Three Card Poker vs Caribbean Stud

Three Card Poker vs Caribbean Stud at a glance

Both are banked poker games where you play only against the dealer's hand, with no draws and no community cards. The three-card game uses a short hand ranking of its own; Caribbean Stud deals five cards each and uses the full poker ranking. Figures below are for the common paytables analysed by Wizard of Odds.

Our guides to Three Card Poker and Caribbean Stud cover each game in full, and the casino poker hub lists the rest of the family.

How Three Card Poker plays

You bet an Ante, a Pairplus bet, or both. After seeing your three cards, an Ante player either folds (losing the Ante) or makes a Play bet equal to the Ante. The dealer needs queen high or better to qualify. If the dealer doesn't qualify, your Ante pays even money and the Play bet pushes; if the dealer qualifies, the higher hand wins both bets.

The Ante Bonus pays extra on a straight or better regardless of the dealer's hand: 5 to 1 for a straight flush, 4 to 1 for three of a kind and 1 to 1 for a straight on the common table. With that table, Wizard of Odds' Three Card Poker page (opens in a new tab) gives the Ante and Play a 3.37% house edge.

In three-card hands, a straight beats a flush and three of a kind beats a straight, because they're rarer with only three cards. The ranking table below shows why.

How Caribbean Stud plays

You place an Ante and receive five cards; the dealer shows one card. You fold (losing the Ante) or raise by betting twice the Ante. The dealer needs ace-king or better to qualify. If the dealer doesn't qualify, your Ante pays even money and the Raise pushes, however good your hand. If a qualifying dealer loses, the Ante pays even money and the Raise pays from the paytable.

The standard Raise paytable, as listed on Wizard of Odds' Caribbean Stud page (opens in a new tab), pays 100 to 1 for a royal flush, 50 to 1 straight flush, 20 to 1 four of a kind, 7 to 1 full house, 5 to 1 flush, 4 to 1 straight, 3 to 1 three of a kind, 2 to 1 two pair and 1 to 1 otherwise. With optimal play the game's house edge is 5.224%.

The sore point is plain from those rules: a full house against a dealer with nothing pays only the Ante at even money. The Raise payout needs the dealer to qualify first.

Hand odds: three cards vs five cards

Counting every hand gives the real chance of each result. There are 22,100 possible three-card hands and 2,598,960 five-card hands from a 52-card deck.

Look at the big Caribbean prizes in context: a straight or better comes up in under 1% of hands, and then only pays its multiple if the dealer also qualifies. Our poker hand rankings page explains the five-card order, and probability basics shows how the counts are made.

Dealer qualifying: why it matters more in Caribbean Stud

Counting all hands from a full deck, the dealer holds queen high or better in 15,380 of the 22,100 three-card hands, about 69.6%. In Caribbean Stud, ace-king or better turns up in about 56.3% of five-card hands. Your own cards shift these figures slightly each deal, but the gap is clear: in Caribbean Stud the dealer misses qualifying in more than four hands in ten.

When the dealer misses, both games pay only the Ante at even money and push the second bet. In Three Card Poker that's a small loss of upside, because the Play bet would only have paid 1 to 1 anyway. In Caribbean Stud it can cancel a 7 to 1 or 20 to 1 Raise payout. That's a large part of why Caribbean Stud's edge is so much higher. See our qualifying hand definition for the general idea.

Three Card Poker vs Caribbean Stud house edge in pounds

House edge per Ante is the clearest measure of what a hand costs you. Expected loss = Ante x house edge, so the gap between 3.37% and 5.224% becomes real money quickly.

The 'hands you play on' row comes from dividing the house edge by the element of risk: Three Card Poker averages about 1.68 Antes per hand, so the Play bet goes in roughly 68% of the time, and Caribbean Stud averages about 2.05 Antes, so the 2x Raise goes in roughly 52% of the time. Our cost per hour guide shows how to turn per-hand figures into a session budget.

Strategy for each game, and what mistakes cost

Three Card Poker: play Queen-6-4 or better and fold anything lower. That one line is the optimal strategy. Simpler rules cost more: mimicking the dealer (playing any queen high) gives a 3.45% edge, and playing every hand gives 7.65%, more than double the optimal cost. Our Three Card Poker strategy page explains the Q-6-4 rule.

Caribbean Stud: published strategies always raise with a pair or better and fold hands that don't reach ace-king. Ace-king hands are the grey area, where the right play depends on your other cards and the dealer's up card. Getting those edge cases right is what brings the house edge down to 5.224%; folding too many pairs costs far more.

1. Decide your Ante and a session loss limit before you sit down.
2. In Three Card Poker, compare your hand with Q-6-4: if it's better, play; if not, fold.
3. In Caribbean Stud, raise any pair or better and fold anything below ace-king.
4. Treat ace-king hands with care; check a strategy chart if unsure.
5. Skip side bets unless you've checked the paytable and accept the higher cost.
6. Stop when you reach your limit, whatever the last few hands did.

Pairplus vs the Caribbean progressive

Pairplus pays on your own three cards, whatever the dealer has, so it's simple to follow. On the common table (40, 30, 6, 3 and 1 to 1), it carries a 7.28% edge, about twice the Ante and Play. At £5 a hand that's about 36p a hand on average. Read more on our Pair Plus bet page.

The Caribbean Stud progressive is far costlier: Wizard of Odds puts its average house edge at 26.46%, so £1 a hand costs about 26p on average. The jackpot makes headlines, but a royal flush lands about once in 649,740 hands. Our page on progressive jackpot maths explains why jackpot bets usually carry such high edges.

Playing Three Card Poker and Caribbean Stud online in the UK

Both games turn up as RNG tables and in live casino poker lobbies, but paytables vary by developer, so check the help screen for the payouts and RTP before you play. UK rules require that information to be easy to find before you bet.

Since 17 January 2025, non-slot casino games must allow at least 5 seconds per game cycle and autoplay is banned, live tables included. The online slot stake limits don't apply to casino poker, so table limits are set by the game and casino; use deposit limits and reality checks to keep control. See our game speed rules and deposit limits guides.

Verdict: Three Card Poker or Caribbean Stud?

For most players Three Card Poker is the better table: it's cheaper, simpler and less frustrating when the dealer misses. Caribbean Stud suits players who like five-card poker and accept paying more for the chance of a bigger Raise payout. If you're also considering a community-card game, see Three Card Poker vs Casino Hold'em.

Where to play Three Card Poker and Caribbean Stud

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