GamingTips

Now that we’ve looked at the 3 card hand and the 5 card hand, let’s take a look at the 7 card hand.  With 7 out of 52 cards, there are 133,784,560 possible hands.  Of those, 4,324 are Royal flushes; 37, 260 are straight flushes; 224,848 are four of a kinds; 3,473,184 are full houses; 4,047,644 are flushes; 6,180,020 are straights; 6,461,620 are three of a kinds; 20,598,408 are two paying pairs (10s or higher).

Now let’s turn those into percentages.  You have less than 1% chance each of getting a royal, a straight flush, or a four of a kind; about a 2.5% chance of getting a full house; 3% chance of getting a flush; 4.5% for a straight, just under 4% for a three of a kind;  just over 15% of getting a paying two pair; and about a 69% chance of getting nothing.  If you hit the less than 1 in 3 hands that pays, what will you get paid?

Royal-100

Straight Flush-20

4 of a Kind-7

Full House-5

Flush-4

Straight-3

Three of a Kind-2

Two Pairs (10s high or better)-1.

Overall, the 7 card hand gives the house just over a 3.25% edge.

Now that we’ve looked at the 3 card hand let’s take a look at the 5 card hand in a similar way.  To start with, with 5 out of 52 cards, there are 2,598,960 hands.  Of those, 4 are royal flushes; 36 are straight flushes; 624 are 4 of a kinds; 3,744 are full houses; 5,108 are flushes; 10,200 are straights; 54, 912 are 3 of a kinds, 123,552 are 2 pair, 760, 320 are pairs of sixes or better, and the remaining 1,640,460 are nothing.

Now on to percentages.  That means there are: less than  1% each of getting a royal, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, or straight; about a 2% chance of getting a three of a kind; just under 5% of getting two pair; just under 30% of getting a pair of 6’s or better; and about a 63% chance of getting absolutely nothing.   So if you get the slightly more than 1 in 3 hands that pays, what can you expect?

Royal-500

Straight Flush-100

Four of a Kind-40

Full House-12

Flush-9

Straight-6

Three of a Kind-4

Two Pair-3

Pair (6’s or higher)-1.

Overall, this particular hand gives the house slightly over a 4% advantage.

So let’s go a little more in depth on the 3 card hand.  We’ll talk about the payouts, the probabilites, etc.

To start with, with 3 cards out of a 52 card deck, there are 22100 different possible combinations.

Of those 22100 possibilities, 48 are straight flushes, 52  are three of a kind, 720 are straights, 1096 are flushes, and 3744 are pairs.  That leaves 16,440 possibilities that are nothing.

Now, percentages.  Straight flush and three of  a kinds each have less than .5% probability.  Straights are just over 3%, flushes are just under 5%, and pairs are just under 17%.  That leaves  74% of hands as nothing.  Which means that aproximately 1 out of every 4 hands, you should win something.  What will you win?  Below is the pay table for the three card hand:

Straight flush-40

Three of a kind-25

Straight-6

Flush-4

Pair-1

 Hopefully this satisfies the math/statistics folks.

So 3-5-7 is not a very complicated game, and after betting, the player really has no control over what happens, other than whether or not to surrender.  But, between that and the fact that you may choose to bet different amounts on the 3, 5, and 7 card hands, there actually is a strategic element to the game.  It’s really quite simple.  First, the house advantages of the games are as follows:

 3-3.49%, 5-4.12%, 7-3.28%

So, a couple of things should be clear here.  First, if you know how to, and enjoy, playing other games, by all means do.  This is not the best odds on the casino floor, by a long shot.  That being said, the basic strategy is pretty self explanatory.  Remember that the 7 card hand is optional to play.  It’s not from a strategic point.   Always play the 7 card hand.  Along the same lines, never surrender.  Finally, place bets according to odds.  For instance, you might place $10 on the 3 card hand, $5 on the 5 card hand, and $15 on the 7 card hand.

3-5-7 is another carnival game based on poker which is growing in popularity at casinos.  It is really a very simple game, and, honestly, not my game of choice.  There is not a lot of strategy or play involved, in fact, it is really just betting, and once the bets are down, there is one option the player has.

The game starts with the players betting on either the 3 and 5 card hands only, or the 3, 5, and 7 card hands.  The bets do not have to be equal, follow any ratio, etc.  They all must simply comply with the table limits.  The dealer then deals each player 3 cards and they are paid according to the value of the three card poker hands formed.  The dealer then deals two more cards, and pays each player according to the value of the five card hands formed.  Finally, the dealer deals two more cards to the players who bet the 7 card hand and pays according to the value of the seven card poker hands.

The only “play” a player can make is to surrender their 7 card bet after the three card hand.  That is, they can keep half of their bet and give the other half to the dealer.  Other than this, it is pretty much a “sit and wait” kind of game.  I won’t go into the details of payouts here, since that can be found on the table.  Perhaps later I’ll post the payouts and odds, but for now, you know all you need to sit down and enjoy this game.