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Florida Variant of Trips Bet

Introduction

At racetracks in Florida, poker-based games are allowed. This includes games like Three Card Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em. However, there is a regulation in Florida that to win a bet in poker you must beat your opponent. Normally, in Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em, the Trips is a side bet that pays based only on the poker value of the player's hand. At the racetracks in Florida, it is also required to beat the dealer. This page address the rules and odds as found at these Florida racetracks.

Rules

Normally, the Trips is a side bet in Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em that pays based on the poker value of the best five-card hand that can be created among two player hole cards and five community cards. However, at Florida racetracks, it is also required to beat the dealer. If there is a tie with a hand of Three of a Kind or greater, then the Trips is a push.

Tribal casinos in Florida are not bound by the "must win" rule and thus use the standard Trips pay table.

The following table shows the standard Trips pay table and that used in Florida. As you can see, some pays are increased to adjust for it being harder to win.

Trips Pay Table

Event Standard Florida
Royal flush 50 50
Straight flush 40 40
Four of a kind 30 30
Full house 8 10
Flush 7 8
Straight 4 6
Three of a kind 3 3

Analysis

The following table shows the probability and contribution to the return of all possible events of the Trips bet under the Florida variant. The lower right cell shows a house edge of 4.88%. By way of comparison, the most common 50-40-30-8-7-4-3 Trips pay table under the conventional rules has a house edge of 3.50%.

Florida Variant Analysis

Event Pays Combinations Probability Return
Royal flush 50 85,615,200 0.000031 0.001539
Straight flush 40 734,237,144 0.000264 0.010559
Four of a kind 30 4,240,864,800 0.001525 0.045742
Full house 10 62,810,500,464 0.022582 0.225825
Flush 8 71,523,195,288 0.025715 0.205720
Straight 6 103,685,076,072 0.037278 0.223670
Three of a kind 3 97,664,829,948 0.035114 0.105341
Trips or better and push 0 28,636,706,336 0.010296 0.000000
Two pair or less -1 2,356,664,171,400 0.847300 -0.847300
Trips or better and lose -1 55,335,805,748 0.019895 -0.019895
Total   2,781,381,002,400 1.000000 -0.048799

Internal Links

Florida variant of the Pairplus bet in Three Card Poker.

Extneral Links

Discussion about the Florida variant of the Trips bet in my forum at Wizard of Vegas.