Your cards
Let it ride or pull it back
| Final hand | Chance | Pays |
|---|
Every way the remaining cards can come is played out, and later decisions are made the best way, so the figures are exact. Pulling a bet back always returns it in full (0). Letting it ride is worth the average of what that one bet wins or loses. The third bet always stays, so it is not part of the choice.
- Maths reviewed by Josh Miller
- Tested by Diana Westfield
A Let It Ride strategy chart only has to answer one question twice: leave the bet up, or take it back? With your first three cards you decide on bet one. After the first community card you decide on bet two. The third bet always plays. Get those two calls right and the house edge sits at 3.51% of a bet. The free CasinoCalcs calculator above plays out every card still to come, so you can check any hand, not just the ones on the chart.
Let It Ride strategy chart
First decision: your three cards
Let it ride with:
- A pair of 10s or better, or three of a kind
- Three to a royal flush (for example J-Q-K suited)
- Three suited cards in a row, 3-4-5 or higher
- Three suited cards with one gap and at least one 10 or higher (for example 8-9-J suited)
- Three suited cards with two gaps and at least two cards 10 or higher (for example 9-J-Q suited)
Pull the bet back with everything else, including low pairs and A-2-3 suited.
Second decision: your four cards
Let it ride with:
- A pair of 10s or better, two pair or trips
- Four to a flush
- Four to an open-ended straight, 10-9-8-7 or higher
Pull it back with everything else. Four to an inside straight with four high cards (say A-K-Q-10) is exactly break-even, so either choice is fine.
The hands people get wrong
Low pairs are the big one. A pair of 6s feels like something, but it pays nothing on the standard table. With three cards it needs to improve, and most of the time it won’t. Pull it.
Three-card straight flush draws are the other trap. 4-5-6 suited is a let-it-ride: the calculator puts it at about +0.21 bets. 2-3-4 suited isn’t, because a straight can only be made one way at the bottom and a pair of 4s or lower pays nothing. The high-card rules exist for the same reason. A 10 or better can pair into a paying hand; a 7 can’t.
With four cards, notice what’s missing. Four to an inside straight doesn’t ride unless it’s all high cards, and even then it’s a coin toss. 9-8-7-6 open-ended is exactly break-even: 8 cards make a straight that pays 5 to 1, 40 cards lose, and 8 × 5 = 40. Add a 10 on top (10-9-8-7) and the three 10s that pair it tip the balance to +0.125 bets.
What the game costs
| Final hand | Pays | Chance (all 5-card hands) |
|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 1,000 to 1 | 1 in 649,740 |
| Straight flush | 200 to 1 | 1 in 72,193 |
| Four of a kind | 50 to 1 | 1 in 4,165 |
| Full house | 11 to 1 | 1 in 694 |
| Flush | 8 to 1 | 1 in 509 |
| Straight | 5 to 1 | 1 in 255 |
| Three of a kind | 3 to 1 | 1 in 47 |
| Two pair | 2 to 1 | 1 in 21 |
| Pair of 10s or better | 1 to 1 | 1 in 6.1 |
With £10 per bet and about 50 hands an hour, 3.51% of one bet is roughly £17.50 an hour on average. You’ll often be pulling two of your three bets, so the swing is smaller than the £30 on the table suggests. For the payout table with side bets, see the Let It Ride calculator. For a game with a similar feel and one decision, try the three card poker strategy chart.
To watch the strategy play out over a session, use the Let It Ride simulator.
A good strategy lowers the cost per hour. It never turns it into a profit. BeGambleAware.org offers free, confidential support.