It’s a common belief that casino games are all about luck and that the profits you make or losses you suffer are nothing but randomized events. As playing responsibly is of greatest importance to reduce the risk of compulsive gambling, a notion like this can be advantageous to have. However, it is not entirely true.

In some casino games, such as 3 Card Poker, your own decisions in the game will affect how successful you are. Additionally, bonus offers that gambling sites offer can be efficiently used to increase profits even though they don’t have a direct impact on the game itself.

The key to maximizing profits or minimizing losses lies in RTP. This is a term used to describe long term monetization. For instance, if you play with an RTP of 95%, you would be expected to win €95 off every €100 staked. In other words, you would be expected to lose €5.

To maximize your profits playing 3 Card Poker online, you want to maximize your RTP. This can be done in the following three ways:

  1. Play with an optimal strategy
  2. Stay away from the side bets
  3. Make use of bonus offers

1.    Play With an Optimal Strategy

Played online, 3 Card Poker comes with an approximate RTP of 97% (Evolution Gaming’s version is officially 96.63%). However, to reach this RTP, you have to make the mathematical correct decisions in every deal. If you play a hand that should be folded or fold a hand that should be played, the RTP would be lower. The more mistakes you make, the lower the RTP.

Luckily, there is an optimal strategy which is very easy to follow, making it child’s play to reach the maximum RTP of the game. Here it is:

  • Play any hand that holds any Ace or King no matter what the other two cards are.
  • Play any hand that holds any Queen + 7 no matter what the last card is.
  • Play any hand that holds any Queen + 6 + 4 or better.
  • Fold any hand that is Jack high or worse.

Source: gamblingbaba

2.    Stay Away From the Side Bets

More or less all versions of 3 Card Poker come with side bets. Bets that are optional to place in addition to playing the main game. This could be placing a bet on getting a certain poker hand using five of the six cards dealt between yourself and the dealer. Here, a royal flush could pay up to 1,000 times the stake.

Though as exciting as they can be, these side bets almost always come with a much lower RTP, making them disadvantageous to use if you want to maximize profits or minimize losses. They can be as bad as having an RTP of 91%, which compared to the main game would cost you €6 more for every €100 staked.

3.    Make Use of Bonus Offers

Bonuses that casinos offer are often misunderstood among novice casino players. Most of them come with wagering requirements that prevent you from requesting a withdrawal until you have played for a certain amount of money. Some players hate being limited like this.

However, the fact of the matter is that any extra value you can get from a bonus will increase your long- term chances of making a profit. All bonuses will increase your RTP – some more than other. The best ones to use are those with the lowest wagering requirements and highest bonus amounts.


Here’s an example of a bonus at LeoVegas [valid where legal]: 100% up to €100 with 40x wagering on live casino games

If you deposit €100, a bonus like this would give you €100 extra to play with. To cash out any money, you would have to wager a total of €4,000.  If you play 3 Card Poker optimally with an RTP of 96.63%, you would be expected to lose a total of €134 after making bets that total €4,000.

This, of course, would result in a loss. In this case a minimized loss of €34 since €100 is money you received from the casino. Had you not taken this bonus money, your loss would have been higher provided that you play for a total of €4,000 (something you probably would eventually if you play regularly).

When calculated, your overall RTP after wagering €4,000 as described above would be 99.13%. This is 2.5% higher than what 3 Card Poker itself provides and it is all thanks to the bonus.

Can You Make a Guaranteed Profit Playing 3 Card Poker?

Theoretically you can, but in reality, it’s nearly impossible.

To make a long-term guaranteed profit you would have to play with an RTP of more than 100%. The maximum RTP in 3 Card Poker itself is 96.63%, which means that you would be required to use casino bonuses that further increase your RTP with about 3.5%.

Such bonuses could only have an effective wagering requirement of 25x. While we can’t say that bonuses like that don’t exist at all, they would definitely be incredibly rare to find.

Thus, playing 3 Card Poker, the best you can do is minimize your losses. But that’s casino in a nut-shell. It’s not supposed to make you money, but keep you entertained.

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