A three card poker calculator shows you which Pair Plus table to sit at. The common 1-4-6-30-40 pay table (pair pays 1, flush 4, straight 6, trips 30, straight flush 40) has a house edge of 2.32%. Knock the flush down to 3 and it jumps to 7.28%, more than three times as expensive for a change most players never notice. Type in the table’s pays and the free calculator gives you the edge, the return and the cost per hour at your bet.
Three card poker calculator: the hands
There are 22,100 possible three-card hands. The odds are a little different from five-card poker, and so is the ranking: a straight beats a flush because it’s rarer.
| Hand | Combinations | Odds |
|---|---|---|
| Straight flush | 48 | 1 in 460 |
| Three of a kind | 52 | 1 in 425 |
| Straight | 720 | 1 in 30.7 |
| Flush | 1,096 | 1 in 20.2 |
| Pair | 3,744 | 1 in 5.9 |
| High card | 16,440 | 1 in 1.3 |
Pair Plus pays on a pair or better, about 25.6% of hands. Everything else loses.
Ante and Play
The main game is a separate bet. With the standard strategy (play Q-6-4 or better, fold the rest) and a 5-4-1 ante bonus, the house edge is 3.37% of the ante. That sounds worse than Pair Plus, but you’re putting more money in play each hand, so per hand the cost is about 2% of the total bet, a little lower than a good Pair Plus table.
Want to compare with other casino games at your speed? The casino simulator shows the hourly cost of each, and the RTP and house edge calculator converts between the two measures.
Prefer a game where you decide how much to raise? The Ultimate Texas Hold’em strategy page has a preflop raise chart and the cost of your session.
For a slower poker game where four hands in ten push, try the Pai Gow Poker calculator, which sets your hand the house way.
Play with money you can afford to lose. If it stops being fun, BeGambleAware.org is free and confidential.