For most of us, the best way to learn a new card game is by playing it. It’s hard to get good at anything without practice. And if you don’t have much experience with poker, then online three-card poker (3CP) is one great place to start.

The odds of winning are much better than in any other casino form of poker. There are no players around you and no distractions from your surroundings. When it comes to 3CP, the only thing that matters in this kind of poker is whether or not you can form a hand that beats the dealer’s. If you do, you win!

Two-player games on 3CP

There are three different types of three-card poker games on offer when you play online. These include Three Card Poker, Four Card Stud, and Omaha. You can also play five-card draw if you want to try your luck against the house instead of another player. However, these two forms of poker are quite rare for casinos to offer.

If you want to play against another person, you need to choose from among the three-player variations. The game is played like regular three-card poker but has an extra player who acts as a banker. This means that each player gets $100 worth of chips before they go into the betting phase, while the banker gets $300 worth of chips. The winner is determined by the cards dealt to all players combined.

It’s easy to see how the banker makes money out of this setup. They’ll be the first to bet, and they only have to put up 10% of their total chips, which is less than half of what the other players invest.

In addition, the more players are involved in the game, the larger the pot will be. So even though the banker starts off with almost twice the amount of chips compared to every other player, he’ll end up being the winner more often than not.

This is why most online casinos prefer to have fewer people per table when playing three-card poker. Not only does it make the game easier to manage, but there’s a greater chance of everyone winning.

Three-player games on 3CP

As mentioned above, there are three different variants of three-player poker games available on 3CP. All of them are played using the same rules and have the same payout structure, so we won’t spend too long explaining them here. Instead, let’s look at some examples of hands that beat the dealer’s in these games.

Ace high: If you have two pairs (or better), then you’re definitely not going to lose against the dealer. You just need one pair or ace high to stand a chance. Here’s a sample hand:

The dealer shows a king–queen–jack. You can now call the dealer’s bet, or raise it to $30. If you do, then the dealer has to call back with the same exact hand, or else the round is over and you win.

Here’s another example of a winning hand:

The dealer shows a king–jack–nine. You can now call the dealer’s bet, or raise it to $30. If you do, then the dealer has to call back with the same exact hand, or else the round is over and you win.

Four of a kind: With four of a kind, you have the highest possible straight in poker. In fact, four-of-a-kind beats all other combinations of cards possible in poker. A typical hand would look like this:

Here’s another example of a winning hand:

The dealer shows a king–seven–five. You can now call the dealer’s bet, or raise it to $50. If you do, then the dealer has to call back with the same exact hand, or else the round is over and you win.

Five of a kind: Five-of-a-kind is probably the worst starting hand that you could possibly get in poker. For example, if someone were to show a 5–5–4–9, then he would surely lose his entire stack.

However, if you had a 5–5–4–8, then you would still have a decent shot at winning. Here’s an example of a winning hand:

The dealer shows a 5–5–4–8. You can now call the dealer’s bet, or raise it to $55. If you do, then the dealer has to call back with the same exact hand, or else the round is over and you win.

Omaha: If you have four cards of the same suit, such as spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts, or clovers, you have the best starting hand in poker. Any combination of those suits beats all others.

Here’s an example of a winning hand:

The dealer shows a jack–ten–eight. You can now call the dealer’s bet, or raise it to $60. If you do, then the dealer has to call back with the same exact hand, or else the round is over and you win.

So even though you might think that the dealer would never show a combination of sevens, eights, nines, or tens, the truth is that they do happen sometimes. Therefore, you should always keep track of the cards that you have and adjust your betting accordingly. Remember that you have the option to fold whenever you feel like it, so you should do so whenever you have the right hand.