Three Card Poker Calculator
Evaluate any Three Card Poker hand, apply the Q-6-4 play/fold rule, and estimate ante, play, Pair Plus, and ante bonus payouts.
Three Card Poker calculator quick answer
Optimal basic Three Card Poker strategy is to make the Play bet with Q-6-4 or better and fold weaker high-card hands. Pairs or better always continue. Pair Plus and bonus bets depend heavily on the paytable.
- The dealer usually needs queen-high or better to qualify.
- Pairs or better always continue against the dealer.
- Q-6-4 is the common play/fold threshold for high-card hands.
- Pair Plus can look attractive but changes sharply by paytable.
Common Three Card Poker hand frequencies
Three Card Poker uses 22,100 possible three-card hands, but ranks straight above flush because straights are rarer than flushes in three-card hands.
| Hand type | Combinations | Probability | Common Pair Plus payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight flush | 48 | 0.22% | 40:1 |
| Three of a kind | 52 | 0.24% | 30:1 |
| Straight | 720 | 3.26% | 6:1 |
| Flush | 1,096 | 4.96% | 4:1 |
| Pair | 3,744 | 16.94% | 1:1 |
| High card | 16,440 | 74.39% | Loses |
The casino version is mostly one decision: Q-6-4 or better
Three Card Poker is not poker in the normal player-versus-player sense. It is a casino table game with a fixed decision tree. You place an ante, receive three cards, and either fold or place a Play bet equal to the ante. The dealer must qualify, and the payout depends on whether your hand beats the dealer's hand.
The strategic part is small but important: continue with Q-6-4 or better. That rule is easy to memorize, but players still misapply it because they overvalue hands like Q-5-3 or J-T-9. The calculator makes the threshold visible by evaluating the exact high cards in order.
The side bets are where the math usually gets worse. Pair Plus pays on your hand alone, regardless of the dealer, which makes it feel cleaner than the main game. But the paytable decides everything. A generous table can be tolerable; a weak table turns the same hand distribution into a much worse bet.
This page should sit next to blackjack and roulette as a casino calculator, not inside the Texas Hold'em tool cluster. It captures users searching for 3 Card Poker rules, Q-6-4 strategy, Pair Plus payouts, and hand odds without cannibalizing the existing poker odds calculator.
3 Card Poker questions
What is the Q-6-4 rule in Three Card Poker?
The Q-6-4 rule says to make the Play bet with queen-six-four or better and fold weaker high-card hands. Any pair, flush, straight, three of a kind, or straight flush should continue.
Does a straight beat a flush in Three Card Poker?
Yes. In Three Card Poker, a straight beats a flush because a three-card straight is less common than a three-card flush.
Is Pair Plus a good bet?
Pair Plus depends on the exact paytable. Better paytables reduce the house edge, while weak paytables can make the side bet much worse than the main ante and play game.
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