How to play – Casino Hold'em rules
Just like its Texas cousin, the main objective of Casino Hold'em is to create the best possible five-card hand. For this, you can use a combination of two private cards and five community cards. The game is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. Casino Hold'em rules are fairly easy to learn. But you need to know the hand rankings. So, let’s have a look at this first:
The rankings
- Royal Flush – Five cards in a sequence starting with an ace in the same suit
- Straight Flush – Five cards in a sequence, all in the same suit
- Four of a Kind – four cards of the same rank
- Full House – Three of a kind with a pair
- Flush – Any five cards of the same suit, but not in a sequence
- Straight – Five cards in a sequence, but not of the same suit
- Three of a Kind – Three cards of the same rank
- Two Pair – Two different pairs
- Pair – Two cards of the same rank
- High Card – When none of the above applies, the highest card counts
First, place chips on the “ante” space of the table. This bet is required to play and receive your cards. Once the ante has been paid, two cards will be dealt to each player and the dealer.
Your cards will be visible but you won’t be able to see those of the dealer. Then three community cards are placed on the table. If you are unhappy with your cards, you can fold and withdraw from the round. However, you will forfeit your ante when doing so.
To play, you must raise your wager to double the initial ante. If you decide to raise, two more community cards are revealed. Now is the time to combine the best possible hand with the help of the five cards community cards and your two hole cards. But don't panic, the system will calculate all of this automatically and highlight the best possible hand.
Your hand is then compared to the dealer's hand. If the dealer’s hand value is higher than yours, you lose your bet. If your hand is better than the dealer’s, you win.
Payouts
When it comes to payouts for Casino Hold'em, you need to keep in mind that there are different games in this subcategory. These might not only vary in their rules but also in their paytable. Therefore, we always recommend checking out each game's paytable before getting started to avoid any confusion. Generally, most standard iterations of Casino Hold'em payout 1:1 if you manage to beat the hand of the dealer. However, if you have an especially good hand, your payoff can be much higher as follows:
- Royal Flush – 100:1
- Straight Flush – 20:1
- Four of a Kind – 10:1
- Full House – 3:1
- Flush – 2:1
In some cases, you can also put down an optional side bet. This is also known as the AA bet, and it gives you an additional chance of winning. The side bet is always evaluated on the flop. The result is based on your two hole cards and the first three cards that are revealed on the flop. Typical payouts are as follows (but note that these can differ from game to game):
- Royal Flush – 100:1
- Straight Flush – 50:1
- Four of a Kind – 40:1
- Full House – 30:1
- Flush – 20:1
- Pair of Aces to a Straight – 7:1
Casino Hold'em strategies and other helpful tips
The optimal Casino Hold’em strategy is relatively easy to learn. If you follow a few simple tips, you can reduce the house edge to roughly 2% in most Casino Hold’em variations. However, do note that the optimal way of playing can vary slightly depending on the exact rules.
GoodLuckMate’s best tips for playing Casino Hold'em:
- Call any ace-high or king-high
- Call any pair
- Call any open-ended straight draw
- Call any flush draw
- Call with two overcards
- Fold low unpaired cards
- Only call suited hands on paired boards
Play Casino Hold'em at online casinos
This game is available at almost every online casino that offers table games or live dealer versions. Once you find a Casino Hold'em casino, you simply have to sign up, deposit the amount with which you would like to play, and you are pretty much good to go. All you have to do then is simply choose a Casino Hold’em game from the casino library and take a seat.
Live dealer games vs RNG games
The choice is yours as to whether you prefer playing Casino Hold'em online with a live dealer or a Casino Hold'em game with a random number generator. There are plenty of options for both variations. The advantage of the RNG version of the game is that you can play free Casino Hold'em online with play money without having to make a deposit. You can’t win any real cash that way, but you can learn how to play Casino Hold'em without having to take any risks.
