table
Three Card Poker is a two-part table game invented in the 1990s. The Ante and Play part is a contest against the dealer using three-card hands, with a 3.37% house edge on the Ante under optimal play. Pair Plus is a separate bet on your own hand strength and is worse, at 7.28%. Optimal strategy is a single rule that takes about ten seconds to learn.
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RTP varies by operator. 96.63% on the Ante under optimal play, equal to a 3.37% house edge. Pair Plus returns 92.72%. Measured against total money wagered the Ante-Play edge is about 2.01%. Providers let casinos pick a configuration, so always open the game's own info panel and check the number before you bet.
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Place an Ante, a Pair Plus bet, or both. You and the dealer each receive three cards. After looking at yours, you either fold and lose the Ante, or place a Play bet equal to it. The dealer needs queen high or better to qualify. If the dealer does not qualify, the Ante pays 1 to 1 and the Play bet pushes. If the dealer qualifies, the higher three-card hand wins both bets. Hand rankings differ from five-card poker: a straight beats a flush, because straights are rarer with three cards.
Three Card Poker is documented at 96.63% return to player, which is a house edge of 3.37%. 96.63% on the Ante under optimal play, equal to a 3.37% house edge. Pair Plus returns 92.72%. Measured against total money wagered the Ante-Play edge is about 2.01%. Table games do not have a single RTP the way a slot does. The return depends on which bet you make and how well you play the decisions. The figure recorded here is the complement of the house edge under optimal play. wizardofodds.com could not be fetched directly from this environment on 2026-09-17 (DNS resolution failed); the figures come from their published pages as returned in search results. Pair Plus paytables vary between studios, and a reduced payout for a flush or straight raises that bet's edge further. Check the paytable in the game before betting Pair Plus. That percentage applies to every unit you wager, not to the money you deposit. Play a £100 balance through £2,000 of bets and the edge is charged on the £2,000.
Moderate on Ante and Play. Higher on Pair Plus, which pays nothing on the majority of hands. Turning the risk up does not make a game more or less generous over time. It widens the distribution: frequent small wins become rare large ones while the average stays where the operator set it.
The house edge on this game is fixed by its rules and payouts. Correct play reaches the best available number and stops there; nothing takes it below zero. Progressive staking systems change the shape of a session's results, not the expected outcome. Decide a loss limit first and treat the edge as the cost of playing. Optimal strategy is one rule: play any hand of queen, six, four or better, and fold everything below it. That single rule captures the full 3.37% figure. Pair Plus more than doubles the cost of play at 7.28%, so the cheaper way to play is Ante and Play alone.
Make the Play bet with queen, six, four or better. Fold anything weaker. That is the whole of it.
With only three cards, straights are less likely than flushes, so the ranking is reversed compared with five-card poker.
It costs more than twice as much per unit staked as the Ante bet, at 7.28% against 3.37%. It is a worse bet, though it produces larger occasional wins.