First of all, forget everything you know about Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo, and the many other variants of standard poker. 3 card poker is a simple comparison game not unlike blackjack and baccarat. Put another way, it’s a face-off between player and dealer over who has the better hand. Albeit with a few twists and turns along the way. Most people will pick up the basics within five minutes.
Like blackjack, the action begins with a bet. This can take several forms, as we’ll discuss in the next section. However, at this stage, your choice will be an ante bet (your hand is better than the dealer’s). A pair plus bet (you have a pair or better) or both. The croupier will then give the player and themselves three cards, dealt face-down. Now it’s time to decide whether you want to play or fold. UFABET
As a quick primer, let’s go over the hand rankings in 3-card poker so that you know when it’s best to play or give up.
From most to least valuable
- Mini Royal Flush: A, K, Q, same suit, usually spades*
- Straight Flush: Three cards in sequence, same suit.
- Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same number, any suit.
- Straight: Three cards in sequence, any suit.
- Flush: Three cards, same suit.
- Pair: two cards of the same number, any suit.
- High card: anything else, identified by the highest value card, e.g. 9-high, ace-high.
Note that each of the cards has an individual value, too. This is to ensure that there’s a winner in scenarios where both the player and the dealer have a flush (for example) or both have a high card hand. These are, from most to least valuable: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. In 3-card poker, all suits have the same values, so a 7 of clubs is worth the same as a 7 of hearts, and so forth.
A high card versus high card scenario is the most likely outcome for most 3-card poker rounds, occurring about 75% of the time.