There are differences in the payouts with both casinos. Borgata pays out 100-1 for a mini royal flush on the pair plus bet as opposed to 50-1 at Harrah’s. A mini-royal in 3 card poker is Ace-King-Queen of the same suit. In the past this didn’t matter much to me, but this trip was different…
If I sit down at a table that isn’t full I’ll often play two hands at the table minimum in order to keep cards away from the dealer. I’m not sure that this makes any mathematic sense, but it’s treated me well in the past. My strategy is different than others. I don’t just play any Queen I get. When I look at my cards, I’ll usually only play Queen – Ten.
On this trip I played a lot of hands blind. On one of those blind hands I got a mini-royal flush! I was surprised and stoked! Too bad I was only playing the table minimum at the time and too bad I wasn’t playing at Borgata. It was 50-1 on a $10 bet as opposed to 100-1 on the same $10 bet.
I’m never one to take a winning hand for granted and this was no different. Hooray!
This happened on my second session of the trip and was a the first of many great hands in 3 card poker. I got a couple of straight flushes (40-1), one three of a kind (30-1) and plenty of straights and flushes. Between the Borgata and Harrah’s I probably only had three losing sessions all weekend.
I was on a great streak at the 3 card poker tables and my favorite session was one where I walked away even. On Saturday night at Borgata I sat down at a packed table and proceeded to blow through my allotment for the session playing just one hand. After sitting out a couple hands I got back to the action and changed position as the dealer knocked most everyone out.
I went to third base and decided to play two hands while buying back in. Up and down the Grey Goose and Soda’s went as did my chips until I hit a straight flush and came all the way back and then some! After playing blind for about an hour the table went on a cold streak. I decided to call it a day when I got back down to even.
The moral of that story is that sometimes breaking even can be a major win! Overall, I ended up a bit in my 3 card poker play. This was good, but the real excitement came from a game that isn’t often too exciting. Up next…video poker..