Three Card Rummy is a Perfect Game for Mobile Casino Gamers

In this article, we’ll go over the finer points of another of the less well-known games we offer here at Springbok mobile casino. Of course, we also offer three card rummy at our flagship desktop casino but most players these days prefer playing on their top of the line mobile devices.

Three card rummy, for those of you who have never tried it, is a perfect game for an online casino player. Land-based casino players generally gravitate to either the bank of slots games or to the famous big three table games: craps, roulette, and blackjack. When you play online, especially at Springbok mobile, your gaming purpose is often for some quick entertainment. Three card rummy is perfect entertainment for the on the go young urban professional!

How the Gamer is Played

Three card rummy has some similarities with three card poker but it is actually a very different game. A lot of mobile players who discover both of these fun three card games go back and forth between them since they are each unique in their own way and both are wildly entertaining.

The players receive three cards face up and the dealer gets three cards face down. The idea is to get fewer points than the dealer.

After you see your cards, you can make an additional bet as in three card poker. This bet is equal to the ante bet. Also as in three card poker, the dealer has to qualify. The dealer qualifies by getting twenty or fewer points.

You add up your points and compare your hand with the dealer’s hand.

Scoring

Here is where three card rummy gets really fun. Aces are always one point only! Face cards are all worth ten points. All the other point cards are their face value

A pair or three of a kind count as zero points! A run of two or more suited cards also count as zero points! Even though picture cards are all worth ten points, a pair is two of the same picture card or two tens.

As you can see, there are many ways for cards to go from having a high value to having no value at all. In three card rummy, having cards that have no value at all is very good!

Raise or Fold

If your hand is too high, you will fold it. If it is low enough to be worth a raise, you’ll raise. Always keep in mind that the dealer counts points exactly as you do.

The house’s advantage always comes from the player needing to play first. In some cases, you’ll fold with a high hand and in the end, the dealer had even more points but you went first so you’ll lose that hand.

Dealer Doesn’t Qualify

This is a fairly common occurrence in three card rummy as the high cards are all worth ten points. If the dealer doesn’t qualify, you win your ante bet at a 1-1 rate and the raise bet is a push.

The Dealer Qualifies

In this common situation, you win both bets if you have fewer points than the dealer. In that case, you win the ante bet on a 1-1 basis and the raise bet according to a special pay table that applies only to this game.

If you win with 6 or more points, the pay rate is 1-1.
If you win with 1 to 5 points, the pay rate is 2-1.
If you win with 0 points, the pay rate is 4-1.

If there is a tie in points between a player and the house, it’s a push.

Bonus Bets

When you place your ante bet, you also have the option of placing a bonus bet. The payouts for winning the bonus bet are pretty high so they add a large potential payout to the players. Many players just play the game straight. This is because the house edge in the straight ante and raise game is about 1.95% whilst the house edge for the bonus bet is about 3,5%.

A lot of players like making a bonus bet when they are ahead but don’t make a bonus bet when they are behind. The reason the bonus bet is considered a reasonable bet is because it values hands with 12 or fewer points and because of the way pairs, threes of a kind, and runs are scored, 12 or fewer points are pretty common.

Here are the payouts for the bonus bet:

Suited Ace-2-3 pays 100-1.
0 points pay 25-1.
1-6 points pay 2-1.
7-10 points pay 1-1.
11 and 12 points pay 4-1.
13 points and above loses the bonus bet.

Keep in mind that the bonus bet is like a side bet; you can lose the bonus bet with 13 or more points and still win both your ante and your raise bet.

Strategy

This is the easy part and it’s the reason that so many players enjoy three card rummy. You need to be alert at all times that you might have a pair or a two card run. When that happens, your point total will be a lot less than if you simply added up the cards on the table.

Other than being alert, you always fold if you have more than 20 points and you always raise if you have less than 20 points! That’s because the dealer will often have more than 20 points and you’ll win the ante bet even though the raise bet will be a push.

You should not fold with a high point count because it will mean giving up your ante bet without a fight. And this is a “fight” that you can win!

Welcome to the World of Three Card Rummy

If you like card games, fast moving games, games with the potential for sizable wins without the pressure of complex betting strategy, and just the fun of getting three aces and realizing that it’s a great hand because it’s so low—actually zero points!—then three card rummy may be the game you’ve been looking for all along!