Three Card Poker Online (2026): Queen-Six-Four, the Ante Bonus, and Which Pair Plus Table You Are Playing
Three Card Poker has one decision and one number to remember. The decision is whether to match your ante with a play bet after seeing three cards; the number is queen-six-four, the lowest hand worth playing. Follow that and the ante/play bet costs 3.37% of the ante. The second bet on the layout, Pair Plus, pays on your hand alone and costs anywhere from 2.32% to 7.28% depending on a paytable most players never read. This page gives the rules, both paytables, the strategy in one line, and where the game is dealt to Australians.
How a hand runs
- Bet. An ante, a Pair Plus bet, or both. Some tables add a 6 Card Bonus.
- Deal. Three cards to you, three to the dealer face down.
- Decide (ante players only). Fold and lose the ante, or place a play bet exactly equal to the ante.
- Dealer qualifies? The dealer needs queen-high or better. If not, the ante pays even money and the play bet pushes.
- Showdown. If the dealer qualifies, the higher hand wins: ante and play both pay even money, or both lose. Ties push.
- Bonuses. The ante bonus pays on a straight or better whatever the dealer holds and whether or not the dealer qualifies; Pair Plus pays on a pair or better whatever the dealer holds, and loses on anything less even if you beat the dealer.
Three-card hand ranking (it is not the five-card one)
With three cards there are 22,100 possible hands, and the rarity order changes: a straight flush (48 hands) beats three of a kind (52), which beats a straight (720), which beats a flush (1,096), which beats a pair (3,744), which beats high card (16,440). A straight ranks above a flush because it is rarer, the reverse of five-card poker. Aces play high or low in straights (A-2-3 is the lowest straight, A-K-Q the highest); there is no two pair, no full house and no four of a kind.
The ante bonus
The ante bonus is paid on the ante regardless of the dealer's hand. The most common table pays 5 to 1 for a straight flush, 4 to 1 for three of a kind and 1 to 1 for a straight; a less generous common table pays 4/3/1, and some pay 3/2/1. The ante bonus is why the ante/play game has a lower edge than its dealer-qualifying structure suggests: the house wins the folded antes and the beaten play bets, and gives some back on the 3.7% of hands that are straights or better.
Pair Plus: the paytable decides the edge
| Paytable | Straight flush | Three of a kind | Straight | Flush | Pair | House edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best common table | 40 | 30 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2.32% |
| Most common table | 40 | 30 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 7.28% |
The whole difference between the first two rows is the flush cell: 4 to 1 against 3 to 1. Flushes are the most frequent paying hand on Pair Plus (about one hand in 20), so that single unit moves the edge by five points. Online tables show the Pair Plus paytable in the rules panel or printed on the felt; if the flush pays 3, the bet costs three times what it costs at a 4-flush table and twice the ante/play bet. The 6 Card Bonus, where offered, pays on the best five-card hand from your three and the dealer's three, at 14–15% house edge on the common tables.
Strategy: queen-six-four
The whole strategy
- Play any hand of queen-six-four or better. That is: any pair or better; any queen-high hand where the second card is seven or higher; a queen-six where the third card is four or five.
- Fold anything lower: queen-six-three, queen-five-anything, jack-high, and below.
- This does not change with the ante bonus table, the dealer's habits or anything you saw last hand.
Optimal play gives a house edge of 3.37% of the ante, or 2.01% of all money bet counting the play bets. A player who never folds, or who folds every queen-high hand, pays materially more. The rule has a plain reason: the dealer qualifies with queen-high or better on about 70% of hands, and against a qualifying dealer a queen-six-four wins just often enough to cover the play bet it risks. There is no reading the dealer, because there is nothing to read.
What an hour costs
- Ante/play only, optimal strategy: A$10 ante, 60 hands an hour: about A$20 an hour (60 × A$10 × 3.37%).
- Pair Plus at the 4-flush table: A$10 a hand adds about A$14 an hour; at the common 3-flush table, about A$44 an hour — more than the base game.
- Both bets at a 3-flush table: about A$64 an hour at A$10 each, against A$3 at blackjack for the same stake and speed.
Pair Plus is the more volatile bet and the reason the game is popular: a 40-to-1 straight flush on a A$10 bet is a A$400 moment. At 2.32% it is a reasonable price for that moment; at 7.28% it is not, and the felt in front of you says which.
Where it is dealt
King Johnnie lists Tri Card Poker on its lobby page, with Wolf Winner and Jackpot Jill on the same platform; the Realtime Gaming sites (Lucky Tiger, Rich Palms, Shazam, Fair Go, Ozwin, PlayCroco, Grand Rush) carry RTG's Tri Card Poker in the table set, and Grand Rush counts it at 50% toward wagering. The Novatrix sites (Golden Crown, PlayAmo, Woo, CasinoChan, King Billy, Ricky) deal Evolution's live Three Card Poker with a shared 6 Card Bonus, and RNG versions in the table-games category. In every bonus rulebook it is a table game: 5% at Golden Crown, 50% at Grand Rush, excluded at the RTG sites. The poker card games hub compares it with Caribbean Stud, Pai Gow and the hold'em variants.
FAQ
How do you play 3 card poker?
Bet an ante and/or Pair Plus, receive three cards, and if you bet the ante decide whether to fold or add an equal play bet. The dealer needs queen-high to qualify; if not, the ante pays even money and the play pushes. If the dealer qualifies, the higher three-card hand wins both bets. Straights and better also earn an ante bonus, and Pair Plus pays on a pair or better regardless of the dealer.
What hands beat what in 3 card poker?
Straight flush, three of a kind, straight, flush, pair, high card. A straight beats a flush because with three cards it is rarer (720 hands against 1,096).
What is the best strategy for three card poker?
Play queen-six-four or better, fold everything else. That is the entire strategy and gives a 3.37% house edge on the ante.
Is Pair Plus a good bet?
At a table paying 4 to 1 on a flush, it costs 2.32% and is cheaper than the ante game. At the common table paying 3 to 1 it costs 7.28%, more than double. Read the flush cell before betting.
What is the house edge in three card poker?
3.37% of the ante on ante/play with optimal strategy (2.01% of all money bet); 2.32–7.28% on Pair Plus by paytable; 14–15% on the 6 Card Bonus.
Sources and method
Rules, ante bonus and Pair Plus paytables, house edges and the queen-six-four strategy are from the Three Card Poker analysis published by Wizard of Odds (read 19 September 2026); we did not recompute them. Hand counts are combinatorial from 22,100 three-card hands. Hourly costs are arithmetic. Lobby contents were read from each operator's rendered lobby page the same day from an Australian IP address; bonus weightings are quoted from the operators' terms. We earn a commission when readers sign up through links on this site; it did not decide what is written here.
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