How to Play Let It Ride Poker

What You’ll Learn

• Understanding the Basics: Learn about the fundamental rules of Let It Ride poker, including the objective of the game and how it differs from traditional poker variations.
• Gameplay Mechanics: Discover how to place your bets, the significance of the community cards, and the strategic decisions players can make during the game.
• Strategies for Success: Find out about winning strategies and tips that can help improve your winning chances along with minimizing risk.
• Winning Hands and Payouts: Familiarize yourself with the Let It Ride poker hand rank and have adequate knowledge on the payout scheme against differing winning hands.
• Learning about Side Bets: Explore the definition of side bets in Let It Ride poker, their potential benefit and drawback, and how they can impact your overall gaming experience.

Expansion of legal casino in the United States starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s brought new players and a need for new forms of play.

One of the first games to fill the void was Let It Ride. Based on five-card stud poker, it's easy to learn and play. Anyone familiar with the sequence of poker hands can play sight unseen. You can read about it on our guide on DatabaseBasketball.com.

Developed by John Breeding, creator of Shuffle Master, Let It Ride debuted as a promotional campaign for the firm's automated shufflers.

What is Let It Ride Poker?

Easy games such as Let It Ride were just what the doctor ordered in the '90s when millions of first-time gamblers flooded casinos in states beyond Nevada and New Jersey.

Let It Ride is easier and more uncomplicated than traditional favorites such as craps, with tips easier to understand than America's beloved casino card game, blackjack.

In contrast, however, Let It Ride offers a chance for big payoffs on rare hands. It's unique in that although you do have to make three bets initially, you can cash two of them along the way as a hand progresses. Your outlay is minimal.

The compromise is the house edge is larger compared to conventional games blackjack, craps and baccarat. Poker-style table games followed suit with reduced house edge, like Three Card Poker. The house edge for Let It Ride is 3.5% of a solitary bet or 2.8% of average total bet on optimum strategy. At Three Card Poker, edges are 3.4% of your ante or 2.0% of total action.

How Do You Play Let It Ride Poker?

Let It Ride is generally played with a single 52-card deck. Shufflers are utilized automatically by live casinos. A single deck is shuffled and a second deck is in use most of the time, so there is always a fresh, shuffled deck ready to go. That eliminates shuffling down time.

In internet casinos where virtual cards are shuffled electronically by a random number generator, time of shuffling is no issue. Cards are present to be dealt at every moment, and online games therefore move faster with increased hands per hour than live games.

There are three places to bet for every one of the positions on the table in the main game. To play, you must place three bets of equal size. If you have established that your bet size is $5, then you place a $5 bet in one of the three spaces.

When you place bets, you get three face-down cards and two face-down cards distributed in the middle of the table.

Does Let It Ride Have a Dealer?

All cards dealt are to you. There is no dealer hand. Payments are made according to a pay table based on the strength of your hand. You do not need to defeat the dealer or anyone else.

The three that are dealt to you constitute the start of a five-card poker hand. The two in the middle of the table are for everyone at the table.

They’re known as “common” cards, as in all players hold them in common. You’ll mainly be sharing those common cards with others at live game. Online, you’ll usually be on your own with no other players.

Are Side Bets Worth it in Let It Ride Poker?

Let It Ride often comes with side bets, but house edges are very high, so these are not recommended.

A five-card bonus bet is available in several pay tables, with a top payout of $20,000 for a $1 bet when you do have a royal flush. Depending on the pay table, house edges range from too big at 13.8% to an Everest-high 36.5%.

A three-card bet is settled in your original three cards with a top payout of 50-1 on a mini-royal (suited Ace-King-Queen).

Payoffs decrease to even money on a pair. The 7.1% house edge is less than the five-card bonus, but you still gain a higher return on the base game.