Pair Plus in 3 Card Poker
Is there any strategy to playing the three card poker side game Pairs Plus?
The simple answer is yes and no. Ok, I know that didn't help you out at all. So here is the basic strategy that I use when determining whether or not to bet on the Pairs Plus.
What is Pair Plus
Pair plus is a side game played separately from your ante and play bets. Pairsplus is not played against the dealer at all. It is a bet that you wager when you think you are going to receive a pair, flush, straight, three of a kind or straight flush in your hand.
The game is very simple, either you get a pair or better and win, or you don't and you lose.
Pair Plus Winning Payouts
Again, rather straight forward. Here are the payouts that you
will receive upon a winning pair plus bet:
Pair - You win 1 to 1 on your pairs plus bet
Flush - You win 4 to 1 on your bet
Straight - You win 6 to 1 on your bet
Three of a Kind - You win 30 to 1 on your bet
Straight Flush - You win 40 to 1 on your bet
Pairs Plus Odds
So none of the above helped you yet? Let's try to change that. The first thing you have to know when playing any game is your odds of winning.
There are a total of 22,100 combinations of cards that you can receive in 3 card poker. Out of those combinations 5,660 are winning bets in Pairs Plus. That is a 25.6% chance of winning on your Pairs Plus bet.
Here's the breakdown -
- Straight Flush - 48 combinations, 0.22% chance of winning or 2.2 hands in a thousand played.
- Three of a Kind - 52 combinations, 0.24% chance of winning or 2.4 hands in a thousand played.
- Straight - 720 combinations, 3.25% chance of winning or 1 hand in 30 played.
- Flush - 1096 combinations, 4.96% chance of winning or 1 hand in 20 played.
- Pair - 3744 combinations, 16.94% chance of winning or 1 in 5 to 6 hands played.
Pair Plus Strategy
Here is my basic strategy to playing Pair Plus.
If you are already down money to the dealer, it is a better idea to try
to win it back with your normal bets. Just because you have a 1 in 4 chance
of winning Pair Plus doesn't mean that you will get winning hand every
fourth hand.
You best bet to playing this game while you are already down money is to wait until you have had a stretch of 10 or more hands without a Pairs Plus winner. Even though your odds of winning a particular hand doesn't go up or down, the combined odds of getting a pair will increase your chances of getting it each successive hand.
Remember that a pairs plus winner is often likely to be a winning hand against the dealer as well, so one Pair plus win can be the equivalent to a multiple hand winning streak.
On the other hand, if you play four pairs plus hands in a row and don't win, you are now struggling uphill. There is a good chance that the dealer will beat you in several of these hands, which compounds the losing pairplus bets.
The strategy to winning in pairs plus is to hit the times you get a straight or a flush because they pay out more than 1 to 1. Winning your bet by getting a pair won't win you much more than your next bet. You have about a 8% chance (1 in 12.5 hands) of getting either a flush or a straight.
Your chances of getting either a straight flush or three of a kind is a little more than 1 out of every 200 hands. It's pure luck if you happen to bet Pair plus when you get one of these hands.
My overall suggestions are that you wait for a dry spell of not receiving a pair or higher, or you do so when you are already ahead in money.
