3 Card Lowball Poker
Michael Shackleford: Hi, this is Mike Shackleford with the wizard Of Odds at the 2016 Cutting Edge Table Game Show at The Flamingo in Las Vegas. I'm here with my good friend and assistant Heather Ferris. In case you recognized Heather's name but don't know where it's from, Heather has been my videographer for many past videos and manages my social media. This is a change, this time she's in front of the camera. Also, happy birthday Heather.
Heather Ferris: Thank you very much, I appreciate it.
Michael: You're welcome. Heather is spending her birthday promoting the game called Three Card Lowball Poker. Can you tell me more about it?
Heather: Three Card Lowball Poker is a wonderful game. You have two bets that you have to make. The anti bet and the bonus bet, and both of them are mandatory. They have to be the same amount. They can't be different amounts. The object of the game is you want to get the lowest poker hand ranking that you can against the dealer. You're only playing against the dealer. It's not like you're playing against any of the other players or anything. What's going to happen is you're going to get three cards. You get to decide if you want to keep the cards or if you want to discard them. You can discard between zero and two cards. However, you cannot discard all three of them. Normally a player will discard anything that is eight or higher, or they'll split up pairs, straights, or flushes.
Once they discard the cards they get two replacements cards and then that's their final hand. That's all that they have. Then it's the dealer's turn, and the dealer's going to do exactly the same thing. They're going to look at their cards, if they have a 10 or higher, they're going to discard those cards. Then they're going to get replacement cards. Whoever has the lowest poker hand ranking wins. I just want to point out that the Ace is one. It's the lowest card possible. I believe that is it. Oh, and the house edge is 3.7%.
Michael: Okay, that covers it well. Let me make sure I understand. You take regular Three Card Poker but you make it based on the low hand, you're trying to achieve a low hand instead of a high hand. Both the player and the dealer have the opportunity to discard any number of cards that they want. There's two mandatory bets, right? Both of them you have to beat the dealer. One of them pays even money, and the other one pays according to a pay table, right?
Heather: That is correct. The anti will pay one to one, and then the bonus is paid depending on what they have. You can't win the bonus unless you win the anti. You have to win the anti in order to win the bonus. Also, this is a really, really great table to have right next to Three Card Poker. If the player is losing or anything like that, instead of them leaving the casino, they could just come here and they could play on this table, and all of their low cards will actually be winners on this table. It's a really, really great way to keep people in the casino and keep playing for a longer time.
Michael: All right. Can you show me a few hands as an example?
Heather: I would love to. The two bets that you're going to play are the anti and the bonus, and both of them are mandatory bets. They have to be the same amount in order for you to play. The object of the game is to get the lowest poker hand ranking that you can. You're going to get three cards and the dealer is going to get three cards. The player is allowed to discard one or two of those cards if they want, or they cannot discard any of them. It just depends on what the player wants to do.
Once they have discarded their cards they're going to get replacement cards, and the player can either look at it or not, depending on whether if they want to. When the player is done the dealer's going to show their cards and then they have the option of discarding as well. If you have a 10 or higher you're going to discard those cards and you're going to get replacement cards. Now I have eight high. His five high beats my eight high. He's going to get paid one to one on the anti, and because he has a five high he's going to get paid three to one on the bonus. That's the end of the hand.
Michael: Well, thanks for those examples Heather.
Heather: Thank you.
Michael: Everybody that is Three Card Lowball Poker.
[00:05:07] [END OF AUDIO]