Ultimate Texas Hold'em: Rules, Blind Pay Table and Optimal Strategy

Ultimate Texas Hold'em is a casino table game played against the dealer, not against other players. It uses Hold'em hands but, like any casino game, every bet carries a built-in house edge. This guide explains the rules, the blind pay table, the exact preflop strategy (which hands to raise 4x) and what the numbers say about the house edge. Every figure comes from our own exact calculation: all 169 starting-hand classes against every possible board (2,118,760) and every dealer hand, with the best decision found at each of the three betting points. It is for information only; keep players 18+ and gamble only with money you can afford to lose.

The short version

• Raise 4x before the flop with any ace, any pair from 3-3 up, K-5 offsuit or better, any suited king, Q-8 offsuit or better, Q-6 suited or better, J-10, J-9 suited and J-8 suited. Check everything else. That is 37.7% of starting hands.
• A 3x raise is never the best option in our calculation: with a hand worth raising, 4x is better, and with the rest checking is better.
• The house edge with perfect play is 2.185% of the ante, which is about 0.53% of the total money wagered (an average of 4.15 antes per round).
• The Blind pays extra only on a straight or better and only if you win. A tie pushes all bets.
• No strategy makes the game profitable. Perfect play only loses the least possible.

How a round works

1. Ante and Blind. You place two equal bets, the Ante and the Blind. You may also place the optional Trips side bet, which this guide does not analyse.
2. Deal. You and the dealer each get two hole cards. You see only yours.
3. Before the flop. Check, or raise with a Play bet of 4x the Ante (many tables also allow 3x).
4. The flop. Three community cards. If you checked, you may now place a Play bet of 2x the Ante, or check again.
5. Turn and river. The last two community cards are dealt together. If you have not bet yet, you must now either place a Play bet of 1x the Ante or fold and lose the Ante and Blind.
6. Showdown. The dealer qualifies with a pair or better. Everyone uses the best five of their seven cards.

The Play bet is always settled, even when the dealer does not qualify, which happens 17.4% of the time (the dealer's best hand is a high card).

The Blind pay table

Check the pay table of the game you play: it varies between casinos and changes the house edge. All figures in this guide use the table above. About 10.4% of the time your best five-card hand ends up a straight or better.

Preflop strategy: which hands to raise 4x

Raise 4x with:

• any ace;
• any pair from 3-3 to A-A;
• kings: any suited king, or K-5 offsuit or better;
• queens: Q-8 offsuit or better, or Q-6 suited or better;
• jacks: J-10 (suited or offsuit), J-9 suited and J-8 suited.

Check all other hands, including 2-2, T-9 suited and J-9 offsuit. These rules come directly from the exact calculation: for every hand we compared the best result of raising 4x, raising 3x and checking.

Note that some raised hands are still losers on average: K-5 offsuit loses 0.12 antes per round when raised, but would lose 0.15 by checking. Raising there is not profitable, it just loses less.

What the average result looks like

The numbers are in antes per round, averaged over every board and dealer hand and including the best flop and river decisions afterwards. Two lessons: strong starting hands are worth far more than weak ones lose, because the early 4x bet is made when you are most likely ahead; and checking a weak hand loses less than raising it, because you only add money later, once the cards have helped.

The flop and the river

After you check, the correct decision depends on the exact cards, not on a short rule. A few exact facts from the calculation:

• Checked hands raise 2x on the flop much of the time: 7-2 offsuit on 30.5% of flops, T-9 suited on 47.7%, 2-2 on 14.4%.
• At the end you either put in 1x or fold, and folding costs exactly the Ante and the Blind (2 units). So raise whenever your expected result with the extra bet is better than −2 units.
• Because you can wait for more information, checking a marginal hand preflop is correct for 62.3% of hands.

Published simplified flop and river rules exist; they give up a little of the perfect-play result. For exact decisions use a calculator or solver.

House edge and what it means

With perfect play the house edge is 2.185% of the Ante. You wager on average 4.15 antes per round (Ante, Blind and your Play bet), so the edge on the money actually bet is about 0.53%. It is smaller than in most casino games, but it is not zero. An example: with a 10 Ante, a round costs on average 0.22, so 100 rounds lose about 22 in the long run. Real results swing much more than that, see variance in poker. Compare with 3 Card Poker, where the edge on the Ante is 3.37%.

Unlike in poker proper, you cannot gain an edge over the dealer by skill beyond playing the optimal strategy. If gambling stops being fun, see responsible gambling.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best strategy in Ultimate Texas Hold'em?

Raise 4x before the flop with the hands listed above and check the rest, then decide on the flop and river from the exact cards. It cannot make the game profitable.

What is the house edge in Ultimate Texas Hold'em?

2.185% of the Ante with perfect play and the Blind pay table above, about 0.53% of the total money wagered.

Should I ever raise 3x?

Not according to our calculation. Where raising is right, 4x is better than 3x.

When does the dealer qualify?

With a pair or better, which happens 82.6% of the time. If not, the Ante is returned.

Does the Blind always pay?

No. It pays only if you win with a straight or better, and it is lost if you lose and returned on any lower winning hand or tie.

What to read next

• 3 Card Poker: another casino poker game, with the maths.
• Texas Hold'em: the poker game behind the hands.
• Hand rankings: the order of hands.
• Bankroll management: limits and sizing.
• Poker math basics: probabilities behind it all.