The first thing you should understand before logging into any casino is that any game that you play will be in favor of the house. Tri-card poker is no exception. When you play the game you will lose money over the long run.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to go down without a fight. Below I’ve shared 10 tips that will help you put, or keep, more money into your pocket while playing tri-card poker online.
1. Make Sure the Bonus Applies to Poker Games
The first thing I suggest doing is reading the terms and conditions of whichever casino you decide to play at. The reason being is that each casino has rules on what games can be played to clear your bonus and/or how much. For example, many casinos don’t allow blackjack, but some will only count 40% of your wagers towards the completion of your bonus. This means that you’ll have to play over twice as much to complete your bonus.
The same applies to poker games. Some casinos don’t specify which poker games apply, or if any of them apply. So you’ll want to either find a casino that accepts poker games for your bonus, or clarify with the casino before signing up that tri-card poker is ok. If you don’t, you might lose your bonus money, as well as any winnings.
2. Find Best Paying Odds
Another (simple) way to keep some money in your pocket is to shop around for the best odds, or the best payouts, whichever way you want to look at it. The tables with the best house odds will mean higher payouts for you. An ideal casino to play at is one that will pay you 5:1 for a straight flush, 4:1 for a three of a kind and 1:1 for a straight. If you choose to play the pairs plus bet you’ll want to find the best odds here too.
3. Avoid Betting Systems
To make this simple – betting systems don’t work. Well, that’s not entirely true. A betting system that does work is not to make a bet in the first place, so long as the house edge is in favor of the casino. The only real exception to this would be blackjack, and that’s assuming you’re any good at it.
There are betting systems that prolong your bankroll. So those might be worth trying. But there isn’t a system that will help you make money. If there was, no one would be giving that information away free online, or in a book for $9.95.
4. Have Stop Losses in Mind
A stop loss is a great way to make sure you leave the casino with money, or at the very least with your name still on the deed to your house.
A stop loss is a predetermined amount that you decide you will win or lose before quitting. For example, you might say that once you lose $100 you’ll quit, or that once you win $500 you’ll quit. These are stop losses. This is a much better approach than just winging it, as you’ll lose as little as possible, and may even walk out the casino a winner.
5. Don’t Chase Losses
This should be easy to understand. You’re destined to lose once you start spending money in a casino. If you’re expected to lose, and you do, what do you think to stand to gain by chasing and trying to make back those losses? While it’s possible that you’ll win your money back or hit a huge jackpot, what’s more likely to happen is you digging yourself into a bigger hole.
6. Share a Piece With a Friend
This is something that you won’t find anyone else recommend, at least until they read what I wrote and copy it, hahaha. But this tip came to mind as I used to be a poker player. When you share action with a friend, what you do is share any winnings that you might have with each other.
For example, say that you agree with a friend to share 50% of your action. If your friend makes $50, and you make nothing, he will give you $25.
The idea behind this is to try to minimize the losses you take and keep your variance down. If you guys choose to split your winnings once every few hours or maybe once per day, you could both prolong your bankroll.
7. Play at an Online Casino with a VIP Program
Another way to reduce your losses is to take advantage of the casino’s VIP program. VIP programs usually reward players with different prizes for playing. The more you play, the more prizes, and the bigger the prizes, you can earn. Prizes can include cash back, free games, trips or other odds and ends of value.
Keep in mind that each casino approaches their VIP program differently – some will definitely be better than others. So assuming everything else about the casinos you’re looking at is ok, it might be worth your time to shop and compare how much you have to spend, and what you stand to get, out of each casino’s VIP program.
8. Find an Online Casino with Generous Bonuses
Obviously the bigger the bonus the more money you stand to gain/keep. In other words, if you have an option between a $100 bonus and a $1,000 bonus, I would think there is something wrong with you if you decide to go with the $100 bonus. That said, I should make it clear that I would not start my casino shopping process by comparing bonuses. Other aspects including being able to play tri-card poker for your bonus and the VIP program is slightly more important to me.
9. Find the Smallest Play Through Requirements
In addition to the size of the bonus, you should also make sure that you find one that has the smallest play through requirements. Meaning, find a casino that offers a 10 or 20x play through, instead of a casino with a bonus that requires something like a 40 or 50x play through. The smaller the play through, the less money you need to risk (and likely lose) in order to clear your bonus. That means you actually stand a chance of profiting from the bonus (at least more so than a bonus with a 50x play through).
10. Have a Good Time Playing
At the end of the day the only thing that matters when it comes to playing tri-card poker is that you have fun doing it. Otherwise, what’s the point? Be sure to find the casino with the best games, stakes, software and anything else that you care about to make sure that you have the best time possible.