Casino Poker Strategy: Three Card Stud
When discussing issues of strategy for Three Card Stud we have to discuss the two bet types – the Pair Plus Bet and the Ante Bet – separately.
Strategy For Pair Plus Bet
The Pair Plus Bet is a simple prediction that your hand will achieve a ranking equal to or better than a Pair. It is not dependent on what the dealer's hand is, and so the best player strategy that can be deployed here is to find a casino that offers the lowest house edge on this bet type to ensure you're getting the best odds possible. This will be determined by the payout table shown on the table of the online casino you've selected to play. To illustrate this point, below is a table showing some sample payout tables and the related house edge those payouts translate to. You will notice that the adjustment of a single ranking's payout can have a significant impact on the house edge for this type of bet.
| Hand | Casino A’s Odds | Casino B ’s Odds | Casino C ’s Odds | Casino D ’s Odds |
| Straight Flush | 40 to 1 | 40 to 1 | 40 to 1 | 40 to 1 |
| Three Of a Kind | 30 to 1 | 25 to 1 | 30 to 1 | 30 to 1 |
| Straight | 6 to 1 | 6 to 1 | 6 to 1 | 6 to 1 |
| Flush | 4 to 1 | 4 to 1 | 4 to 1 | 3 to 1 |
| Pair | 1 to 1 | 1 to 1 | 1 to 1 | 1 to 1 |
| House Edge | 2.32% | 3.49% | 5.57% | 7.28% |
* Asterisk indicates the single payout value that differs from Casino A's payout scheme.
From the table above you'll see that there's an advantage to finding an online casino that can offer a payout table like Casino A's (e.g. Cryptologic powered casinos such as InterCasino and Littlewoods Casino to name two we list) if you want to play this type of bet regularly.
Strategy for Ante Bet Game
This part of the Three Card Stud has an element of skill to its play, so using a strategy that gets the player closer to ‘perfect play' will keep the casino's house edge as low as possible (the typical value of the house edge in the UK online casino's we recommend is 1.46%).
The simplest strategy is to only raise if you hold a Queen or better. Whilst this is a good bread ‘n' butter rule, an improved strategy that is only marginally more difficult to remember is to only raise if your hand is a minimum of Queen, 6, 3. To be clear about how hands below a Pair are ranked in Poker, the highest value card wins and if the comparable cards tie, the second highest value card in each had is considered next and so on. As an example, if the player holds K, 7, 2, and the dealer has K, 6, 5, the player wins as his 7 beats the dealer's 6.
