Hold’em vs. Dealer › Questions
Should you play the trips bet in Hold’em vs. Dealer?
Only where it pays 9 to 1 on a full house and 7 to 1 on a flush (50-40-30-9-7-4-3): there it costs less than 1% of the bet. On the other common paytables it costs about 2% to over 6%, so skip it.
Trips pays on 15.3% of hands. Its house edge runs from 0.90% on the 50-40-30-9-7-4-3 paytable to 6.18% on 50-40-20-7-6-5-3.
Trips on each paytable
| Paytable (royal to trips) | House edge |
|---|---|
| 50-40-30-9-7-4-3 | 0.90% |
| 50-40-30-8-6-5-3 | 1.90% |
| 50-40-30-8-7-4-3 | 3.50% |
| 50-40-20-7-6-5-3 | 6.18% |
Why
Trips pays on your final hand alone, three of a kind or better, whatever the dealer holds. It pays a little more than one hand in seven, and the payouts on full houses and flushes carry most of its value, so a one-unit cut on either changes the price a lot. Since the bet doesn’t depend on your decisions, the paytable is the whole story: read it before you bet.
How often each paying hand comes up
| Your final hand | Chance | 50-40-30-9-7-4-3 |
|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 0.003% | 50:1 |
| Straight flush | 0.028% | 40:1 |
| Four of a kind | 0.168% | 30:1 |
| Full house | 2.596% | 9:1 |
| Flush | 3.025% | 7:1 |
| Straight | 4.619% | 4:1 |
| Three of a kind | 4.830% | 3:1 |
Your best five cards out of seven, from an exact count of all 133,784,560 seven-card hands.