Playing Tips for 3 Card Drop

There isn't much strategy for playing this game. There is no betting, no drawing, no exposed cards, nothing to get a read on the strength or weakness of your opponents. You have your cards and you either play them or not. Non-playable hands should be obvious. How strong a hand you think you need to play is your big decision. Apart from factoring in your own style of play, you need to know your opponents to help you with that decision. Where are they on the risk taking scale? Where are you? It then becomes basically a risk to benefit decision. You'll need to know the probabilities of being dealt various hands, so review the 3 card poker probabilities chart at the bottom of this page.

When there is a lot of money in the pot it may occur to you that the other players will be afraid to remain in the game and that you will be able to steal the pot with any hand just by having the nerve to declare "in". This is a risky idea!  You need to take at least 3 things into consideration: the other players tendancies, will this same idea will occur to them and will they get dealt a hand that's strong enough to play? You only have an idea of the first two factors. If they have a hand you're beaten badly. If you are against another bluffer you might barely beat them, but you may just as easily lose to only a marginally better hand.

There is one other detail you should make sure is worked out before you play this game. That is the matter of the ranking of straights and flushes. In every 5 card version of poker a flush beats a straight. That's because it is mathematically harder to get a flush than a straight with 5 cards. But, the mathematical fact of 3 card poker is that it is harder to get a straight than a flush, so technically, their ranking should be reversed. If you are going to rank them that way you better make sure everyone is aware of it or it is very likely to result in a big argument.

3 Card Poker Probabilities
	Straight Flush  0.22%  3 of a Kind  0.24%  Straight  3.26%  Flush  4.96%  Pair  16.9%