Key facts
- You ante, get two cards, see a three card flop, then fold or call a bet of exactly twice the ante. The dealer qualifies with a pair of fours or better.
- With perfect strategy the house edge is 2.16% of the ante in our exact calculation, or 0.82% of all money bet, on the ante table approved for Casino Canberra.
- Perfect play calls 82% of the time. Folding is right mainly when you have no pair, no draw and low cards.
- Calling every hand raises the edge to 7.90% of the ante, so the fold option is worth almost 6% of your ante.
- The Super Aces Bonus side bet has a 6.26% house edge in our calculation.
Casino holdem in short
Casino holdem is Texas hold'em against the dealer instead of other players. There is no betting war: you make one decision, after the flop, to call or fold. Its rules in the ACT are set by the Casino Control (Canberra Casino Hold-em Poker) Approval, and on that ante table the game costs 2.16% of your ante with perfect play, in our exact calculation. That is cheaper than most table poker games, provided you call often.
How a hand of casino holdem works
- Ante. Bet the ante. You may also bet the optional Super Aces Bonus.
- Hole cards. You and the dealer each get two cards face down. One 52-card deck is used.
- Flop. The dealer turns three community cards face up.
- Decide. Fold (you lose the ante and any Super Aces bet) or call, by placing a bet of exactly twice the ante.
- River. The dealer adds the last two community cards and reveals two hole cards.
- Qualify. The dealer needs a pair of fours or better. If not, the antes win.
- Showdown. If the dealer qualifies, the better five card hand from two hole cards and five community cards wins. You win both bets or lose both; equal hands are void.
The ante paytable
When your ante wins, it is paid according to your final hand. The call bet always pays even money.
| Your final hand | Ante pays (up to the table maximum) |
|---|---|
| Royal flush | 100 to 1 |
| Straight flush | 20 to 1 |
| Four of a kind | 10 to 1 |
| Full house | 3 to 1 |
| Flush | 2 to 1 |
| Straight or lower | 1 to 1 |
The dealer qualifies on about 75.8% of random seven card deals, so roughly one in four times your ante is paid without a showdown.
Casino holdem strategy: call more than you think
The decision is simple maths. Folding costs exactly 1 unit (your ante). Calling puts 3 units at risk but also brings in the ante bonuses, the dealer's failures to qualify and every hand you win. So you should call whenever the average result of calling is better than minus 1.
We ran real flops through a calculator that deals every possible turn, river and dealer hand:
| Your cards | Flop | Average result of calling | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| J♣ 4♦ | J♠ 9♥ 2♣ (top pair) | plus 0.96 | Call |
| 9♥ 6♥ | K♥ 8♥ 2♣ (flush draw) | plus 0.51 | Call |
| A♥ J♦ | K♣ 7♠ 2♥ (ace high) | minus 0.18 | Call |
| 6♦ 5♣ | 8♥ 7♠ 2♣ (straight draw) | minus 0.32 | Call |
| 4♠ 4♦ | K♣ J♥ 8♠ (small pair) | minus 0.52 | Call |
| Q♣ 8♦ | K♠ 6♥ 3♣ (queen high) | minus 0.62 | Call |
| K♣ 2♦ | Q♥ 8♠ 4♣ (king high, no draw) | minus 0.83 | Call, narrowly |
| 7♥ 2♣ | Q♦ 9♠ 4♥ (nothing) | minus 1.53 | Fold |
| 2♣ 3♦ | K♥ 8♠ 5♣ (nothing) | minus 1.69 | Fold |
Look at the king high hand: it loses 0.83 units on average if you call, and that still beats folding. Calling hands that are probably behind is right because the dealer misses the qualifier about a quarter of the time and your ante can win on its own.
What it is worth. Across all 25,989,600 combinations of your two cards and the flop, perfect play calls 82.0% of the time:
| Strategy | House edge on the ante |
|---|---|
| Perfect call or fold decisions | 2.16% |
| Call every hand | 7.90% |
So folding the right 18% of hands saves almost 6% of your ante. Because you call so often, your average total stake is 2.64 times the ante, and the 2.16% edge equals 0.82% of everything you bet. At a $10 ante that is about 22 cents per hand.
Pundit tip: folding is the exception, correct on only 18% of flops in our calculation. Every hand in the table above that held a pair, a draw or a card higher than the flop was a call, and so was Q-8 on a K-6-3 flop with none of those.
The Super Aces Bonus
The ACT rules include an optional Super Aces Bonus. It is judged on your two hole cards plus the flop only, so you know the result before the turn, and it is lost if you fold.
| Five card hand (hole cards plus flop) | Pays | Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 100 to 1 | 0.0002% |
| Straight flush | 50 to 1 | 0.0014% |
| Four of a kind | 40 to 1 | 0.024% |
| Full house | 30 to 1 | 0.144% |
| Flush | 20 to 1 | 0.197% |
| Straight | 7 to 1 | 0.392% |
| Three of a kind | 7 to 1 | 2.113% |
| Two pair | 7 to 1 | 4.754% |
| Pair of aces | 7 to 1 | 3.251% |
The bet wins 10.9% of the time and, in our calculation, has a house edge of 6.26%: about three times the cost of the main game.
How casino holdem compares
Of the dealer-qualify games we have calculated, casino holdem with perfect strategy is the cheapest per hand. Ultimate texas holdem is close at 2.19% of the ante but asks for three decisions, while three card poker costs 3.37% on Queensland's table. For the full rules of the player-versus-player game it is based on, see texas holdem rules, and for the order of hands, our poker hand rankings.
Casino holdem in Australia
Casino holdem is a land-based table game here, with rules approved by the territory or state regulator; the ACT's version has been in force since 1 August 2007. Over the internet it is another matter: casino-style games cannot legally be offered to people in Australia, and while you commit no offence by playing on an offshore site, you also have no local regulator to turn to. See online poker Australia for the details. A 2% edge still adds up, so set your limit first; help is on our gambling help australia page.
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Frequently asked questions
How do you play casino holdem?
Place an ante, receive two hole cards, then the dealer shows three community cards. Fold and lose the ante, or call with a bet of twice the ante. Two more community cards follow, the dealer reveals two cards, and the best five card hands are compared.
What is the best casino holdem strategy?
Call unless your hand is weak with no draw. In our calculation you should call about 82% of the time, including with king high and no draw (for example K-2 on a Q-8-4 flop), and fold hands like 2-3 or 7-2 that missed the flop entirely.
What is the house edge on casino holdem?
With perfect strategy and the ACT ante table (royal 100 to 1, straight flush 20, four of a kind 10, full house 3, flush 2, others 1), we calculate 2.16% of the ante, which is 0.82% of the total amount bet.
What happens if the dealer does not qualify in casino holdem?
The dealer needs a pair of fours or better. If the dealer misses, the ACT rules say the antes win and are paid on the ante table. The call bet is not listed as a winner in that case; our calculation treats it as returned.
Is casino holdem available online in Australia?
No licensed Australian site can offer it. Casino holdem is an online casino game for the purposes of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, which prohibits offering those games to people in Australia.
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