Casino Hold'em

Casino Hold'em is a house-banked poker game played against the dealer rather than other players. Each side gets two hole cards, three community cards are dealt, and the player then chooses: fold and lose the ante, or call for exactly twice the ante and see the last two community cards. There is no raising beyond that single decision. The rule that shapes the game is the dealer's qualifying hand: a pair of fours or better. If the dealer does not qualify, the ante pays on its own paytable and the call bet is returned, so a weak dealer hand cannot take your call. If the dealer qualifies and you win, the ante pays on the paytable and the call pays even money. The ante paytable is where the value sits and it rewards the hand, not the win: a common schedule pays 100 to 1 for a royal flush, 20 to 1 for a straight flush, 10 to 1 for four of a kind, 3 to 1 for a full house, 2 to 1 for a flush and 1 to 1 for a straight or anything below it. Worked example: ante 10, call 20, and you win with a flush. The ante pays 2 to 1 for 20 and the call pays even money for 20, returning 70 in total on 30 staked. The house edge is about 2.16 percent of the ante — closer to 0.8 percent measured against total money wagered — before any AA side bet, which is priced considerably higher.