Let’s talk about another variation of poker, and today we will choose the Four Card Poker which was invented by Roger Snow. The game is inspired by the Three Card Poker, but as the name implies, it uses four cards and not three. Other differences are that there is no dealer qualifying hand and the player can raise up to 3 times the ante. On the other hand, the dealer has one extra card.
There are 2 initial bets: the ante and the Aces Up. Each of the players receives 5 cards, while the dealer gets 6 (5 are facing down and one is facing up). Then, the players and the dealer make their best hand with 4 out of the 5 (respectively 6) cards.
After seeing the cards, the players can choose to fold or to bet 1 to 3 times the ante. The dealer always plays, and if the player decides to fold, the dealer gets the ante even if the player had better cards. If the game continues, the player keeps the 4 best cards out of the 5.
After all the betting is done, the dealer turns over all the cards and makes the best hand with 4 out of the available 6 that he has. The best possible hand is four of a kind, followed by a straight flush, three of a kind, a flush, a straight, two pairs, one pair and finally a high card.
Then the hands are compared and the winner is determined. If the dealer has a better hand, the player loses both the ante and the raise. But if the player has a better or an equal hand, the ante and the raise are paid one to one.
However, the player can also get some big bonuses, regardless if he has a better hand than the dealer or not. If he has 3 of a kind he will get 2 times the ante bet, if he has a straight flush he gets 20 times the ante bet and if he has four of a kind, he gets 25 times the ante bet.
There is also the Aces Up bet that we previously mentioned, which depends only on the hand of the player. The dealer hand does not count. The player wins only if they have a pair of aces or something better, otherwise they lose this bet. There are various payout systems for this bet, but the most common one is:
- A pair of aces – 1 to 1
- Two pairs – 3 to 1
- Straight – 4 to 1
- Flush – 5 to 1
- Three of a kind – 8 to 1
- Straight flush – 40 to 1
- Four of a kind – 50 to 1
So here were the Four Card Poker rules and strategies. Overall this is a fun game to play once in a while, if you are tired of the same old Texas Hold’em. Good luck!
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