How to play
Russian Poker is five-card stud against the dealer, with one twist: you can improve your hand once. A single deck is shuffled before every hand.
- Place an Ante and press Deal. You get five cards face up. The dealer gets five cards, one of them face up.
- Choose one of:
- Raise: add a bet of twice your Ante.
- Fold: give up the Ante.
- Exchange: pay one more Ante, tap the cards you want to swap and get new ones from the deck.
- Sixth card: pay one more Ante and get a sixth card. Your best five of the six count.
- After an exchange or a sixth card, decide again: Raise or Fold. You can improve only once.
- The dealer’s cards are turned over. The dealer needs Ace-King or better to qualify.
Who wins
| Result | Ante | Raise |
|---|---|---|
| Dealer doesn’t qualify (no improvement) | pays 1:1 | returned |
| Dealer doesn’t qualify (you improved) | returned | returned |
| Dealer qualifies, your hand is higher | pays 1:1 | pays by the table |
| Dealer qualifies, dealer’s hand is higher | lost | lost |
| Exactly the same hand | returned | returned |
The improvement fee is never returned.
Raise pay table (paid when the dealer qualifies and you win):
| Your hand | Raise pays |
|---|---|
| Royal flush | 100:1 |
| Straight flush | 50:1 |
| Four of a kind | 20:1 |
| Full house | 7:1 |
| Flush | 5:1 |
| Straight | 4:1 |
| Three of a kind | 3:1 |
| Two pair | 2:1 |
| Pair or less | 1:1 |
When you deal, you need credits left for three more Antes: one for an improvement and two for the Raise.
Strategy
Turn on Strategy hint to see this strategy at the table:
- Raise with a pair or better. Don’t exchange around a pair.
- With four cards to a flush, or four in a row that can be completed at either end, exchange the odd card.
- With Ace-King and nothing else, raise if one of your cards matches the dealer’s face-up card, or if the dealer shows a Queen or lower and you hold a Queen or Jack. Otherwise fold.
- Fold everything else. Paying to exchange a weak hand, or to buy a sixth card, costs more than it brings back.
- After an exchange, raise with a pair or better, or with an Ace-King that fits the rule above.
The odds
There are too many exchange choices to work out the exact best play, so the strategy above was measured over millions of simulated hands. With it, the house edge is about 2.8% of the Ante. That’s about 1.3% of all the money you bet, because many hands also put up an improvement fee or a Raise. Every variation we tried did worse, including exchanging weak hands, buying sixth cards and exchanging small pairs.
If you enjoy Russian Poker, try Safari Ways or Safe Cracker next.
