Four Card Poker: Rules and Strategies
Four Card Poker is almost identical with three card poker. It is a new casino game theorized by Roger Snow and marketed by Shuffle Master or SHFL Entertainment. As the name implies, this poker variation uses four cards. In this variant, a dealer qualifying hand is not used and a player can choose to raise his ante up to three times, but the dealer can have an extra card to improve his hand.
Game Rules
The game starts by having two types of initial bets, the Aces Up or the ante. Each player will be dealt a total of five cards while the dealer is dealt 6. One of the cards of the dealer will face up, and the rest face down. Players who bet an ante must choose to either raise or fold. If he decides to fold then he loses all the initial bets. But if he decides to raise, he must raise the exact amount equal to the ante or up to three more times. The best possible hand is 4 of a kind, followed by straight flush, 3 of a kind, flush, straight, 2 pair, 1 pair and a high card. After deciding acts, it is now the time for the dealer to turn his cards and pick out the best 4 of them. The player's hand will now be compared to that of the dealer, and ranked according to the mentioned ranking. If the hand of the dealer is higher than the player's, the poker player in this case loses his bets but if it is equal or otherwise, both for ante and the raise is paid 1 to 1. If the player shows 3 of a kind at the very least he can get a bonus. The Aces Up bet is based on the player's hand alone. If he gets a pair of aces or even better, he wins, if not, he loses. This is where the dealer's hand is not counted. The payout for a pair of aces is 1 is to 1, two pair is 3 to 1, straight is 4 to 1, flush is 5 to 1, three of a kind is 8 to 1, straight flush is 40 to 1 and 4 of a kind is 50 to 1.
4 Card Poker Strategies
If you want to have the best strategies in playing four card poker, you can read the guide published by the creator Shuffle Master. It says that a player can receive a whopping 98.41% with the Ante wager and bonus. This statistics, however, can vary considering the casino where you play. The best advice you can use, is not to make twice as much as the ante bet, which means, it is wise to just raise as much as the ante bet oftentimes. The option Aces Up should also be used reasonably. You only bet thrice your ante if you were dealt a pair of tens or better. But if you were dealt by 3s to 9s, you only bet 1x your ante. You should also not raise 2x your ante.