3 Card Poker - 2 Separate Games of Poker
3 Card Poker (in some circles known as tri-card poker) is two games in one: Ante and Pairplus. It is also a US version of its British counterpart, Brag.
Introduction to Development of Three Card Poker
Three card poker (tri-card poker, Brag, Primero, Post-and-Pair, etc.), was first played about 300 years ago in its humble beginnings as Primero. The original game just used three cards but over the years the game became known as Post-and-Pair and then Brag. This was in the UK. By the time it arrived in America, the name had changed slightly to Casino Brag and Brit-Brag and some years later its modern name – three card poker – was created. There are other similar variations of the game around the world, such as Teen Patti (India) but all of them have different variations. Today the game is known around the world as being two games – pairplus and ante and play.
How to Play PairPlus
We’ll first take a look at how to play Pairplus. What you do in this game is make a bet on the cards and if you get a hand of a pair (or better) then you get some money (depending on the specific payout table). This is very simple. Things get a bit more complicated with ante and play.
An Explanation of the Ante in Ante and Play
In this part of the game, each player has to put down an ante bet even before he has received his cards. What does this mean? It is a compulsory bet – all players have to wager the exact same amount (very unusual for gambling games) into a pot before anything even starts. It’s not usually a great amount but still. What this does is guarantee that even if a player folds every round, will still have to lose money. What this ultimately means is that players are motivated to play their hand rather than give up when it comes to them having the opening bet. In some cases, all players (ahead of time) will agree that the dealer will provide the ante for each player. This usually happens when the position of the dealer changes.
Rules for Playing Ante and Play
After the ante has occurred, the player gets his card and has the option of folding (thus immediately losing his ante bet) or raising (which means he will choose to raise by making a bet of the same amount of money as the ante bet). One who decides to play has 3 possible outcomes: first, the dealer does not qualify (he doesn’t get a hand of a queen or better) and then the ante bet is paid out even money and the play bet is returned; second, the dealer qualifies (in this case the player wins if his hand is better than the dealers and the payout will be even money on his ante and play bets); third the dealer’s hand is better and in that case he takes the ante and play bets. There are slight variations in this game when the hands are the same value (in some situations the player is reimbursed, other situations the player gets even money on his bet).