Four Card Poker is a recent addition to casino games. It was invented by Roger Snow. Its structure is similar to that of three card poker, except that each player receives five cards from which the best four-card hand is assembled. Ante-and Play is the same as in three card poker. Pairplus is a little different. It may have different names according to the name a casino may have tried to trademark. In general, the casino pays for anything equal to or higher than a pair of aces. In the proprietary form of the game, this is called “Aces-Up.”

Five cards are dealt face down to all players. The dealer receives a sixth card, face up. Then the players decide whether to convert their antes into play bets by adding anywhere from one to three times the amount of the ante to the play area. Folding forfeits the ante. Aces-Up wagers can also be folded. The dealer does not have a minimum hand to play, as in three-card poker. The dealer selects the best four cards from the six dealt and confirms the outcome of each contested hand, moving clockwise. Ante-and-Play wagers are paid at even money. Ties go to the player.

The Aces-Up wager will be paid (or not) in accordance with a payout schedule that rises with the value of the hand.

Ante-and-Play wagers will also receive a bonus if the hand contains three of a kind or better, regardless of the dealer’s hand, in accordance with the payout schedule posted by the table.

The order of hands in four card poker is different from the usual rank order of poker. Three of a kind beats a flush and four of a kind beats a straight flush. Aces are high, except when in a low straight. The following is a sample pay table for Aces-Up.

An illustrative schedule for paying the Ante Bonus is 25:1 for four of a kind, 20:1 for a straight flush, and 2:1 for three of a kind.

The only player decisions are whether to play and how much to add to the ante when “Play” is chosen. It is said that the house has an edge of about -3.4% of the bet when a player makes maximal decisions. Those decisions are: fold with a pair of twos or less. Bet one times the ante with a pair of threes though a pair of nines. Bet three times the ante if the hand is any stronger than that.