight for the same reason. Nearly three quarters of hands are nothing at all, which is what makes the fold decision matter.

The strategy: Q-6-4

Play any hand of Queen-6-4 or better. Fold everything else.

Compare your three cards to Q-6-4 in order:

Highest card better than a queen → play
Highest card worse than a queen → fold
Queen high: compare the second card to 6. Better → play. Worse → fold.
Queen-6: compare the third card to 4. Better or equal → play. Worse → fold.

So Q-7-2 plays, Q-6-4 plays, Q-6-3 folds, J-10-9 folds.

This rule plays the game within 0.01% of optimal. There is nothing else to learn.

Why fold at all, given the ante pays anyway?

Because the Play bet doubles your exposure on a hand that is behind. Folding costs the ante outright; playing a weak hand costs the ante plus the play bet more often than it wins both. The break-even point sits precisely at Q-6-4.

Playing every hand regardless raises the house edge from 3.37% to about 7.65%. Folding everything below a pair raises it too, in the other direction — you fold a large number of hands that were favourites. Q-6-4 is the balance point.

House edge

Bet	House edge	Element of risk
Ante + Play (correct strategy)	3.37% of ante	2.01%
Ante + Play (play every hand)	7.65%	—
Pair Plus (1-4-6-30-40 pay table)	2.32%	—
Pair Plus (1-3-6-30-40 pay table)	7.28%	—
6-Card Bonus side bet	8–10%	—

Both figures are quoted on this site as house edge and element of risk, because Three Card Poker requires a second bet after the first.

Pair Plus pay tables

This is where the game varies most, and the difference is a factor of three.

Hand	Original	Reduced	Common today
Straight flush	40:1	40:1	40:1
Three of a kind	30:1	30:1	30:1
Straight	6:1	6:1	6:1
Flush	4:1	3:1	3:1
Pair	1:1	1:1	1:1
House edge	2.32%	7.28%	7.28%

One line — the flush — moves the edge by 4.96%. A 4:1 flush makes Pair Plus a better bet than the ante-play game; a 3:1 flush makes it more than twice as expensive.

Look at the flush line on the felt. If it says 3, skip Pair Plus and play ante only.

The ante bonus

Paid automatically on a straight or better, whether or not the dealer qualifies and whether or not you win:

Hand	Typical ante bonus
Straight flush	5:1
Three of a kind	4:1
Straight	1:1

This is not an optional bet and is already accounted for in the 3.37% figure. Tables paying 4:1 for a straight flush instead of 5:1 are slightly worse.

Cost per hour

Three Card Poker deals fast — around 50 hands an hour heads-up with a dealer.

Bets	Edge	$10 units, 50 hands	Cost/hour
Ante + play only	3.37% of ante	$500 ante	$16.85
Ante + Pair Plus, 4:1 flush	blended ~2.9%	$1,000	~$29
Ante + Pair Plus, 3:1 flush	blended ~5.1%	$1,000	~$51

Adding a Pair Plus bet on a 3:1 table triples your hourly cost. That is the pattern across every carnival game: the base game is reasonable, and the side bet is where the money goes.

FAQ

What is the correct Three Card Poker strategy?

Raise with Queen-6-4 or better; fold everything worse. That single rule plays the ante-play game within 0.01% of theoretical optimum, and it is the entire strategy.

Why does a straight beat a flush in Three Card Poker?

Because with three cards a straight is rarer. There are 720 possible straights and 1,096 flushes out of 22,100 three-card hands, so the straight is the stronger hand. The ranking follows the probability, as it does in five-card poker — the probabilities are just different.

Is Pair Plus a good bet?

It depends entirely on the pay table, which varies more than any other element of the game. The original pay table gives a 2.32% house edge; the reduced tables common today give 7.28%. Check what a flush pays — 4:1 or 3:1 — before you bet it.

Should I play the ante bonus?

The ante bonus is not a separate bet; it pays automatically on a straight or better regardless of whether the dealer qualifies. It is already included in the 3.37% figure.