How to Play Let It Ride Poker

How to Play Let It Ride Poker: What You’ll Learn

• Understanding the Basics: Learn about the fundamental rules of Let It Ride poker, including the objective of the game and how it differs from traditional poker variations.

• Gameplay Mechanics: Discover how to place your bets, the significance of the community cards, and the strategic decisions players can make during the game.

• Strategies for Success: Gain insight into effective strategies and tips that can help improve your chances of winning while minimizing risk.

• Winning Hands and Payouts: Familiarize yourself with the ranking of hands in Let It Ride poker and understand the payout structure associated with different winning combinations.

• Understanding Side Bets: Explore the concept of side bets in Let It Ride poker, including their potential benefits and risks, and how they can impact your overall gaming experience.

Expansion of legal casino in the United States starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s brought new players and a need for new ways to play.

One of the first games to fill the need was Let It Ride. Based on five-card stud poker, it’s an easy game to learn and play. Anyone who understands the rank of poker hands can play almost at first sight.

Invented by John Breeding, founder of Shuffle Master, Let It Ride was introduced as a selling point for the company’s automatic shufflers.

The game had a strong run of popularity in the 1990s but now has a diminished space in live casino. It’s easier to find in online casinos, where physical space doesn’t limit the variety of game that can be offered.

What is Let It Ride Poker?

Easy games such as Let It Ride were just what the doctor ordered in the ’90s  when millions of new players flocked to casinos in states beyond Nevada and New Jersey.

Let It Ride is easier and more intuitive than old-time favorites including craps, with strategies easier to learn than America’s most popular casino table game, blackjack.

On the plus side, Let It Ride offers a chance at big payoffs on rare hands. It’s unique in that although you must make three bets at the start, you can pull two of them back as a hand progresses. Your minimum investment is small.

The tradeoff is that the house edge is higher than in old-guard games blackjack, craps and baccarat. New poker-based table games followed with lower house edge, including Three Card Poker. Let It Ride’s house edge is 3.5% of one bet or 2.8% of average total bet when using optimal strategy. At Three Card Poker, edges are 3.4% of your ante or 2.0% of total action.

That edge gap is part of the reason Three Card Poker supplanted Let It Ride in live casino. Another is that the two opportunities to pull back bets make Let It Ride a slower game. There are more hands per hour in Three Card Poker, meaning the house make more money despite the lower edge.

Online casinos have more leeway to offer extra games. If enough players like a game, it can have a place online without crowding out a faster game.

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How do You Play Let It Ride Poker?

Let It Ride typically is played with a single 52-card deck. Live casinos usually use automatic shufflers. Most commonly, one deck is shuffled while another is in play, so there’s a freshly shuffled deck at the ready. That eliminates down time for shuffling.

In online casinos that use virtual card electronically shuffled by a random number generator, shuffling time is not an issue. Cards are always ready to be dealt, so online games move faster with more hands per hour than live games.

Each player position at the table has three betting spots for the main game. To begin play, you must make three bets of equal size. If you’ve decided your betting unit is $5, than you place a $5 bet on each of the three spots.

After bets are made, you’re dealt three cards face down and two cards are dealt face down in the middle of the table.

Does Let It Ride Have a Dealer?

All cards are for players. No dealer hand is dealt. Payoffs are made according to a pay table based on the strength of your hand. You do not need to beat the dealer or other players.

The three dealt to you are the start of a five-card poker hand. The two in the center of the table are for all players at the table.

They’re known as “common” cards, as in all players hold them in common. You’ll mainly be sharing those common cards with others at live game. Online, you’ll usually be on your own with no other players.

If the common cards are a pair of 8s, for example, every player’s hand will include a pair of 8s along with the three cards each player holds individually.

After all cards are dealt, you may look at your three cards. You then have an option. You can either signal the dealer in a live poker game or click online to pull back the first bet, or you may leave it in action and let it ride.

The first common card is then turned face up. This time, you can either pull back your second bet or let it ride.

There is no pulling back the third bet. That must stay in action. After the final common card is turned face up, the dealer pays off all hands according to the following pay table:

If your five card hand has no pairs or better, or if your best hand is a pair of 9s or less, you lose any bets you’ve left in action.

But when you win, you win on all bets you’ve let ride.

If you have a pair of 10s in your first three cards and leave three $5 bets in action, you win $5 on each bet even if the other cards don’t improve the hand.

That leaves a dual goal in strategy: Minimize your risk by pulling back bets when you’re least likely to win, but maximize profits by letting bets ride when you have a guaranteed winner or when you have the best chance at a big-paying hand.

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What are Strategies for Let It Ride Poker?

Optimal poker strategy can be broken down into two parts: Should you pull back a bet or let it ride after seeing your three cards, and should you pull back a bet or let it ride after seeing the first common card.

After seeing your first three cards, you should let it ride if you hold any of these combinations:

• Any paying hand, such as a pair of 10s or better or three of a kind. That guarantees a payoff on all three bets.

• Any three consecutive cards of the same suit if they rank 3-4-5 or higher. You’re not guaranteed to win on those hands, but they give you opportunities for flushes, straights or even straight flushes that pay big when they come through.

• Three cards of the same suit with one gap provided they include at least one 10 or higher. You won’t hit as many straights or straight flushes with 7-8-10 as with 7-8-9, but the 10 leaves the possibility of a paying pair along with the chances at straights, flushes or straight flushes.
  
  If the cards are of different suits, pull the bet back. You need the flush possibility to make leaving the bet up a worthwhile risk.

• Three cards of the same suit with two gaps provided they include at least two cards of 10 or higher. A hand such as 7-9-Jack has gaps you’d need to fill with an 8 and a 10 to make a straight, and only one 10 or higher, so the best play is to pull back the bet.
  
  With 8-10-Queen, there are gaps at 9 and Jack that limit chances of a straight or straight flush, but you have two chances at pairing high cards. Again, if the cards are of different suits, pull the bet back.

After  you have seen the first common card, the strategy changes. Let the second bet ride with any of these combinations:

• Any paying hand, including pairs of 10s or better, two pairs, three of a kind or four of a kind.

• Four cards of the same suit, leaving you one card from a flush.

• Four parts of a straight that is open on both ends. Such a hand is 6-7-8-9, where you could complete a straight with either a 5 or 10.

• Four parts of an inside straight that includes four high cards. An inside straight, such as 6-7-8-10, can be completed only with a 9. You have half as many chances to finish an inside straight as an open-ended straight . Pull the bet back on most four-card inside straights, but let it ride with four high cards such as 10-Jack-Queen-Ace, 10-Jack-King-Ace or 10-Queen-King-Ace.

After you’ve had your two chances to pull back bets, the third bet must stay in action. The second common card is turned up, your hand is completed and the dealer pays off any winners and collects losing wagers still in action.

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What is the House Edge in Let It Ride Poker?

You can look at the house edge in a couple of ways. Since can pull back bets and put only one bet per hand at risk, you can look at the edge as 3.5% of one bet when you use the strategy above.

However, following the strategy will lead you to leave in action an average of 1.23 bets per hand. Taking that into account, the house edge against total action is 2.8%. That figure is sometimes referred to as the element of risk.

Those edges are a little higher than the 3.4% of an ante or 2.01% of total action in Three Card Poker. Let It Ride’s attractions are in the ability to limit risk by pulling back bets and in the opportunity at big payoffs when the big-paying hands come.

Are Side Bets Worth it in Let It Ride Poker?

Let It Ride often comes with side bets, but house edges are very high, so these are not recommended.

A five-card bonus bet comes in several pay tables, usually with a top payout of $20,000 for a $1 bet when you have a royal flush. Depending on pay table, house edges range from a too-high 13.8% to an Everest-sized 36.5%.

A three-card bet is decided in your first three cards with a top payout of 50-1 on a mini-royal (suited Ace-King-Queen).

Payoffs range down to even money on a pair. The 7.1% house edge is more manageable than the five-card bonus, but you still get a better deal on the main game.

If you’re going to play Let It Ride, stick with the main event and leave the sideshows alone.

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