3 Card Poker is a fast house-banked poker game: you and the dealer each get three cards, you decide to play or fold, and the higher hand wins. The whole strategy fits in one line (play Queen-6-4 or better, fold the rest), which holds the house edge on the Ante and Play to 3.37% per Ante, according to the Wizard of Odds. The optional Pair Plus bet pays on your own hand alone, and its cost depends entirely on the pay table, from 2.32% on the best common table to 7.28% on a weak one.
Below you will find the US-facing casinos where we verified the game, followed by the rules, hand rankings and odds, every common pay table with its house edge, the optimal strategy with worked examples, and the live versions from Evolution, Playtech and others.
The shortlist
- 1
Bovada
Crypto: 125% up to $1,250 on each of your first 3 deposits ($3,750). Card: 100% up to $1,000 x3 ($3,000)
- 95 live tables and games: 38 blackjack, 10 VIP blackjack, 16 roulette, 15 baccarat (October 2026)
- Separate welcome offers for crypto and card deposits
- Crypto payouts within hours of approval, no Bovada withdrawal fees
Visit siteRead our review18+. 25x rollover on deposit + bonus. Live dealer games count 0% and bonus funds cannot be used at live tables. Not available in AZ, CO, CT, DE, KS, LA, MD, MA, MI, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, TN, VT, WV or DC (Bovada terms, October 2026). - 2
MyBookie
200% up to $2,000 + 50 free spins (code 200MB, $50 minimum deposit)
- More than 60 live tables: 20+ blackjack, 30+ roulette, 14 baccarat incl. Super 6
- Fee-free Bitcoin payouts, usually within 24 hours
- Sportsbook, racebook and casino on one account
Visit siteRead our review21+. Code 200MB, min deposit $50. Rollover 40x bonus + 1x deposit. Live dealer games excluded from bonus wagering.
Bovada’s live lobby lists Tri Card Poker, its name for the game, in three limit bands: $5 to $100, $25 to $1,000 and $100 to $5,000 (October 2026). MyBookie offers Three Card Poker as an RNG table game; its bonus terms count it at 10% toward rollover. Both are offshore operators with no US state licence, each excludes some states, and if something goes wrong there is no state regulator to complain to and your funds are not protected. Read our full Bovada review and MyBookie review before you deposit.
3 Card Poker Rules
Derek Webb designed Three Card Poker in 1994, and Shuffle Master bought the rights outside the British Isles in 1999. The game spread because it is quick: one decision per hand and no other players to beat. There are two games on one layout, and you can play either or both:
- Ante and Play: your hand against the dealer’s.
- Pair Plus: a bet that your own three cards contain a pair or better, whatever the dealer holds.
A round runs like this:
- Bet. Place an Ante, a Pair Plus bet, or both, plus any optional side bet such as the 6 Card Bonus.
- Deal. You receive three cards face up to you; the dealer’s three are dealt face down.
- Decide. Fold and lose the Ante, or place a Play bet equal to the Ante.
- Reveal. The dealer needs Queen high or better to qualify.
- Settle. If the dealer does not qualify, the Ante pays 1:1 and the Play bet pushes. If the dealer qualifies, the higher hand wins: you are paid 1:1 on both Ante and Play, or lose both. A tie pushes both bets.
On top of that, the Ante Bonus pays extra when you hold a straight or better, even if the dealer beats you. Pair Plus is settled on your cards alone; in Evolution’s rules it pays even if you fold. The dealer qualifies about 70% of the time, so in roughly three hands out of ten your Play bet simply pushes and the Ante wins.
Three Card Poker Hand Rankings and Odds
With only three cards, the order differs from five-card poker. There are no full houses or four of a kind, and a straight beats a flush because it is harder to make. An Ace can be high or low, so A-2-3 and Q-K-A are both straights.
| Hand (highest first) | Example | Combinations | Probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight flush | 8♠ 9♠ 10♠ | 48 | 0.22% |
| Three of a kind | K K K | 52 | 0.24% |
| Straight | 5 6 7, mixed suits | 720 | 3.26% |
| Flush | 2♥ 9♥ J♥ | 1,096 | 4.96% |
| Pair | 4 4 9 | 3,744 | 16.94% |
| High card | A J 6, mixed suits | 16,440 | 74.39% |
Figures are for a single 52-card deck (22,100 possible hands), from the Wizard of Odds. Our earlier version of this page had wrong values here; a pair or better turns up about 25.6% of the time. Some tables also name a Mini Royal, a suited A-K-Q, as a separate top line within the straight flushes.
Ante Bonus Pay Tables
The Ante Bonus is paid on your hand regardless of the dealer’s. The Wizard of Odds lists several versions; the vast majority of tables use the first.
| Hand | Table 1 | Table 2 | Table 3 | Table 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Straight flush | 5:1 | 4:1 | 3:1 | 5:1 |
| Three of a kind | 4:1 | 3:1 | 2:1 | 3:1 |
| Straight | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 |
| House edge per Ante | 3.37% | 3.83% | 4.28% | 3.61% |
| Element of risk | 2.01% | 2.28% | 2.56% | 2.16% |
The element of risk measures the loss against all money bet, including the Play bets, so it is the fairer comparison with other games. Evolution’s live table uses Table 1 (5:1, 4:1, 1:1), and its RTP for the Ante with optimal strategy is 96.63%.
Pair Plus Pay Tables and House Edge
Pair Plus is where the pay table matters most. Each table below pays 1:1 on a pair; the differences sit further up.
| Pay table | Straight flush | Trips | Straight | Flush | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full pay (WoO table 1) | 40 | 30 | 6 | 4 | 2.32% |
| WoO table 3 | 40 | 25 | 6 | 4 | 3.49% |
| WoO table 6 | 40 | 30 | 5 | 4 | 5.57% |
| Short trips (WoO table 7) | 40 | 25 | 5 | 4 | 6.75% |
| Reduced flush (WoO table 8) | 40 | 30 | 6 | 3 | 7.28% |
| Evolution live, plus Mini Royal 100:1 | 40 | 30 | 5 | 4 | 4.49% |
Cutting the flush from 4:1 to 3:1 more than triples the cost, from 2.32% to 7.28%. Evolution’s version, which adds 100:1 for a Mini Royal, returns 95.51%; our own count over the 22,100 hands gives the same 4.49% edge. Read the help screen before you put money on Pair Plus.
6 Card Bonus Side Bet
The 6 Card Bonus uses your three cards plus the dealer’s three to make the best five-card poker hand, and pays on three of a kind or better whether you fold or not. Ezugi’s Teen Patti tables call the same bet “3+3”. Two of the pay tables the Wizard of Odds lists show how much the version matters:
| Hand | Evolution live (WoO pay table 1) | Harrah’s 2009 version |
|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 1,000:1 | 1,000:1 |
| Straight flush | 200:1 | 200:1 |
| Four of a kind | 100:1 | 50:1 |
| Full house | 20:1 | 25:1 |
| Flush | 15:1 | 15:1 |
| Straight | 10:1 | 10:1 |
| Three of a kind | 7:1 | 5:1 |
| House edge | 8.56% (RTP 91.44%) | 15.28% |
Even the better version costs more than twice as much as the Ante. The 1,000:1 royal flush is the headline prize Evolution advertises, but it arrives only about once in 108,000 hands (188 of 20,358,520 combinations).
Optimal 3 Card Poker Strategy
The Wizard of Odds’ optimal strategy is short: play any hand of Queen-6-4 or better, and fold everything below it. In practice:
- Always play any pair or better, and any hand with a King or an Ace.
- Always fold a hand whose top card is a Jack or lower, unless it is a pair, flush or straight.
- With a Queen high, play if your second card is a 7 or higher; play Q-6-4 and Q-6-5; fold Q-6-3, Q-6-2 and anything with Q-5 or lower.
Following this rule you play about 67% of hands and fold about 33%. Folding feels wrong, but it is correct: with a weak hand, a Play bet loses more on average than the Ante you surrender.
Shortcuts cost money in both directions. Playing every hand without looking at it, a habit some players pick up at fast live tables, means making Play bets on hands that lose more than the Ante you would have saved. Folding everything below King high throws away Queen-high hands that win often enough to be worth playing. The Q-6-4 line is the exact break-even point between the two.
Worked examples
- Holding Q-8-3: the second card, an 8, is above 7, so play by adding a $10 Play bet to the $10 Ante.
- With Q-6-2: this is below Q-6-4, so fold and give up the $10 Ante.
- A mixed-suit 7-8-9 against the dealer’s three of a kind: you lose $10 Ante and $10 Play, but the 1:1 Ante Bonus on your straight pays $10, so the net is -$10.
- The dealer shows J-9-4 and does not qualify: your Ante pays $10 and the Play bet is returned, whatever you held.
What 3 Card Poker Costs: $10 Over 100 Hands
| Bet | House edge | Expected loss |
|---|---|---|
| Ante and Play, optimal strategy | 3.37% per Ante | $33.70 |
| Full-pay Pair Plus (40-30-6-4-1) | 2.32% | $23.20 |
| Evolution Pair Plus with Mini Royal | 4.49% | $44.90 |
| Reduced-flush Pair Plus (40-30-6-3-1) | 7.28% | $72.80 |
| 6 Card Bonus, Evolution | 8.56% | $85.60 |
These are long-run averages for $10 on each bet over 100 hands. Betting the Ante and the weak Pair Plus table together roughly triples the cost of the Ante alone. Our RTP explainer shows how these percentages are calculated, and no staking system, such as doubling after a loss, changes them.
Live 3 Card Poker Games
Several studios stream the game with a real dealer. You still bet through an on-screen menu, but the cards are dealt live.
- Evolution Three Card Poker: one 52-card deck, shuffled after every round, Queen-high qualifier, Ante Bonus 5-4-1, Pair Plus with a 100:1 Mini Royal and the 6 Card Bonus up to 1,000:1. Evolution’s game is a licensed version of the land-based title, and it sits alongside Casino Hold’em, Ultimate Texas Hold’em and Caribbean Stud in its live poker lobby. See our Evolution review.
- Playtech 3 Card Brag: Playtech’s live three-card game. The name follows the British pub game, and rules and side bets differ from Evolution’s version, so check its help screen.
- Ezugi Teen Patti: the Wizard of Odds notes that Ezugi’s live Teen Patti is the same game as Three Card Poker, with the 3+3 side bet as its 6 Card Bonus. Our live Teen Patti guide covers it.
- Bovada’s Tri Card Poker: the live table at the offshore site above, in three limit bands.
NetEnt’s live 3 Card Poker, mentioned in older versions of this page, no longer exists: Evolution closed NetEnt’s live offer after completing the NetEnt acquisition on 1 December 2020.
Where to Play 3 Card Poker Legally in the US
Eight states have legalised online casinos, and seven markets are live: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. Maine legalised a tribal-only market (LD 1164 became law without the governor’s signature in January 2026, effective 29 July 2026) that had not launched as of October 2026. State-licensed online casinos there stream house-banked poker games such as Ultimate Texas Hold’em and Three Card Poker where their operators carry them. You must be 21 or older and physically in the state.
In other states, the options are offshore sites like the two listed above, with the risks described there. The game also remains a fixture of land-based casinos; our 3 Card Poker in Las Vegas guide covers the Strip. For the other house-banked poker games, compare Ultimate Texas Hold’em, which has a lower edge, and Caribbean Stud Poker, which costs more, or start from our live poker hub.
3 Card Poker FAQ
What is the best strategy for 3 Card Poker?
Play any hand of Queen-6-4 or better and fold the rest. That gives the lowest possible house edge on the Ante and Play, 3.37% per Ante per the Wizard of Odds.
Does a straight beat a flush in 3 Card Poker?
Yes. With three cards there are 720 straights and 1,096 flushes, so the straight is rarer and ranks higher. Three of a kind ranks above both, and a straight flush is the top hand.
What does the dealer need to qualify?
Queen high or better. If the dealer does not qualify, your Ante pays 1:1 and your Play bet is returned.
Is Pair Plus a good bet?
Only on a good pay table. The full-pay 40-30-6-4-1 version has a 2.32% edge, lower than the Ante, but the common 40-30-6-3-1 version costs 7.28%. Evolution’s live table with a Mini Royal sits at 4.49%.
What are the odds of getting a pair or better?
About 25.6% per hand: 16.94% for a pair and 8.67% for a flush, straight, three of a kind or straight flush.
Can you play 3 Card Poker online for real money in the US?
Yes, at state-licensed online casinos in the seven live states where operators carry it, and at offshore sites such as Bovada (live Tri Card Poker) and MyBookie (RNG), which hold no US state licence.
Is 3 Card Poker luck or skill?
Mostly luck. The cards decide every hand, and in the Ante game your only decision is whether to fold or make the Play bet after you see your cards: following the Queen-6-4 rule keeps the house edge on the Ante and Play game at its minimum of 3.37%, according to the Wizard of Odds. Pair Plus involves no decisions at all. No strategy turns the game in your favor, so skill only controls how much each hand costs you; our guide to 3 Card Poker in Las Vegas shows what that means at a real table.
Gambling should be entertainment. If it stops being fun, call or text the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738). Real-money online gambling is 21+ in regulated US states.
Sources
- Wizard of Odds: Three Card Poker (rules, Ante Bonus and Pairplus pay tables, 6 Card Bonus, strategy)
- Evolution: Live Poker (Three Card Poker, Pair Plus and Six Card Bonus up to 1000 to 1)
- LiveDealer.org: Evolution Three Card Poker rules and payouts (one deck, shuffled each round)
- Gambling Zone: Evolution Live Three Card Poker (Ante RTP 96.63%, Pair Plus 95.51%)
- Wikipedia: Three Card Poker (Derek Webb, 1994; Shuffle Master 1999)
- Bovada: live dealer lobby (Tri Card Poker)
- Yogonet: Evolution completes acquisition of NetEnt (2 Dec 2020)
- SBC Americas: Maine legalises online casinos (January 2026)
- NCPG: National Problem Gambling Helpline (1-800-MY-RESET)
Spotted an error? Email [email protected] with the page address. Verified corrections are made with a dated note.