Atlassino Academy · Other tables · Lesson 10 of 10
Choosing among the other tables
Five tables, one example bet: what an hour costs at each, why these poker tables are played against the house, and what the room and the table tell you.
Two hours at the other tables, at an example $10 a round. Which table costs least for the hour, and how long does the money for an evening last?
The short answer
Pai Gow Poker, at about $9.50 an hour on average, give or take $0.08 for the margin of our simulation. Ultimate Texas Hold’em comes next at about $10.92, then the Big bet at Sic Bo at $12.50, Three Card Poker at $16.86, and Let It Ride, with $10 on each of its three bets, at $17.53. Each figure is the average price of one round times the rounds in an hour, and $10 is only an example bet: not a table minimum, and not a suggested bet.
The longer the bar, the dearer the hour. The grey bar is the pass line in craps, a game from another track, shown only for comparison: none of the five tables in this lesson comes close to it.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Each table in this lesson has its own rules and its own price. Before the first chip goes down, two questions are worth answering: what an hour at this table costs on average, and how many of those hours the money for the evening pays for.
These poker tables are played against the house
A poker room and the poker tables in this lesson are different games. At the community and stud games of a poker room the other players are the ones you play against, and the house charges a rake or a session fee to keep you in the game; at a novelty poker table the other side of every hand is the dealer or a pay table, and nobody at the table is playing against you. The price of Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em and Let It Ride is in their pays; Pai Gow Poker adds a commission on a bet that is paid (lesson 9.6).
Community and stud poker, in a poker room
- You play against the other players
- The house takes a rake or a session fee
- Bluffing is part of the game
Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Let It Ride
- You play against the dealer or a pay table
- The price is in the pays, not in a fee
- Pai Gow Poker plays against the bank, and the bank can go round to a player: lesson 9.6
Both kinds of poker are dealt in rooms you can walk into. Only the right-hand kind is in this track, and every price on this page is for that kind and for Sic Bo.
Each game here has a lesson of its own, where its rules and its decisions are worked through. Here they are in one line each.
- 9.1Three Card Poker: Ante and PlayPlay or fold after three cards; the dealer qualifies with a queen.
- 9.2Pair Plus and the 6 Card BonusTwo side bets: Pair Plus on your three cards, the 6 Card Bonus on yours and the dealer’s together; and the three pay tables of Pair Plus.
- 9.3Ultimate Texas Hold’em: how a hand goesAnte and Blind, three points to raise, and how the four bets are settled.
- 9.4Raise big, raise small or foldWhen each raise costs least, counted over every card still to come.
- 9.5Let It RideThree equal bets, two of which can come back.
- 9.6Pai Gow Poker: the deal and the priceTwo hands from seven cards, the joker, equal hands and the commission.
- 9.7Setting the seven cards yourselfHow the printed house way splits seven cards into two hands.
- 9.8Sic Bo: three diceEvery bet on the table and what each one costs.
- 9.9The money wheelSeven kinds of spot on the wheel, priced per hundred spins.
Every price on this page is for the main bets of each game, with the decisions made the way that game’s lesson prices them. Side bets add their own price to the hour; lessons 9.2 and 9.3 give the price of the side bets of Three Card Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’em.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
I dealt these tables for years. At a poker room the dealer runs the game and the players play each other. At these tables the dealer is the other side of every hand, and the pay table on the felt is the whole offer: read it before the first chip goes down.
What an hour costs at each table
An hour at a table is the price of one round, times the rounds the table deals in an hour. No Canadian document we could read prints how many rounds an hour any of these tables deals, so the rounds come from the Las Vegas Strip rating table. That table has no figure for Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em or Let It Ride; the figure for Caribbean Stud, another poker game played against the dealer, is used for all three.
The price of one hand, times the hands in an hour, makes the price of an hour.
The price of one hand is shown rounded to the cent; the hour is worked out from the unrounded price, which is why multiplying the rounded cents lands a little away from the hour.
| The table and the bet | Rounds an hour | Where the rounds come from | One hour, on average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pai Gow Poker, $10 a hand | 34 hands | Las Vegas Strip rating table | $9.50give or take $0.08 |
| Ultimate Texas Hold’em, $10 on the Ante and on the Blind | 50 hands | the same table’s figure for Caribbean Stud | $10.92 |
| Sic Bo, $10 on the Big bet | 45 rounds | Las Vegas Strip rating table | $12.50 |
| Three Card Poker, $10 on the Ante | 50 hands | the same table’s figure for Caribbean Stud | $16.86 |
| Let It Ride, $10 on each of the three bets | 50 hands | the same table’s figure for Caribbean Stud | $17.53 |
| For comparison: the pass line in craps, $10 a decision | 18 decisions on the line, from 60 rolls | the pace casino rating systems are set to | $2.55 |
Amounts are in Canadian dollars. The pass line in craps is priced at the pace casino rating systems are set to, decisions on the line rather than rolls of the dice.
The same prices as a share of every bet are the figures our engine starts from. No Canadian document we could read prints the price of any of these bets as a share; every share below is our own count.
- Pai Gow Poker2.80%give or take 0.02%, a simulation
- Ultimate Texas Hold’em2.185%an exact count
- Sic Bo, the Big bet2.78%an exact count
- Three Card Poker3.373%an exact count
- Let It Ride3.506%an exact count
- The pass line in craps1.414%for comparison only
Every figure here is an exact count except Pai Gow Poker, which is a simulation of 10,000,000 hands with a fixed seed: the same seed gives the same figure to the last digit, and the margin beside it is the simulation’s.
The Sic Bo figure is the Big bet under the rule printed for the live table in Quebec, where a triple takes the Big bet; lesson 9.8 shows every other bet on that table. An electronic Sic Bo terminal pays what its screen displays, and gets no price here.
What the room and the table tell you
Which of these tables a room deals changes from one casino to the next. Where each game is dealt in Canada is on our poker table games, Pai Gow and Sic Bo pages, built from each room’s own words.
Read at the table
- The minimum and the maximum bet
- The maximum payout
- The pay table for every bet on the felt
- Any rule that table changes
Worked out on this page
- The average price of an hour, for one set of pay tables
- How many hours the money for an evening covers on average
A table whose pay table differs from the ones priced here has a different price. The lesson for each game shows what one changed line of the pay table does to it.
The table carries the figures that matter on the night: two casinos in Ontario say their minimums, maximums and maximum payouts are posted at the table, the rules for B.C. casinos require the Three Card Poker pay tables to be posted at each table, and one more casino puts its game rules and pay tables on the table signage.
- A page for casinos in Ontario$20minimum for novelty poker tables, under one room’s heading
- A casino in Quebec$10minimum bet for the whole casino, not for one table
- Any of these tablesno maximum printedin any document we could read
Minimums are printed by the casinos themselves, and only a few of the casino pages we read print one at all. A minimum also moves: one operator’s page for its casinos in Ontario says it sets table minimums by the day’s business and demand. No document we could read prints the maximum bet at any of these tables.
The $10 on this page is an example bet for working out a price. At a table with a higher minimum, every price on this page grows in step with the bet.
How long the money for an evening lasts
Take $120 as the money for an evening. Divided by the price of an hour at the example bet, it gives the hours that money covers on average.
This is a division, not a forecast. One evening comes out far from its average in either direction, and lesson 10.1 is about how far.
Only one bet in this lesson lets our engine count how one hour can actually go, round by round: the Big bet at Sic Bo, which is paid even money or lost on every roll. Here is an hour of 45 rounds of it.
- Hours of the Big bet that end ahead43%of 45 rounds each
- Hours of the Big bet that end behind57%of 45 rounds each
Ending one hour ahead does not change the price: the next hour of the Big bet costs the same $12.50 on average. For the poker tables and Pai Gow Poker our engine does not give the full spread of one round, and this page does not guess at it.
Money and time at the other tables
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Choose the table by its price, and then let the money you set aside at home decide how long you stay, not the other way round. Set a time as well as an amount: these tables charge their price on every round, and the rounds keep coming for as long as you sit.
A side circle is optional on every hand, and none of them makes the hour cheaper. Raising your bets to get back what an hour took only makes every round dearer, at the same share of each bet; lesson 10.3, Chasing losses, is about exactly that. If the money on the table starts to feel like money you need, the lines below are there for that too.
If it stops being fun
If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. 19+ in most of Canada; 18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. More on responsible gaming.
Practice: an evening at the other tables
Each screen is one room from our register of casinos, with the live tables of these games that room lists. You have two hours for the tables, and you choose how to spend them: one table for both hours, one hour at each of two tables, or one hour and then home. After each choice you see what each plan costs on average at the example $10 a round, and how many hours $120 for the evening covers at that average.
Nothing is scored here. There is no right plan: every choice is allowed, and the point is to see the prices of rooms you could walk into side by side. The money is an example, and nothing is bet.
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The practice table needs JavaScript. Here is one room from it, with the answer.
One room from our register
Fallsview Casino Resort · Niagara Falls
Live tables of these games the room lists
- Pai Gow Poker$9.50an hour, on average
- Ultimate Texas Hold’em$10.92an hour, on average
- Three Card Poker$19.13an hour, on average
- Let It Ride$28.28an hour, $10 on each of the three bets
- Sic Boelectronicnot priced here
$10 a round, an example bet. Pai Gow Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold’em are priced by the rules for B.C. casinos, which a table in this room may not follow; Three Card Poker and Let It Ride at the pay tables printed for this room.
Two hours for the tables in this room, at an example $10 a round. How do you spend them?
- Both hours at Pai Gow Poker Two hours cost about $19.00 on average at the example bet: $9.50 an hour, twice. At that average, $120 for the evening covers about 12.6 hours of the same play.
- Both hours at Ultimate Texas Hold’em Two hours cost about $21.84 on average at the example bet: $10.92 an hour, twice. At that average, $120 for the evening covers about 11.0 hours of the same play.
- Both hours at Three Card Poker Two hours cost about $38.26 on average at the example bet: $19.13 an hour, twice. At that average, $120 for the evening covers about 6.3 hours of the same play.
- Both hours at Let It Ride Two hours cost about $56.56 on average at the example bet: $28.28 an hour, twice. At that average, $120 for the evening covers about 4.2 hours of the same play.
- One hour at Pai Gow Poker, one hour at Ultimate Texas Hold’em Two hours cost about $20.42 on average at the example bet: $9.50 for the hour at Pai Gow Poker and $10.92 for the hour at Ultimate Texas Hold’em. At that average, $120 for the evening covers about 11.8 hours of the same play.
- One hour at Pai Gow Poker, one hour at Three Card Poker Two hours cost about $28.63 on average at the example bet: $9.50 for the hour at Pai Gow Poker and $19.13 for the hour at Three Card Poker. At that average, $120 for the evening covers about 8.4 hours of the same play.
- One hour at Pai Gow Poker, one hour at Let It Ride Two hours cost about $37.78 on average at the example bet: $9.50 for the hour at Pai Gow Poker and $28.28 for the hour at Let It Ride. At that average, $120 for the evening covers about 6.4 hours of the same play.
- One hour at Pai Gow Poker, then stop for the evening One hour at Pai Gow Poker costs about $9.50 on average, and the second hour costs nothing: an evening can end before the time set aside for it.
Both hours at Pai Gow Poker make the cheapest two hours this room allows, at about $19.00 on average; both hours at Let It Ride make the dearest, at about $56.56. The room also lists Sic Bo at electronic tables; an electronic table pays what its screen displays, and gets no price here. One evening can land far from these averages in either direction, and the averages say nothing about how any one evening will go.
Every room in the practice run is worked out the same way: the price of an hour at each live table, the two hours of each plan added together, and the money for the evening divided by the average hour of that plan.
How the practice run works
Where the rooms come from. The rooms are those our casino pages list, and the tables are the ones each room lists in its own words: a live table of Pai Gow Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Three Card Poker, Let It Ride or Sic Bo, or an electronic table of one of them. Rooms with the same set of tables appear once. An electronic table is shown by name and gets no price, because an electronic table pays what its screen displays.
What each figure is. The price of an hour at each live table is the price of one round times the rounds in an hour. Each screen says which pay table each price uses: the pay table printed for that room, or its province’s, where a document we read has one, and otherwise the rules named under the method below, which a table in that room may not follow. A plan adds its two hours together, and the money for the evening divided by the plan’s average hour gives the hours that money covers on average.
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Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Three quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
Back to the question we opened with. Pai Gow Poker, at about $9.50 an hour at the example bet, and $120 for the evening covers about 12.6 hours of it on average, give or take a great deal on any one evening.
Where to go next, and further reading
19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page
Further reading
- Three Card Poker · OLG PlaySmartThe game against the dealer and against a pay table, and the one rule of thumb for when to play a hand.
- How to play poker · OLG PlaySmartHow poker against other players differs from novelty poker played against the house.
- Game rules · Loto-QuébecQuébec’s page of game rules, with a link to the rules of each game and a reminder that the games on offer differ from one casino to the next.
How it’s worked out
Prices, pace, rooms, sources and hosts
Where this happens. Every price on this page is for a live table in a room you can walk into, with a dealer running the game. Electronic tables appear only in the practice run, by name, as each room lists them, and get no price there.
Prices. Every price is worked out when the page is built by our engine for this track. Three Card Poker is priced at the Ante Bonus table in the rules for B.C. casinos, with play or fold decided by an exact count over every hand; Ultimate Texas Hold’em at the Blind table in those rules, played the way our exact count over every card still to come says costs least; Let It Ride at the pay table in those rules, each bet that can come back left in only when, on average over every card still to come, it pays more than it loses, and priced in the size of one of its three equal bets. Pai Gow Poker is priced with both hands set by the published house strategy for B.C., with an ace, two, three, four and five as the lowest straight, the dealer as the bank and the commission those rules charge on a bet that is paid; that one price is a simulation of 10,000,000 hands with a fixed seed, shown with its margin. Sic Bo is the Big bet, an exact count over the 216 ways three dice can fall, under the rule printed for the live table in Quebec that a triple takes the bet. The pass line in craps is an exact count, shown for comparison only. In the practice run, Three Card Poker and Let It Ride at a room whose own pay table, or whose province’s, is in a document we read are priced at that table instead, and each screen says which table each price uses. Every price is shown to the cent and worked out from unrounded values; in the practice run, the two hours of a plan are the two prices shown, added together.
Pace. No Canadian document we could read prints how many rounds an hour any of these tables deals. The figures are the ones our Price of an hour tool uses and names: the Las Vegas Strip rating table for Pai Gow Poker, Sic Bo and the poker tables, where the figure for Caribbean Stud stands in for the three poker games the table has no row for, and the pace casino rating systems are set to for craps. They carry no source button on this page. Your table may be faster or slower, and the hour costs whatever the rounds you actually play cost.
Rooms. The rooms and their tables in the practice run come from our register of casinos, as each room lists them, and not from the documents behind the rest of this page.
What is deliberately absent. The rules and the decisions of each game are lessons 9.1 to 9.9: Three Card Poker in 9.1, its side bets in 9.2, how a hand of Ultimate Texas Hold’em goes and its Trips bet in 9.3, when to raise in 9.4, Let It Ride in 9.5, Pai Gow Poker in 9.6 and setting its hands in 9.7, every bet at Sic Bo in 9.8, and the money wheel in 9.9, priced per hundred spins because no document we could read gives its spins an hour. How far one evening strays from its average is lesson 10.1, betting systems lesson 10.2, and chasing losses lesson 10.3. There is no maximum bet on this page, no ranking of rooms, and no spread of an evening for any bet but the Big bet at Sic Bo.
Sources. Every rule and every claim on this page carries a button with the sentence it rests on, the publisher who wrote that sentence and the date we read it.
Hosts. Maya and Leo are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former floor supervisor and a former dealer, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.
No promise. Every table on this page is played against the house. Knowing what an hour costs lets you choose a table and plan an evening; nothing on this page makes any table cheaper, and nothing here says how an evening at any of them would end.
Against the house, not other players
If you enjoy the idea of bluffing and playing against other players, try your hand at Community and Stud poker games.
Pay the rake or session fee. This is a commission paid to the House that allows a player to remain in the game.
If you’d rather play against the house and aren’t too keen on bluffing, you might want to try your hand at one of these Novelty poker games:
Rather than compete with the other players at the table, Novelty poker games pit you against the dealer or a pay table. Some of the rules and pay tables may vary slightly by casino, but each game has its own unique spin on the poker classics.
Games differ from casino to casino
The range of games on offer may vary from one casino to the other.
Limits and pay tables at the table
Minimums and maximums, and maximum payouts are posted at the table.
Fallsview Casino Resort and Casino Niagara · Playing Poker — Three Card Poker · read
The payout schedules shall be posted at each table.
Section 6.0 Three Card Poker with Six Card Bonus Side Bet, 5.1 to 5.12
Game rules and pay tables are available on the table signage.
Club Regent Casino · Gaming · read
Minimums printed by casinos
$20 for Novelty Pokers
Great Canadian Entertainment · Elements Casinos Ontario · read
Minimum bet at the casino $10
Minimums change with demand
Table minimums are based on business needs and game demand for that day.
Great Canadian Entertainment · Elements Casinos Ontario · read
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