3 Card Poker: Rules, Hand Ranking and the Q-6-4 Strategy

3 Card Poker is a casino table game played against the dealer, not against other players. You and the dealer each get three cards, and you decide whether to keep playing or fold. It looks like poker but behaves like any casino game: every bet has a built-in house edge. This guide explains the rules, the hand ranking, the one strategy rule that matters (Q-6-4) and what the numbers say about the Pair Plus side bet. All figures were calculated exactly over every possible hand.

The short version

• Raise with Q-6-4 or better, fold everything weaker. You will raise about 67% of hands.
• A straight beats a flush in three-card poker, because it is rarer.
• The house edge is about 3.37% of the Ante with correct play (2.01% of the average total bet). Pair Plus is between 2.32% and 8.45%, depending on the pay table.
• No strategy turns a negative game positive: the Q-6-4 rule only loses the least possible. Play for entertainment with money you can afford to lose.

Hand ranking and how often hands come

Three-card hands are ranked from best to worst: straight flush, three of a kind, straight, flush, pair, high card. The order differs from five-card poker because with three cards a straight (720 combinations) is rarer than a flush (1,096), so it ranks higher. A-K-Q is the highest straight and A-2-3 the lowest.

Three out of four hands are only a high card, which is why the game revolves around the queen-high qualifier for the dealer.

How a round works

1. Ante. You place an Ante bet. You may also place the optional Pair Plus side bet.
2. Deal. You and the dealer each receive three cards. You see only yours.
3. Decision. Fold and lose your Ante, or raise by placing a Play bet equal to the Ante.
4. Dealer qualifies? The dealer needs queen-high or better. If not, your Ante is paid 1 to 1 and your Play bet is returned.
5. If the dealer qualifies, the better hand wins: both your Ante and Play bets are paid 1 to 1 if you win, lost if you lose, and returned on a tie.
6. Ante bonus. If you raise with a straight or better you also get a bonus on the Ante, whatever the dealer holds: usually 1:1 for a straight, 4:1 for three of a kind and 5:1 for a straight flush.
7. Pair Plus is settled on your hand alone: it pays if you hold a pair or better, whatever the dealer has.

The Q-6-4 rule

For every one of the 22,100 possible hands we compared the exact expected result of raising with the result of folding (−1 Ante). Raising is better for exactly the hands that are Q-6-4 or higher, and folding is better for the rest. Raising is the right play in 14,900 of the 22,100 hands, about 67.4%.

Results are in Ante units, so −0.993 means you lose 0.993 Ante on average. Notice how close Q-6-4 and Q-6-3 are to folding: the rule is the dividing line, and raising a hand just above it only saves a fraction of an Ante.

What the house edge means

With correct play the house edge is 3.37% of the Ante. You raise in about two hands out of three, so the average amount bet per hand is about 1.67 Antes, and the edge measured against that total is 2.01%. For example, 100 hands with a 10-unit Ante lose about 33.7 units on average. Individual sessions swing far above and below that (see variance), but over many hands the loss converges to the edge.

Pair Plus: the side bet and its pay tables

Pair Plus pays on your hand alone, so the dealer does not matter. Casinos use different pay tables and the house edge changes a lot between them:

One extra point on the flush or the straight is worth several percent. Check the pay table before you bet on Pair Plus.

Common mistakes

• Raising any queen-high hand. Q-6-3 and below should be folded.
• Folding pairs or good hands because the dealer "usually qualifies". Raise anything from Q-6-4 up.
• Ignoring the pay table of the side bet.
• Raising the stake after losses. Chasing losses is how bankrolls disappear; see bankroll management.
• Treating strategy as an edge. The rule above minimises the loss. It does not make the game profitable.

Responsible play

3 Card Poker is gambling, not skilled poker. Players must be 18 or older, should set a loss limit in advance and stop when they reach it. See responsible gambling if gambling stops being fun.

Try the calculator

Enter any three cards in the 3 Card Poker calculator to see whether to raise or fold, the exact expected result and the dealer qualification chances, plus the hand frequencies and Pair Plus house edge for each pay table.

What to read next

• Bankroll management: how to size bets and set limits.
• Variance in poker: why short sessions swing so widely.
• Glossary: casino and poker terms.
• Ultimate Texas Hold'em strategy: the exact preflop rule and the house edge.