Let It Ride Overview
Let It Ride is a casino poker variation which has a lot of fans at live casinos and is also available to play online. The attraction of this game is the potential for a big payout, and relatively simple game play. Unlike other casino poker variations, instead of adding an extra bet for the hands you want to play – you start with 3 bets and get to take up to 2 of these back. There are also some side bets commonly associated with this game, though these tend to have a huge edge in favor of the house and so should be avoided.
This page tells you how to play Let It Ride by walking through a hand from start to finish. This is based on a real casino, online the play will be the same – except you’ll be clicking buttons rather than physically moving chips.
How to Play Let It Ride
This game uses an automatic shuffling machine which groups cards into 3. Before any cards are dealt, each player places 3 bets on the table into 3 separate squares. These are marked 1, 2 and $. Each player and the dealer get 3 cards, then the dealer discards one card (unseen) and the automated shuffling machine counts out the remaining cards to make sure that they are all there.
There are two betting rounds in this game – or rather possible bet removing rounds.
First of all, players look at their cards and decide whether to leave ‘bet number 1’ on the table (known as ‘Let it Ride’) or remove it. This decision is easy, if you have a pair of 10’s or better, or 3 cards to a Royal Flush, then you leave the bet – otherwise you remove it.
Once all the players have make their initial decision, the dealer will flip up the first of her cards. This is a community card, and is combined with the hands of all of the players to make a poker hand.
Another betting round then begins. This is for the 2nd bet, again players can decide to take back this bet or to ‘Let it Ride’ and leave the bet in place. Again the correct strategy here is to play if you have a pair of 10’s or better, though this time there are some more complex situations to do with straights and flushes where you would also leave your bet in place.
- 10-10 or better
- Four Cards of the Same Suit
- 4 Four Consecutive Cards (without a 2)
- Four Picture Cards
If your hand does not match any of these criteria, then you simply take back your second bet too – and at this point you’ll have the 3rd and final bet waiting for the outcome of the hand against the dealer.
Next the dealer turns up the last card. This completes everyone’s poker hand. At this point a hand with a pair of 10’s or better wins, and anything below that loses the 3rd and final bet. Your payout will depend on the strength of your poker hand and the particular pay-table being used by your casino. Here is a typical example of a Let It Ride pay table.
- Pair of 10’s+: Pays 1-to-1
- Two Pairs: Pays 2-to-1
- Three of a Kind: Pays 3-to-1
- Straight: Pays 5-to-1
- Flush: Pays 8-to-1
- Full House: Pays 11-to-1
- Four of a Kind: Pays 50-to-1
- Straight Flush: Pays 200-to-1
- Royal Flush: Pays 1000-to-1
Remember that these payouts will be for the remaining betting units you have on the table. For example if you start with a pair of 10’s or better, and go on to make Four of a Kind, then you’ll have 3 bets live, and your payout would be 50-to-1 on all 3 units.
Let It Ride – Side Bets
There are two different side-bets which you will find alongside the main game, one is based on the final 5-card poker hand, and the other on the players 3 card poker hand. Both can be found for a fixed stake of $1 – or sometimes for the table unit you are playing at the time.
As with the majority of casino side-bets, these are not smart bets in terms of the house edge. You will be giving up a huge 15%+ in edge to the house (compared to just 3.5% for the main game). If you think this is worthwhile to enjoy the game then here are the potential payouts.
5-Card Bonus (based on the completed hand at the end of each game)
- Two Pairs: Pays 6-to-1
- Three of a Kind: Pays 9-to-1
- Straight: Pays 25-to-1
- Flush: Pays 50-to-1
- Full House: Pays 75-to-1
- Four of a Kind: Pays 100-to-1
- Straight Flush: Pays 2000-to-1
- Royal Flush: Pays 20000-to-1
3-Card Bonus (based on your own 3 cards only)
- Pair: Pays 1-to-1
- Flush: Pays 3-to-1
- Straight: Pays 6-to-1
- Three of a Kind: Pays 30-to-1
- Straight Flush: Pays 40-to-1
- Royal Flush: Pays 50-to-1