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Tri-Card Poker
Three
Card Poker (trademark name) or Tri-Card Poker
is a poker-based game that is played in casinos. It actually consists of two separate games, pairplus and ante-and-play. The
players can choose to play either or both of the games.
The History and Strategy of Three Card Poker
Poker in its purest form, has been around for centuries, dating all the way
back to 900 A.D., when Chinese Emperor Mu-tsung is said to have played domino cards with his wife.
These “domino cards” set the stage for what we now call poker,
using a ranking system of cards or dominos combined with the skilled art of bluffing one’s opponents to win the game.
3 Card Poker (or tri-card poker as it’s also called) is an American
version of a British game called Brag. This game originated over three hundred years ago as a game known as Primero, a fast-moving
betting game using only three cards. As the game evolved, it became known as Post-and-Pair and then again as Brag. This game
made it to the States as Casino Brag and Brit-Brag, but eventually evolved again into the game we now know as 3 Card Poker
Pairplus
Pairplus is a simple bet on the cards with a payout
for all hands of a pair or better. Below are probabilities and six examples of actual payout tables used by some casinos
Probabilities
- Three Card Poker
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Ways to draw
3 cards out of 52 = 22100
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Payoff Tables for Pairplus
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Normal ante-and-play gameplay
For ante-and-play,
the player places an ante bet before receiving his cards. The player is then dealt his cards and after seeing them, the player can fold his cards
and lose the ante bet, or raise by placing out a bet of equal money to the ante bet. If he chooses to play, there are three possibilities. The first
is that the dealer does not \'qualify\'. To qualify, the dealer must have a hand of a queen high or better. If the dealer does not
qualify, the ante bet is paid out even money, but the play bet is simply returned. If the dealer does qualify, the player wins if his hand is of higher value than
the dealer\'s, and gets paid out even money on both his ante and play bets. If the dealer\'s hand is of higher value, the dealer
takes the Ante and Play bets. Rules vary on what happens when the hands are of exactly equal value: some say that the player
simply gets his money back, but others say that the player is paid even money on his bet.
The ante bonus
In addition to normal
ante-and-play gameplay, there is a bonus payout on the ante bet for especially good hands.
These bonus payouts are paid only on the ante bet for any player
who chooses to play, regardless of whether the dealer qualifies or whether the player wins or loses.
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