How To Play Let It Ride Poker
Let it Ride is one of the oldest Las Vegas table games. There are 43 Let It Ride tables across 31 Las Vegas casinos. All have either a $5 or $10 minimum bet.
Most Let it Ride tables are on the Strip or in downtown Las Vegas. A handful of tables are spread among some of the larger locals casinos.
- After looking at their first three (3) cards, the players may ask for their first bet back or they may Let It Ride. The dealer, after burning his or her bottom card, turns up one community card. The player may then ask for their second bet back or Let It Ride.
- “Pay-to-Play Game” means any of the games made available through OLG.ca from time to time that: (i) constitutes a “lottery scheme” for purposes of the Criminal Code (Canada), (ii) requires the Player to place a bet or make a wager as a condition to entering the game, and (iii) affords the Player a chance to win a Prize, but does not.
- Based on the classic game of Five Card Stud, Let It Ride lets you control two of three bets! 3 Card Poker Three Card Poker is two games in one, offering three ways to bet and four ways to win!
Read more about Let it Ride Poker in Las Vegas below.
Best Las Vegas Casinos for Let it Ride
How To Play Let-it-Ride. The player looks three cards dealt and decides whether to let a stack ride or pull it back. The player tucks cards under the bet if he or she has a winner already and would like to let all three bets ride. The dealer places a community card in the center and the player has.
There is no difference between the 43 Let it Ride tables in Las Vegas beyond the minimum bet, which is only $5 or $10.
Pick your favorite casino and it probably has it or it is offered by the one next door.
Players that can afford a $10 minimum bet may want to give the game a shot at elegant casinos like Wynn or Venetian.
Min Bet | # of Tables | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Queens | 5 | 100 | 1 |
| Aria | 10 | 500 | 1 |
| Bally’s | 5 | 500 | 2 |
| Binion’s | 5 | 100 | 1 |
| Caesars Palace | 10 | 500 | 1 |
| California | 5 | 50 | 1 |
| El Cortez | 5 | 50 | 1 |
| Excalibur | 10 | 200 | 1 |
| Flamingo | 5 | 300 | 3 |
| Fremont | 5 | 50 | 1 |
| Golden Gate | 5 | 200 | 1 |
| Golden Nugget | 5 | 500 | 2 |
| Harrah’s | 5 | 100 | 4 |
| Linq | 5 | 100 | 1 |
| Luxor | 10 | 100 | 1 |
| Main Street Station | 5 | 50 | 1 |
| MGM Grand | 10 | 500 | 1 |
| Mirage | 10 | 500 | 1 |
| NYNY | 10 | 50 | 1 |
| Orleans | 5 | 100 | 1 |
| Palazzo | 10 | 2000 | 2 |
| Paris | 5 | 500 | 2 |
| Park MGM | 5 | 200 | 1 |
| Planet Hollywood | 5 | 500 | 2 |
| Plaza | 5 | 25 | 1 |
| Rio | 10 | 50 | 2 |
| Sam’s Town | 5 | 25 | 1 |
| The D | 5 | 200 | 1 |
| Treasure Island | 10 | 300 | 1 |
| Venetian | 10 | 2000 | 1 |
| Wynn | 10 | 500 | 2 |
Let It Ride is a poker game that involves the player trying to make a pair of tens or better. There is no house hand. Players make three equal bets. There are usually at least two optional side bets, including a jackpot for making a royal flush.
The player looks three cards dealt and decides whether to let a stack ride or pull it back. The player tucks cards under the bet if he or she has a winner already and would like to let all three bets ride. The dealer places a community card in the center and the player has the same opportunity. A second community card is exposed.
If the player makes a pair of tens or better, the hand is paid based on its strength. Each stack receives this payout. If the player does not have a pair of tens or better, the house wins all bets.
The minimum bet for Let It Ride is $5 at most Las Vegas casinos. New York New York has a video version of it on a bank of old Gamemaker machines. One bank is near the front desk. There is another machine by the rear table game pit. The minimum bet is only a quarter on these machines.
Where to Play Other Las Vegas Table Games
We carry out an annual survey of table games in Las Vegas. This survey covers every single Vegas casino, and all the different games they offer.
Check the survey out if you’re looking for information on where to find the best games in Vegas.
Let It Ride is another casino table game based on poker, but it’s banked by the house. It’s not as popular as Caribbean Stud, but you can still find it at a lot of casinos – especially online.
Many people like Let It Ride because of the possibility of a big payday.
And unlike Caribbean Stud, we do have a good idea about the history of the game. Shuffle Master, the company that makes automatic deck shufflers for blackjack tables, developed the game to sell more shufflers. It first appeared in casinos in 1993, making it a virtual dinosaur compared to games like Ultimate Holdem, but Let It Ride is still a baby compared to a game like roulette.
Here’s how to play Let It Ride for the first time.
A Broad Overview of Let It Ride Poker
Unlike many casino poker games, Let It Ride doesn’t require you to beat a dealer hand. You’re also not competing with the other players at the table.
You’re just hoping to get a winning poker hand consisting of a pair of 10s or higher. You use 3 cards from your hand and 2 community cards. In that respect, Let It Ride resembles Texas Holdem, which is the poker game du jour.
The house edge is high compared to blackjack but low compared to Caribbean Stud – it’s 3.5%.
The best thing about Let It Ride is the casual lack of competition at the table. Also, the betting structure is fun, because you place 3 bets and have the opportunity to put some of those bets back in your hand over the course of the hand.
How to Play Let It Ride Poker for the First Time
Like Caribbean Stud poker, Let It Ride happens at a table similar to a blackjack table – it seats 7 people. It’s also run by a single dealer using a single deck of 52 cards. These cards get shuffled by the automatic shuffler provided by Shuffle Master.
In front of you on the table are 3 betting circles:
- $
- 2
- 1
The table also has a pay table posted so you’ll know how much you can win for each hand. You’ll usually see table minimum bets in the $5 or $10 range.
The game also features a $1 side bet.
Let It Ride LOOKS complicated, but it’s not.
Here’s how you play, in a nutshell:
- You start by putting a bet in each of the 3 circles in front of you. They all have to be the same size, too. If you put $10 in the $ betting area, you must put $10 in the 2 and the 1 areas, too.
- Once everyone has placed their bets, everyone at the table gets 3 cards, face-down. The dealer also gets 2 cards, face-down.
- You’ll use a combination of the 3 cards in your hand with the 2 dealer cards to form your final 5-card hand, and so will the other players at the table.
How the Action in Let It Ride Plays Out
Once you get your 3 cards, you get to look at them and decide how you feel about your prospects. If you like your hand, you can keep your bet in the betting area labeled 1. If you hate your hand, you can take that bet back.
If you like your hand and leave the bet out there, you’re “letting it ride.” That’s where the name of the game comes from.
Once everyone has made their decision, the dealer flips over a card. Now you get to decide whether you want to let bet 2 ride or pull it back.
It’s important to remember, strategy-wise, that your decision on bet 2 should be made independently of the decision you made on the first bet.
In other words, if you remove bet 1, you can still let bet 2 ride, and vice versa.
When this action is completed, the dealer exposes her 2nd face-down card. Your last bet, the one in the $ circle, must stay in action.
At this point, you get paid off if you have a qualifying poker hand, and you lose your bet if you don’t.
A Typical Let It Ride Paytable
Here’s what a common Let It Ride paytable looks like:
- Royal flush 1000 – 1
- Straight flush 200 – 1
- 4 of a kind 50 – 1
- Full house 11 – 1
- Flush 8 – 1
- Straight 5 – 1
- 3 of a kind 3 – 1
- 2 pair 2 – 1
- Pair of 10s or better – even money
If you qualify to get paid off, you get paid off on every bet you still have on the table. If you removed any bets from the circles, you lose those bets.
Here’s an example:
You bet $10 in each of the 3 spots, and you get a full house. You let all 3 bets ride, so you get paid $110 on all 3 bets.
The Side Bet
The side bet is a $1 wager which offers what looks like a really big payoff if you get a really rare hand. This bonus bet is handled completely separately from the other bets on the table.
The bonus paytable for the side bet varies from casino to casino. I’ve listed a common side bet paytable below, but before you get too excited, keep this in mind the house edge for this pay table is over 25%.
- Royal flush $20,000
- Straight flush $2000
- 4 of a kind $400
- Full house $200
- Flush $50
- Straight $25
- 3 of a kind $5
You don’t get any kind of payoff for any hand less than 3 of a kind.
How To Play Let It Ride..poker Game
Also, you’ll notice that the paytable is just listed in terms of dollar amount won rather than odds. That’s because the side bet is always the same — $1.
Appropriate Let It Ride Strategy and Odds
The house edge for Let It Ride is about 3.5% if you play optimally (and skip the side bet).
That’s better than American roulette or keno, but it’s not nearly as good as blackjack or craps (assuming you know which bets to place in craps).
That 3.5% edge applies to the amount of your single bet, not the total of all 3 bets. If you bet $5 on all 3 bets, the house edge means that you’re going to lose 17.5 cents per hand.
That’s $5 X 3.5%, NOT $15 X 3.5%.
Here, in brief, is some strategy advice that should get you close to that 3.5% house edge:
On your first bet, let your bet ride in the following situations:
- If you already have a winning hand (10s or better)
- If you have 3 consecutive cards to a straight flush (unless you have A23 or 234)
- If you have 3 cards to a straight flush with a gap, but only if you have a 10 or higher
- If you have 3 cards to a straight flush with 2 games, but only if you have 2 high cards
On your 2nd bet, you’ll let your bet ride in the following situations:
- If you have any 4 cards to a straight flush
- If you have any 4 cards to a flush
- If you have an outside straight draw (4 consecutive cards where you have 8 possible cards that will fill your hand, for example, 789T – any 6 or any jack will make your hand)
- 4 cards to an inside straight draw IF all the cards are 10 or higher
One of the interesting things about this game is that more than 3 hands out of 4 are going to be losers. You can easily go 20 hands in a row without seeing a winner.
Also, if you’re playing correctly, you’ll be pulling back bets over 85% of the time.
Conclusion
Let It Ride is fun if you have the right mindset. You’ll see a lot of losing hands in a row, but on the occasions when you get a monster from the get-go, you’ll win a lot of money.
This is an example of how volatility works in gambling. Some people enjoy volatile casino games, but it does require a different mindset.
If you’re used to betting black on roulette all the time, and you’re impatient, Let It Ride probably isn’t for you.
Learn To Play Let It Ride Poker
In fact, even most slot machines have a hit ratio that’s at least twice as high as you’ll see at Let It Ride.
But I still like the game, and I think you should give it a try.