How to play
Four Card Bonus is poker against the dealer where every hand is made of four cards: you and the dealer both get five cards and play the best four.
- Bet the Ante. An equal Super Bonus bet goes down with it automatically. You can add the optional Queens Up side bet.
- You get five cards face up; the dealer’s five stay face down.
- Fold, losing the Ante and Super Bonus, or Play:
- a Play bet equal to your Ante, with any hand;
- up to three times your Ante if you hold a pair of aces or better.
- The dealer’s cards are turned over. The dealer needs King high or better to qualify.
To deal, you need credits left for a Play of three times your Ante.
Who wins
| Result | Ante | Play | Super Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| You win, dealer qualifies | pays 1:1 | pays 1:1 | pays by the table (straight or better), otherwise returned |
| You win, dealer doesn’t qualify | returned | pays 1:1 | pays by the table, otherwise returned |
| Tie | returned | returned | pays by the table, otherwise returned |
| Dealer wins | lost (returned if the dealer doesn’t qualify) | lost | lost |
Super Bonus (when you win or tie):
| Your best four | Pays |
|---|---|
| Four aces | 200:1 |
| Four of a kind | 30:1 |
| Straight flush | 15:1 |
| Three of a kind | 2:1 |
| Flush | 2:1 |
| Straight | 1:1 |
Queens Up side bet (pays on your own cards, even if you fold):
| Your best four | Pays |
|---|---|
| Four of a kind | 50:1 |
| Straight flush | 50:1 |
| Three of a kind | 8:1 |
| Flush | 4:1 |
| Straight | 3:1 |
| Two pair | 2:1 |
| Pair of queens or better | 1:1 |
Four-card hand ranks. With four cards, three of a kind is harder to make than a flush, and a flush is harder than a straight, so the order is: four of a kind, straight flush, three of a kind, flush, straight, two pair, pair, high card. A-2-3-4 is the lowest straight, J-Q-K-A the highest.
Strategy
Turn on Strategy hint to see this strategy at the table:
- With a pair of aces or better, play three times your Ante.
- With anything from King-Queen-8-4 up to a pair of kings, play once your Ante.
- Fold anything lower.
Folding gives up two bets (the Ante and the Super Bonus), which is why even fairly weak hands like King-Queen high are worth playing.
The odds
- Queens Up is worked out exactly over all 2,598,960 five-card hands: it returns 96.28%.
- The main game depends on the dealer’s cards as well as your own, so it was measured over millions of simulated hands. With the strategy above, the house edge is about 2.6% of the Ante.
If you enjoy Four Card Bonus, try Four Card Showdown or Four Jackpots next.
