GamingTips

A disclaimer before I begin.  This is not necessarily mathematically a winning strategy, in fact I can almost guarantee you it’s not.  Yet, with casino gambling, no strategy is a mathematical winner.  This is a great way to have a little fun, and, using self control, hopefully win the big bucks.

My betting strategy when I play Let it Ride focuses on the bonus bet, even though it is statistically a very bad bet.  The great thing about Let It Ride is the great earning potential if you have a winning hand and the ability to minimize your losses if you don’t.  Let’s use a $5 table as an example.  You start with $16 out (3 $5 bets on the spots, and a $1 bet on the bonus).  If you have a pair or better right off the bat (to use one extreme), and wind up with a bonus winning hand, you can win on the full $15, plus the $1 bonus.  If, on the other hand, you have a losing hand, you can reduce your losses to $6.  This allows you to buy time waiting for a big hand.

My personal strategy is to do just that.  Play the table minimum according to the strategies I give in my other posts, plus the $1 bonus bet.  The key here is this:  once you hit a flush or better, color up and walk away from the table.  You are unlikely to get another bank-breaking hand.  And you just more than made up for your losses.  Even if you played very conservatively, you make 8:1 on $5, plus a bonus $50.  That’s $90.  If you pulled back one bet, that’s $130.  If you left all three out, that’s $170.

Again, playing the bonus is not a long-run mathematic winner.  BUT, the key to “beating the odds” in all but a few casino games lies in knowing when to walk away.

So there’s no hard and fast betting strategies that I know of in Let It Ride, although surely you could adjust any betting strategy to the game.  There is one set in stone betting rule, though, which has to do with a small and oft-ignored placard which will rest on almost any Let It Ride table.

The placard will usually read: “Maximum Payout per hand-$XXXXXX” and/or “Maximum Aggregate Payout per hand-$XXXXX.”  The first refers to how much any one player can be paid on one hand.

For example, you are playing at a casino with a maximum per hand of $75,000.  The paytable pays 1000:1 on a Royal, and the bonus (which you are betting) is $20,000.  You are betting $25 on each of your spots, and leave all bets up.  You should, according to the paytable, be paid $95,000.  You have 3 $25 bets, paying 1000:1, or $25,000 each, plus the bonus bet, which pays $20,000.  But, the maximum is $75,000.

The second, the maximum aggregate or total payout, is the most they will play out to all players on the table during any given hand.  Again, let’s use the same paytable.  We’ll assume that there are only two players at the table.  Usually, the way that this works is that they calculate the percentage of the payout which each player is entitled to.  So let’s say that you have AKQ of spades.  The dealers hows a J 1o of spades.  You’re thrilled.  You’re waiting for your $95,000.  Meanwhile, I’m sitting next to you with the 987 of spades.  I’m thrilled.  Using the same paytable, and also betting $25 per spot, I am now expecting $5000 per spot, or $15,000, plus a $2,000 bonus, for a total of $17,000.  Now, let’s assume that the maximum aggregate is also $75,000 at our favorite casino.  The total expected payout is $122,000.  Of that, your $95K makes up about 78% and my $17K makes up the remaining 22%.  That means that you will receive 78% of $75,000, or $58, 500, andI will receive the remaining $16,500.  Although both of these seem like a lot of money, statistically speaking, they make your odds at Let It Ride even worse.

Some casinos do it differently, and will pay the bets in order of amount.  This would be a far worse deal for me, since you would receive $75,000 and I would receive nothing.  You will need to read the brochure on Let It Ride at an individual casino to learn which of these methods is used.

Either way, however, this has a serious implication for strategy.  You should only play within the maximum payouts.  If the maximum payout, or the maximum aggregate payout, is $75,000, and you are playing at the casino we’ve been talking about, you should evaluate.  You are playing the bonus.  So take off $20,000.  You’re now looking at a maximum of $55,000 between your three bets.  Divide this by 1000, and you get 55.   Divide this by three and you get 18 1/3.  In other words, if you want to bet big, at this particular table, the biggest you shoud bet is 18 (or 15 if you’re trying not to drive the dealer insane) per spot.

Remember though, your odds don’t get any worse for betting small.  This doesn’t mean you have to be 15 each time to maximize your odds.  It means that you should not bet more than $15.

To generalize, you should subtract the bonus payout for a royal from the maximum payout (if you play the bonus), then divide what remains by the payout for a royal, and divide by three to get your maximum per spot bet.

Thanks for reading, and good luck!

So, we’ve already covered the strategy for the first round of Let It Ride.  So now the dealer has flipped one card.  Four of your five cards are showing.  What do you do now?

If you have four cards to an inside straight, but they are all 10s or better, “Let it Ride.”

If you have four cards to an outside straight, “Let it Ride.”

If you have four cards to a flush, “Let it Ride.”

If you have any hand which is a pair of 10s or better, obviously  “Let it Ride.”

Remember, play your hand this way regardless of what you had after the first round.  Have fun, and good luck!

Alright.  Here’s my advice on the first round of Let it Ride, and when you should “Let It Ride” versus pulling your cards back.  By first round, I mean after you have dealt and looked at your three cards, but while the “dealer’s” cards are still face down.

If you have three cards which could make up a straight flush, “let it ride” when a) they are all connected (except A-2-3), b) Two or more of them are 10 or higher, or c) there is only one gap in between the numbers, and at least one is 10 or higher (8,9, j; 7,8, 10; 7,9,10). Obviously this rule includes 3 cards to a Royal.

Any hand which already contains a paying hand (10s or better, 3 of a kind), you should let it ride.

Any other hands, you should pull back your bet.

As with any casino game, the odds on Let it Ride can vary slightly from one casino to the next, or even from one table to the next.  The odds I’m listing are assuming the “optimal” payouts below:

Royal-1000:1

Straight Flush-200:1

4 of a kind-50:1

Full house-11:1

Flush-8:1

Straight-5:1

Three of a Kind-3:1

Two pair-2:1

10s or better-1:1.

With these odds, the house edge is aproximately 3.6%.  That makes this a far worse game than blackjack or craps to play, but as I’ve mentioned in my post on the basics, it can still be fun, and it’s still possible to win quite a bit if you walk away after your big hand.

Speaking of winning big all of a sudden, the bonus bet has a house edge of about 13%, which is awful.  I personally will continue to bet it, however, because the emotional and mental damage of hitting a big hand and not betting the dollar is too much for me to handle.

Let It Ride is a common, poker-based carnival game. 

The object is to creat poker hands, starting with a pair of 10s or better.  Anything below this is a losing hand.  Payouts for both the main bet and the ”bonus bet” are listed on the table in front of each player, and will sometimes vary from casino to casino, starting with even money for 10s or better and working up to $10,000:1 for a royal flush on the main bets.  Bonus bet payouts tend to vary more. 

To start, a player places equal bets in each of the 3 circles in front of their spot.  They may also bet a $1 bonus bet on the light-up, red circle in front of their spot.

Each player is then dealt 3 cards, starting to the dealer’s left.  The dealer then deals themselves three cards, and discards one.  All cards are dealt face down.  Each player may now look at their three cards, touching them with only one hand.

At this point, a player may scratch the cards on the felt, indicating that they wish to pull back their first bet; wave their hands over their cards, indicating that they wish to leave the first bet; or tuck the corner of their cards under the third bet, indicating they wish to leave all of their bets in play.

The dealer will now flip one of his or her cards, exposing it to all of the players.  Players who tucked their cards may not now play, however, those who pull back their first bet, or hold without tucking their cards again have a choice.  They may scratch the table with their cards to pull back the bet in the second circle, or they may tuck their cards immediately to leave the second bet in play.  After they have acted, all players must tuck their cards under the third bet.

The dealer will now expose their second card, and go around the table (from their right) flipping the players’ cards and paying or taking bets.

 The key point to remember is that the “dealer’s” two cards are really community cards, similar to the flop in Hold ‘Em based poker games.  The players are trying to create 5 card hands using their own 3 cards and the dealer’s two.  The other point to remember is that there is no bluffing, no drawing, etc.  The only real stratgy is deciding when to pull back a bet and when to “Let It Ride.”

I’ll look into the odds of this game, and post them when I find them.  My guess, and from what I’ve heard, is that the hold is probably pretty high.  Nonetheless, it’s one of my favorite games and, with proper patience and will power can be a great way to build a bankroll for other games.  That’s because, for instance, at a $5 table, a player really bets anywhere from $5-15 depending on the strength of their hand.  If, for instance, you have 10’s or better or 3 of a kind in your hand, you can bet $15.  If, however, you play conservatively, and wind up with nothing, you can bet only $5.  Also, the $1 bonus bet makes it possible to win a lot very quickly.  For instance, at most casinos, a flush pays 8:1, and the bonus is $50.  Do the math.

On a flush, the basic bet pays $40, plus $50 for the bonus bet, if the player plays conservatively and pulls back both of their first two bets.  If the player takes a few more risks, it is $120, plus $50 for the bonus, or $170.  Not that flushes are easy to get, but the first time I played, I did hit three of them in 45 minutes.