How to play
Flop Hold’em is Texas hold’em played against the dealer, with one decision per hand.
- Place an Ante, and if you like an AA Bonus side bet. Keep twice the Ante in reserve for the Call.
- Press Deal. You and the dealer each get two cards (the dealer’s face down), and the flop, the first three community cards, is turned over.
- Decide:
- Call by adding twice your Ante. The turn and river are dealt and hands are compared.
- Fold and lose your Ante.
- Both hands use the best five of their seven cards. The dealer needs a pair of 4s or better to qualify.
| Result | Ante | Call |
|---|---|---|
| Dealer doesn’t qualify | paid by the Ante table | returned |
| You beat the dealer | paid by the Ante table | 1 to 1 |
| Dealer beats you | loses | loses |
| Tie | returned | returned |
Ante table. Royal flush 100 to 1, straight flush 20 to 1, four of a kind 10 to 1, full house 3 to 1, flush 2 to 1, straight or anything less 1 to 1.
AA Bonus
The AA Bonus looks only at your two cards and the flop, so it’s settled even if you fold. It wins with a pair of aces or better:
| Hand | Pays |
|---|---|
| Royal flush | 100 to 1 |
| Straight flush | 50 to 1 |
| Four of a kind | 40 to 1 |
| Full house | 30 to 1 |
| Flush | 20 to 1 |
| Straight, three of a kind, two pair or a pair of aces | 7 to 1 |
We counted all 2,598,960 five-card hands: the AA Bonus has a house edge of 6.26%.
Strategy
Folding costs your Ante; calling a hand that loses costs three times as much. The right move is to call whenever calling loses less than one Ante on average. Hint works that out for your hand by playing the turn, river and dealer’s cards thousands of times.
With the best play, published analyses put the house edge at 2.16% of the Ante, calling about 82% of the time. In our test of 400,000 hands following the hint, the game kept 2.5% of the Ante (with that many hands, give or take 0.8%) and called 81.5% of the time.
Tips
- Call most hands. Any pair, a flush or straight draw and many high-card hands are worth a call. Fold only the weakest.
- The dealer often doesn’t qualify. About one hand in four, your Call comes back and your Ante is paid, whatever your cards.
- The AA Bonus costs more than the main game, about 6.3% against 2.2%.
For a hold’em game with more decisions, try Hold’em Raise.
If you enjoy Flop Hold’em, try Flush Rush or Fortune Wheel Slot next.
