Casino Hold'em is a house-banked version of Texas hold'em where you play one hand against the dealer rather than other players. You post an ante, see two cards and a three-card flop, then fold or call for twice the ante. With the most common pay table the house edge is 2.16% of the ante.
You bet an ante, see two hole cards plus a three-card flop, then fold or call at 2x the ante.
The dealer needs a pair of fours or better to qualify; if not, your ante pays and the call pushes.
The common ante pay table runs from 1 to 1 up to 100 to 1 for a royal flush.
The house edge is 2.16% of the ante with the most common pay table.
The AA bonus side bet costs from 2.97% to 6.40%, depending on its pay table.
Main bets
Ante, then Call at 2x the ante
Dealer qualifies
Pair of fours or better
Ante top payout
100 to 1 (royal flush)
House edge
2.16% of the ante (common pay table)
Hands an optimal player folds
About 18%
AA bonus edge
2.97% to 6.40%
What Casino Hold'em is
Casino Hold'em borrows the shape of Texas hold'em, with two private hole cards and five shared community cards, but strips out the bluffing and the other players. You face only the dealer, and the casino banks every bet. That makes it one of the simplest of the casino poker games: one decision per hand, a fixed pay table and no opponents reading your face.
Because nobody else is competing for a pot, the casino's profit comes from the rules rather than a rake. The dealer only has to qualify with a modest hand, your ante payouts are capped by the pay table, and you lose your ante every time you fold. Our casino poker against poker guide explains why that changes how you should think about each hand.
How to play Casino Hold'em, step by step
Place your ante, plus the optional AA bonus side bet if you want it.
The dealer gives you two hole cards and themselves two face down, then deals three community cards (the flop).
Look at your best five-card hand from your two cards and the flop.
Fold to give up the ante, or call by placing a bet of exactly twice the ante.
If you call, the dealer deals the turn and river, so five community cards are showing.
The dealer reveals their hole cards, and both sides make their best five-card hand from seven cards.
Bets settle according to whether the dealer qualifies and who has the better hand.
Standard poker hand rankings decide who wins, and the best five cards from seven count. If the best hand is on the board for both of you, it is a tie. Note that the AA bonus side bet settles on your five-card hand after the flop, not on the final seven cards.
Casino Hold'em rules for qualifying and settling bets
The dealer needs a pair of fours or better to qualify, which is the key qualifying hand rule in the game. What happens next depends on that and on who wins. Here is each outcome with a £10 ante and £20 call, when your final hand is a straight or less (ante pays 1 to 1).
How a £10 ante and £20 call settle
Outcome
Ante (£10)
Call (£20)
Net result
You fold after the flop
Lost
Not placed
−£10
Dealer does not qualify
Paid from pay table (+£10)
Push
+£10
Dealer qualifies, you win
Paid from pay table (+£10)
Paid 1 to 1 (+£20)
+£30
Dealer qualifies, tie
Push
Push
£0
Dealer qualifies, you lose
Lost
Lost
−£30
With a stronger hand the ante pays more. A flush when the dealer fails to qualify, for example, pays the ante at 2 to 1, so you would collect £20 profit with the call pushing. A full house against a beaten qualifying dealer pays £30 on the ante plus £20 on the call, £50 in total.
The call always pays evens, never from the pay table. Only the ante uses the bonus payouts, which is why the size of the pay table matters so much to the house edge.
Some games advertise a lower edge than 2.16% using a different table, but be careful with comparisons. One version listed by Wizard of Odds comes to 0.35% only because a 10% commission is taken from net session wins, which is a different cost structure altogether. Read the game's help screen for its exact table and any commission.
Casino Hold'em house edge, RTP and cost per hand
With the common pay table and perfect play, the house edge is 2.16% of the ante, which is the same as saying the game returns 97.84% of the ante on average. The figure is measured against the ante only, even though you often add a call worth twice as much. Our RTP against house edge page explains the two ways of stating it.
Edge per ante against edge per pound bet
An optimal player calls about 82% of the time, so the average total stake per hand is roughly 1 + (0.82 × 2) = 2.64 antes. The average loss is still 0.0216 antes, so as a share of everything you bet it works out at about 2.16 ÷ 2.64, or roughly 0.82%. Wizard of Odds calls this kind of measure the element of risk (opens in a new tab); it does not publish one for Casino Hold'em, so treat 0.82% as a rough guide.
Average cost at the 2.16% edge
Ante
Average loss per hand
Per 40 hands
Per 100 hands
£1
2.2p
£0.86
£2.16
£5
10.8p
£4.32
£10.80
£10
21.6p
£8.64
£21.60
£25
54p
£21.60
£54.00
Pace varies by table and studio, so the 40 and 100 hand columns are examples rather than published speeds. The point is that cost scales with stake and hands played; it does not shrink because you have been unlucky. For how that compares with other card games, see our casino poker house edge round-up.
Casino Hold'em odds for your starting cards
Some useful odds come straight from counting cards in a 52-card deck. Whatever your first card, three of the remaining 51 match its rank, so the chance of being dealt a pocket pair is 3 in 51, about 5.9%. Twelve of the 51 share its suit, so two suited hole cards turn up about 23.5% of the time.
Pocket pair: 3 in 51, or about 1 hand in 17.
Suited hole cards: 12 in 51, or about 1 hand in 4.25.
Any specific pair, such as two aces: 6 combinations out of 1,326, about 1 in 221.
These are odds for your first two cards only. After the flop you know five cards, which is why most decisions come down to whether you hold a pair, a good draw or high cards that can win at showdown. The Casino Hold'em strategy page turns that into practical call and fold guidance.
The AA bonus side bet in Casino Hold'em
The AA bonus is an optional side bet that pays if your five-card hand after the flop, your two hole cards plus the three flop cards, is a pair of aces or better. It does not depend on the dealer or on whether you call. Pay tables differ, and the difference in cost is large.
AA bonus pay tables compared
Pay table
Key payouts
House edge
Best common table
100 royal, 50 straight flush, 40 quads, 30 full house, 20 flush, 10 straight, 8 trips, 7 two pair or aces
2.97%
Lower straight and trips
As above but 7 for a straight and for trips
6.26%
Flat top
25 for a flush or better, 7 for aces up to a straight
6.40%
Even on its best table the side bet costs more than the main game, and the weaker tables cost roughly three times the main game's 2.16% edge. If you like a side bet for the bigger payouts, check which table your game uses and size it smaller than your ante.
Casino Hold'em strategy in brief
The single most useful fact is that an optimal player calls about 82% of the time and folds only around 18% of hands. Folding loses the ante for certain, while calling gives you a chance that the dealer fails to qualify or that your hand wins. The hands worth folding are mostly two low hole cards that miss the flop and leave little chance of a straight or flush.
Calling too rarely is the costliest common error, because each needless fold hands over a full ante. The full reasoning, with worked examples in pounds, is on our Casino Hold'em strategy page. No strategy removes the house edge; good play only keeps it at the published 2.16%.
The rules are the same in principle across formats, but pay tables, side bets and table limits are set game by game, so always read the help screen before you sit down.
Casino Hold'em compared with other poker-based table games
Folding marginal hands to 'save' money. Each fold costs a certain ante; many weak-looking hands still win often enough to justify the call.
Thinking the call pays from the pay table. Only the ante gets bonus payouts; the call pays evens or pushes.
Treating the AA bonus as part of the main game. It is a separate bet with a separate, higher edge.
Believing a run of losing hands means a win is due. Each deal is a fresh shuffle with no memory, as our independent events guide explains.
Raising stakes after losses. The edge applies to every hand, so bigger bets mean bigger average losses.
Casino Hold'em online in the UK: rules that apply
UK-licensed casinos must follow the Gambling Commission's RTS 14 product design rules (opens in a new tab). For card games like Casino Hold'em that means at least five seconds per game cycle, no autoplay and no playing several games at once, and your net spend and time played must be shown as you go. The £2 and £5 online stake limits cover slots only, so table limits are set by each game. Read more on UK game speed rules and the autoplay ban.
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Read our 10bet reviewLicence: Blue Star Planet Limited, Gambling Commission account 43173. Offer checked 5 October 2026.
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Read our Coral reviewLicence: LC International Limited, Gambling Commission account 54743. Offer checked 5 October 2026.
18+. Every casino game has a built-in house edge, so over time you should expect to lose what you stake. Set a budget before you play and stop when it’s gone: safer gambling tools and support. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.
Frequently asked questions
How do you play Casino Hold'em?
You place an ante, receive two hole cards and see a three-card flop, then either fold and lose the ante or call with a bet twice the size of the ante. If you call, two more community cards are dealt and you compare your best five-card hand with the dealer's. The dealer must have a pair of fours or better to qualify. Our poker hand rankings page shows which hands beat which.
What does the dealer need to qualify in Casino Hold'em?
The dealer needs a pair of fours or better. If the dealer does not qualify, your ante is paid from the pay table and your call bet is returned as a push. If the dealer qualifies and you win, the ante pays from the pay table and the call pays even money. Our glossary entry on the qualifying hand compares this rule with other games.
What is the house edge in Casino Hold'em?
With the most common ante pay table and optimal play, the house edge is 2.16% of the ante, meaning an average loss of about 21.6p per hand on a £10 ante. Because you usually add a call worth twice the ante, the loss as a share of all money bet is lower, roughly 0.8%. Other pay tables give different figures. See our casino poker house edge comparison.
What is the RTP of Casino Hold'em?
With the most common pay table, Casino Hold'em returns about 97.84% of the ante with perfect play, which is the mirror image of the 2.16% house edge. Weaker decisions, especially folding too often, lower the real return. The AA bonus side bet has its own, lower return. Check the game's help screen, because some studios use a different pay table. Our RTP explained page covers how RTP is calculated.
Is the AA bonus bet worth it in Casino Hold'em?
It costs more than the main game on every common pay table. The best widely used AA bonus table has a 2.97% house edge, while two other common tables cost 6.26% and 6.40%. It pays on your five-card hand after the flop if it is a pair of aces or better. If you play it, keep it small and check which pay table applies. Our casino poker games hub lists other side bets.
How often should you call in Casino Hold'em?
An optimal player calls about 82% of the time and folds only about 18% of hands. Folding loses the ante for certain, while calling gives you a chance of a dealer who fails to qualify or a winning hand, so many modest hands are worth the call. The folds are mainly low hole cards that miss the flop. Our Casino Hold'em strategy guide explains the reasoning.
Is Casino Hold'em better than Three Card Poker?
On house edge, yes: Casino Hold'em costs 2.16% of the ante with the common pay table, while Three Card Poker's Ante and Play costs 3.37% with optimal play. Three Card Poker is quicker and its Pairplus bet needs no decisions, though Pairplus carries a 7.28% edge. The better choice depends on whether you prefer a lower cost or a faster game. See Three Card Poker against Casino Hold'em.
Can you play Casino Hold'em live in the UK?
Yes, Casino Hold'em is made both as an RNG game and as a live dealer table, and Evolution has announced a 2 Hand Casino Hold'em live game. Which tables a casino offers varies, so check its live lobby. UK rules require at least five seconds per game cycle and ban autoplay for all casino games, live included. Our live casino poker guide covers the formats.
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