3 Card Poker Progressive Jackpot

A special feature of the Pair Plus bet at some casinos is a Mini-Royal bonus with a payoff as high as 50-1 on a suited Ace-King-Queen. Not many casinos have adopted this extra payoff, but some are now offering an additional side-bet for a Mini-Royal jackpot.

The new 3 Card Poker Progressive Jackpot is an optional $1 wager made by the player on a light-up button prior to the dealing of each hand. The dealer will verify that all bets are in place, press the game’s “play” button, and each player with a progressive wager has a chance to win a bonus if their three card hand is three-of-a-kind or a straight flush.

The highest pay-outs are for a Mini-Royal in clubs, diamonds, or hearts, and the jackpot is triggered if the player receives a Mini-Royal in Spades.

3 Card Poker Progressive Jackpot Payoffs

 

Every player at the table who is playing the progressive feature is included in an Envy Bonus payoff of $25 for any Mini Royal and $100 for a Mini Royal in Spades. As with other bonus and jackpot bets, your $1 will not win very often. In fact, since it only pays on Three-of-a-kind and higher, you can expect to be paid on just 0.4525 percent of your wagers – you will only get a payoff on your own Progressive wager every 221 hands.

Of the 22,100 hands that can be made with three cards out of a Standard English Deck of 52 cards, 48 are straight flushes and 52 are three-of-a-kind. That is a total of only 100 payoffs in 22,100 hands.

The House Edge

As for the house edge, if the jackpot meter starts at $5,000 then the house has an advantage of about 70 per cent. For every $1,000 on the meter above $5,000 the player gains 4.5 per cent. If the jackpot meter is over $10,000 then the wager is almost even. At $11,500 or above and the player has the advantage.

Just keep in mind that the Mini-Royal in Spades only hits once in 22,100 hands on average. For those of you who play video poker, that’s about twice as often as a Royal Flush.

To understand the math correctly, because of the Envy Bonus each player on the table who is also playing the jackpot bonus helps you by about 0.79 per cent with two additional players making the Progressive bet. Any jackpot over $11,000 is an overlay.

Fortune Pai Gow Progressive

Several variations of Pai Gow Poker are now offered with a progressive jackpot. The most popular game, Fortune Pai Gow, offers 100 per cent of the jackpot meter amount for a 7-card straight flush, with or without the joker. Since Pai Gow is played with 7 cards, and uses a joker, some variations only offer the full jackpot for a natural 7-card straight flush, with no joker used.

Like Progressive 3 Card Poker, to play for the Progressive meter jackpot the player wagers a single dollar and is rewarded for hands of a full-house or higher:

Fortune Pai Gow Progressive Payoff Table

 

With seven cards and a joker, there are 154,143,080 possible hands that can be made. Some 4,708,092 of those hands are winners (about 3 per cent). So, expect to make a lot of bets without seeing too many payoffs.

The big jackpot has a 0.001476 per cent chance of hitting when you bet, with odds against of 676,096 to 1. The house edge with a jackpot meter of $100,000 is about 32 per cent. When the jackpot meter reaches $200,000 then the house edge is only about 9.5 per cent. For the player to get an overlay, the meter must be over $243,000.

Caribbean Stud Poker Progressive

When Caribbean Stud Poker was first introduced in casinos, many players compared it to video poker. While the house edge is comparable, at about 5.23 per cent, the game is stud and no cards are drawn. It’s simply the players 5 cards against the dealer’s 5 cards.

The attraction for most players is the huge payoff for high hands like a straight flush or a royal flush. To be paid on those high hands, players must make an optional $1 progressive meter wager. The payoffs for the progressive wager vary, but here is an example:

Caribbean Stud Progressive Payoff Table

 

With a five-card stud hand, there are 2,598,960 possible outcomes. Of those hands, 4 are royal flushes, so a royal flush will hit once in every 649,740 hands. For you video poker players, that’s about 15 times harder to hit than on your favourite machines.

The house edge varies according to the progressive meter. Most casinos take a portion of each $1 wager, returning about 70 per cent to the meter. However, the average house edge is closer to 25 per cent. When the progressive meter is over $200,000 then the wager is much more attractive to the player. When the jackpot is over $250,000 it is an overlay for the player.