At a Let It Ride table, the rhythm is simple; place 3 equal bets, look at your three cards, then decide whether each wager stays or comes back.
Those cards join two shared cards to form a five-card poker hand, and any bets you leave out get scored against the printed paytable—learning how to play Let It Ride begins with this simple sequence.
How to Play Let It Ride
You are playing against a paytable, not a dealer hand. You place three equal wagers in the marked circles, receive three cards, and combine them with two community cards to form a five-card poker hand.
After viewing your cards, you may lift the first wager or Let It Ride. Once the first community card is revealed, the same decision applies to the second wager. Whatever stays on the felt when the second community card appears is paid according to the posted odds.
A standard Let It Ride paytable returns about 96.5% with basic strategy. That implies a house edge of about 3.5% on the full three-unit starting stake and an element of risk near 2.85%, according to calculations by mathematician Michael Shackleford.
Online versions often post a slightly lower edge, near 2.9%, when they increase payouts on full houses and several mid-tier hands, as noted in updated digital pay schedules.
Step-by-Step: Let It Ride Rules and How Bets Work
Let It Ride is a fixed-odds poker game where a single stake is split into three equal wagers that can be reduced at two decision points. The structure gives you limited control over risk without turning the game into pure strategy play.
- You place three equal bets in the labeled spots, often marked 1, 2, and $. Casinos set their own limits, and minimum bets often sit in the 5–25 USD range.
- The dealer gives you three face-down cards and sets two community cards face down. You check your hand, then either remove the first bet or Let It Ride.
- The dealer reveals the first community card. You now decide whether to remove the second bet or keep it in play.
- When the second community card is turned, any bets still on the felt are locked. Your final five-card poker hand is then ranked against the paytable, usually starting at a pair of tens or better and rising through straights, flushes, and higher-made hands.
This bet flow repeats each round, and shufflers or RNG dealing keep game speed consistent.
Let It Ride Payouts
Let It Ride rules and payouts focus on fixed odds for standard poker hands, from a pair of tens up to a royal flush. You are always comparing your final five-card hand against a posted schedule, and small tweaks in that schedule change how often strong hands matter.
Side Bets, Progressives, and Let It Ride Gambling Risk
Extra wagers sit in a separate betting circle, ride through the hand regardless of your main decisions, and use their own pay schedules.
Three-card bonus bets that pay on just your initial three cards often use separate odds and ranking, similar to Pair Plus in three-card poker. These wagers use a stand-alone payout ladder and do not follow the main Let It Ride schedule.
Because each side bet stands alone, a player staking 5 USD on the main game and 1 USD on a high-edge bonus can push their average cost per hand far above the 3–3.5% house edge range associated with the core wagers.
Some land-based and live casinos can also run a linked progressive jackpot tied to royal flush or straight flush outcomes.
Comparison of Common Let It Ride Paytables
Variant / Format | Minimum winning hand | Royal flush payout (per unit) | Straight flush payout | Full house payout | House edge note* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Let It Ride (base game) | Pair of 10s or better | 1 000 to 1 | 200 to 1 | 11 to 1 | Roughly 3.5% on the full three-unit starting stake |
| Three Card Bonus wager | Pair | 50 to 1 | 40 to 1 | n/a (three-card hand) | Around 7% |
| Five Card Bonus wager | Three of a kind | 20 000 to 1 | 2 000 to 1 | 200 to 1 | Around 24%. |
| Six Card Bonus wager (SG “Version 2”) | Three of a kind | 1 000 to 1 | 200 to 1 | 20 to 1 | Around 19% |
| Progressive Let It Ride | Three of a kind | 100% of the jackpot meter | 10% of the jackpot meter | 50 for 1 | Effective edge shifts with the meter level and is steep at reset amounts |
* House edge figures are approximate and assume the specific paytables shown above. Individual casinos can file different Let It Ride side-bet paytables, so the actual edge at a given table may differ slightly. Information is derived from official Let It Ride rules published by the Government of Pennsylvania in May 2024.
Basic Let It Ride Strategy: When to Pull Back Your Bets
How to play Let It Ride poker well starts with a small set of clear rules for keeping or pulling wagers. You cannot remove bets after the second community card appears, so the two decision points before that moment matter most.
- Three-card decision (before the first community card): Leave the first bet out only with any winning hand already made, such as a pair of tens or better, or strong three-card draws to a straight flush.
- Four-card decision (after the first community card): Keep the second bet in if you hold any paying hand, four cards to a straight flush, or four cards to an outside straight that includes at least one high card such as a ten or above.
Pull back bets on weak, unconnected holdings with no realistic draw to tens or better. Marginal three-card combinations that miss both straight and flush potential tend to lose often enough that extra chips in play do not help.
Bankroll, Table Limits, and Game Pace in Let It Ride
Let It Ride plays best when table minimums and bet sizes line up with a defined session bankroll. Each round starts with three equal units, and every decision to let wagers ride leaves more of those units exposed.
Many US tables post minimums in the 5–15 USD band for each betting circle, so a “5 USD game” usually means 15 USD at the start of every hand when all three bets are out. A practical benchmark is to keep one full three-unit spread in the 1–2% range of the total session bankroll. With a 1,000 USD roll, that guideline points to roughly 3–7 USD per circle, or 9–21 USD in total when all three units ride.
Structuring bets this way keeps the expected cost from the roughly 3.5% house edge in line with the budget and lowers the chance that a short losing patch wipes out the session.
Common Rules Misunderstandings in Let It Ride Card Game Rules
Clearing up those points early keeps the focus on decisions instead of disputes:
- You are playing against a fixed paytable, not against a dealer hand. There is no “beating the dealer”; the only question is whether your hand ranks high enough for a listed payout.
- The two community cards belong to every player in the round. Your three personal cards combine with those two shared cards to create the five-card hand that matters.
- Only bets that stayed on the felt at both decision points take part in the final payout. Any unit you pulled back earlier in the hand sits out when the dealer reads the board.
- A pair below tens, such as nines or eights, usually does not qualify as a winning hand under standard layouts, even though it would count as a pair in regular poker.
- Side bets follow their own rules and pay ladders. A losing main hand can still trigger a side-bet payout when your three cards or five-card hand match that separate schedule.
Online, Live, and Let It Ride Tournaments in the USA
Online poker rooms that hold licenses in US states such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan often list Let It Ride in their digital table lobbies, either as an RNG game or in live-dealer format.
Live-dealer studios stream Let It Ride with real shoes, real dealers, and on-screen buttons for pulling or keeping bets.
Some operators also run short-term tournaments or leaderboard races that award extra prizes based on net chips won.
Doing Well At The Let It Ride Table
Sessions at this game tend to suit players who enjoy watching a board unfold and making a couple of decisions per hand rather than juggling constant action. The paytable does not shift mid-shoe, so once you know which hands pay what, the experience turns into a steady rhythm of placing bets, checking cards, and choosing how much risk stays on the felt.
Treat that rhythm as paid entertainment within a fixed budget, not as a way to chase losses or recover past sessions.
If play starts to affect your mood, finances, or relationships, reach out to 1-800-GAMBLER for confidential help in the United States.
