Having such a large range of different games offered at any online casinos that you choose to play at will see you coming across many different games that you may have never played before. Whilst you will probably know how to play games such as online slots and online video poker games, there are often a unique collection of games at various casinos that you may never have come across before or played before.
With this in mind and as part of our ongoing series of casino game articles and casino game playing guides, we are going to introduce to you into his guide several different ways to play casino poker games.
These types of casino card games are played in a heads up type of playing format and structure and as such you will not be playing these games against other players, it will be just you and the dealer going head to head in the hope that you manage to achieve the highest valued hand ranking.
Understanding the Ante Bet
If you are new to playing casino poker card games, then there will be several aspects of these types of games that may take some getting used to! One of them is in regards to the Ante Bet that many poker card games require players to place before the game can be played through to its conclusion.
An Ante Bet is basically a starting bet, and once you have placed this wager you will be dealt out your initial hand, and then will be required to make one of two different decisions, you can choose to fold your hand and by doing so you will lose the Ante Bet you placed to set the game in motion, or you will be required to place a Call Bet.
The Call Bet will then see the Dealers hand being revealed to you on the vast majority of casino poker card games, and the hands will be compared, and the strongest hand will be the winner.
Depending on what hand value you have, and often whether the Dealers hand has qualified (see below), then you will receive an even money winning payout on the Ante bet and will also be paid out on your Call Bet as per the pay table attached to the game you are playing.
Games That Require the Dealer to Qualify
You will find that when you are playing some casino poker card games, for you to be able to win a range of additional winning payouts, instead of just the standard even money payout if your hand beats the dealers hand, that the Dealer has to qualify.
This means that the Dealers hand will have to be of a certain rank or higher for you to gain access to the bonus and enhanced winning payouts attached to the variant on which the Dealer has to Qualify.
The hand ranking the Dealers has to achieve as a minimum is always printed on the casino poker game table, if for example you are playing 3 Card Poker games you will often find the Dealer has to get a hand containing at least a Queen or a higher ranked hand before his hand Qualifies, however some other poker card games require the Dealer to be dealt out a King and any Ace before his hand Qualifies.
This rule can often cause confusion to first time players, for whilst they may get dealt out a very strong poker hand, if the Dealers hand does not qualify then the most that those players stand to win is an even money winning payout on their Ante bet as the Call bet is returned to them as a push.
3 Card Poker Card Games
It is worth us mentioning that there are in fact many different variants of 3 Card Poker you will find readily available at most if not all online casino sites. This game is in fact two different games in one, and if you do decide to play it you are always given the option of playing the standard Ante game or the Pairs Plus game or you can play them both together via one single hand that is dealt out to you.
The house edge on both of the betting propositions does of course vary, and it is also very important that you understand the actual payouts you will be awarded on both games offered on 3 Card Poker games will vary depending on which software gaming platform the casino site you are playing at online has available!
If you play at for example a Real Time Gaming software powered online casinos, the operator of that site is able to adjust the pay table on their 3 Card Poker games, and as such the payouts can and will vary depending at just which RTG casino site you have chosen to play at, so be prepared to stop playing at one and move over to playing at a different one if you find the payouts attached to the game you are playing have been set too low!
Conclusion
The best tips we can pass on to you if you are considering playing any type of casino poker games, is for you to take a long hard look at the rules of the games, before you select just which ones to play, and also take a note of the house edge attached to the base game and any bonus bets you may be offered when playing them.
For you will find the house edge can and very often will vary greatly on each betting proposition, and if you are not careful you may end up playing a game with a large house edge, and that will result in you losing much quicker than you ever would when playing a game with a much lower house edge!
