Super Slick Poker

While I absolutely love playing 5 and 7-card poker, I thought I would try a new poker game at Bovada Casino, namely, 3 Card Poker or more commonly referred to as Tri Card Poker. Since Bovada Casino offers practice play wherein in their instant flash feature allows you to play any casino game right on your browser, I jumped right in and began to play.

What is 3 Card Poker?

Although I must admit I was a bit confused at first, after playing a few hands of 3 Card Poker I realized it was basically two games in one. 3 Card Poker is a card game in which the dealer and the player are dealt three cards from a 52-card deck. It consists of 3 components: Ante, Raise, and Pair Plus. To win the Ante and Raise part of the game, you need to have a higher hand than the dealer. To win the Pair Plus portion of the game, you need to have a pair to beat the dealer.

How to Play 3 Card Poker

The card table consists of three buttons: Fold, Raise, and Rebet. To the right of these buttons are the chip denominations ranging from $1 to $500. At the top left corner of the table is the payout information, two columns delineating the bets and wins followed by: Pair+, Ante, Bonus, and Raise. With each hand, the bet and win columns reflect how much you have won or lost as determined by the cards dealt and the raises made.

Rule of the Road

The Ante Bet is placed first and then the cards are dealt. The player receives 3 cards face up, and the dealer receives 3 cards face down. If the player thinks that his or her hand can beat the dealer's hand, then the player has to raise with a bet equal to the ante amount. So for example, if I made an ante bet of $5, then I have to raise $5. If the dealer has a Queen or higher it will then compare its hand to the player, the winner being the highest ranked poker hand. If the dealer has the highest hand, then the player loses both the Ante and raise bets. If the dealer does not have at least a Queen, the dealer does not compare hands, and the player is paid 1/1 on the Ante bet and the Raise is returned as a push. If the player has a straight or better, the player is paid an Ante Bonus according to the payout table.

Pair Plus

The second portion of 3 Card Poker is Pair Plus. Here, if the player's hand is dealt a pair or higher, he or she wins. There is a separate bet made on the Pair Plus and is paid out based on the rank of the hand dealt. For example: I received 3 cards, two of which were the same. I clicked on the raise button. Since the dealer did not have a pair, I won the pair plus, ante, and raise portions of the game. Conversely, if I was not dealt a hand with a pair or felt that the hand would not beat the dealers, I clicked on the fold button.

Play 3 Card Poker at Bovada Casino

While 3 Card Poker takes a bit of getting use to, once you get the hang of it, you will find it to be a fascinating poker game. With three different combinations of bets, as well as payouts ranging from 1:1 to 40:1, you can spend enjoy playing 3 Card Poker anywhere, anytime as long as you have an internet connection. Play 3 Card Poker at Bovada! It's a real kick!