Let It Ride Poker Las Vegas

3/31/2022admin

Let It Ride Poker Las Vegas

Introduction

Let it Ride is among the first of the wave of new casino games, starting in the late nineties. It is a simple poker-based game where the player is paid based on his five card hand only. No dealer hand to worry about. The twist is that as the cards are revealed the player has the opportunity to decrease his bet if he doesn't like his cards. As of 2013 Let it Ride is still out there, but its numbers are decreasing.

Rules

Player makes three bets of equal size.
Dealer gives player three cards.
Player may pull his first bet back or 'let it ride.'
Dealer deals the first community card, to be used by all players.
Player may pull his second back or 'let it ride.'
Dealer deals the second community card, to be used by all players.
Player is paid according to the poker value of his five cards, remaining bets, and the posted pay table.
Side bets are usually available, which are explained below.

We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Let It Ride Introduction Let it Ride is among the first of the wave of new casino games, starting in the late nineties. It is a simple poker-based game where the player is paid based on his five card hand only. No dealer hand to worry about.

The following is the standard pay table most casinos follow. All wins are on a 'to one' basis.

Let it Ride — Standard Pay Table

Hand	Pays
Royal Flush	1000
Straight Flush	200
Four of a kind	50
Full House	11
Flush	8
Straight	5
Three of a kind	3
Two pair	2
Tens or better	1
Loser	Loss

The pay table for this and 15 other known Let it Ride pay tables can be found in my Let it Ride appendix 3.

Strategy

The following strategy is for the standard pay table.

With three cards you should only 'let it ride' if you have:

Any paying hand (tens or better, three of a kind)
Any three to a royal flush
Three suited cards in a row except 2-3-4, and ace-2-3
Three to a straight flush, spread 4, with at least one high card (ten or greater)
Three to a straight flush, spread 5, with at least two high cards

With four cards you should only 'let it ride' if you have:

Any paying hand (tens or better, two pair, three of a kind)
Any four cards of the same suit
Any four to an outside straight with at least one high card
Any four to an outside straight with no high cards (zero house edge)
Any four to an inside straight with 4 high cards (zero house edge)

A lot of people have asked me what I mean by 'inside straight', 'outside straight', 'spread 4', and 'spread 5.'An inside straight is one in which an 'inside' card is missing, such as (4,5,7,8). An outside straight is one in which an outside card is missing, such as (4,5,6,7). Outside straights are much better because there are 8 cards that can complete them as opposed to 4 for an inside straight. Spread4 means that the cards in question span 4 ranks in a row,for example a (5,6,8). Spread 5 means the cards in question span 5 ranks, for example a (5,7,9).

Play Let It Ride for free while learning the strategy.

Aggregate Payout Warning:

The table will probably have a maximum payout. At Casino Niagara in Niagara Falls the maximum aggregate payout is $75,000 per round. As a result the player should not bet more than the maximum payout divided by 3000. Any bet above this quotient will not pay the full odds on a royal flush, thus increasing the house edge.

Analysis

The following table shows the number of combinations, probability, and contribution to the return of all possible outcomes under optimal strategy. The lower right cell shows an expected loss of 3.51% of the minimum bet size. By the end of the hand, the player will have pulled back 1.768 bets, leaving 1.232 on the table. This makes the element of risk, defined as the ratio of expected loss to total amount bet 3.51%/1.232 = 2.85%.

The standard deviation, relative to a single bet, is 5.17.

Let it Ride — Standard Pay Table

Let It Ride Poker In Las Vegas

Hand	Pays	Bet	Win	Combinations	Probability	Return
Royal Flush	1000	3	3,000	80	0.000002	0.004617
Royal Flush	1000	2	2,000	0	0.000000	0.000000
Royal Flush	1000	1	1,000	0	0.000000	0.000000
Straight Flush	200	3	600	352	0.000007	0.004063
Straight Flush	200	2	400	368	0.000007	0.002832
Straight Flush	200	1	200	0	0.000000	0.000000
Four of a kind	50	3	150	7,872	0.000151	0.022717
Four of a kind	50	2	100	4,608	0.000089	0.008865
Four of a kind	50	1	50	0	0.000000	0.000000
Full House	11	3	33	33,408	0.000643	0.021210
Full House	11	2	22	41,472	0.000798	0.017553
Full House	11	1	11	0	0.000000	0.000000
Flush	8	3	24	10,008	0.000193	0.004621
Flush	8	2	16	92,152	0.001773	0.028366
Flush	8	1	8	0	0.000000	0.000000
Straight	5	3	15	4,464	0.000086	0.001288
Straight	5	2	10	88,656	0.001706	0.017056
Straight	5	1	5	110,880	0.002133	0.010666
Three of a kind	3	3	9	364,560	0.007014	0.063122
Three of a kind	3	2	6	328,968	0.006329	0.037973
Three of a kind	3	1	3	404,712	0.007786	0.023358
Two pair	2	3	6	574,128	0.011045	0.066272
Two pair	2	2	4	682,776	0.013136	0.052542
Two pair	2	1	2	1,214,136	0.023358	0.046716
Tens or better	1	3	3	2,571,636	0.049474	0.148423
Tens or better	1	2	2	2,647,560	0.050935	0.101870
Tens or better	1	1	1	3,228,804	0.062117	0.062117
Loser	-1	3	-3	53,076	0.001021	-0.003063
Loser	-1	2	-2	937,824	0.018042	-0.036085
Loser	-1	1	-1	38,576,700	0.742156	-0.742156
Total	51,979,200	1.000000	-0.035057

5-Card Bonus Bet

I don't know if this bet even has a name, so I am titling it the '5-Card Bonus Bet.' It is a $1 side bet, which pays based on the poker value of the final five-card hand. This is a sucker bet, that should be avoided. Based on a small sampling of casinos in Las Vegas and Laughlin, the house edge varies from 13.77% (Lady Luck) to 36.52% (New York, New York). Below are some casinos, their payoff table, and their house edge, in order from best to worst. Wins are on a 'for one' basis, meaning the player does not get his original bet back, even on a win.

Let it Ride Side Bet Pay Tables

Hand	Table 1	Table 2	Table 3	Table 4	Table 5	Table 6	Table 7	Table 8	Table 9
Royal flush	20000	20000	20000	20000	20000	10000	20000	20000	25000
Straight flush	2000	1000	2000	2000	1000	2000	2000	1000	2500
Four of a kind	100	100	100	400	400	100	300	300	400
Full house	75	75	75	200	200	75	150	150	200
Flush	50	50	50	50	50	50	50	50	50
Straight	25	25	25	25	25	25	25	25	25
Three of a kind	9	4	8	5	5	8	5	5	5
Two pair	6	3	4	0	0	4	0	0	0
Tens or better	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
House edge	13.77%	23.73%	25.39%	25.53%	26.92%	26.93%	35.14%	36.52%	24.07%

The following is a list of which casinos have which pay tables based on my small sampling. Unless otherwise stated all casinos are in Las Vegas:

Table 1: Lady Luck
Table 2: Las Vegas Club, Freemont, Californian,Plaza, Main Street Station, Ballys, Circus Circus,Hilton, Grand (Biloxi), Beau Rivage (Biloxi), Horseshoe(Tunica), Grand (Tunica)
Table 3: Golden Gate
Table 4: Bellagio, Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, Harrah's,Imperial Palace, Paris, Venetian
Table 5: MGM Grand, Golden Nugget
Table 6: Colorado Belle (Laughlin), Sky City (New Mexico)
Table 7: Four Queens, Flamingo Hilton
Table 8: New York New York
Table 9: Rivers casino in Pittsburgh, PA

The next table shows the probability and return for every hand under pay table 2 above. The return of 76.27% reflects a house edge of 100.00% - 76.27% = 23.73%. Again, all pays are on a 'for one' basis.

5-Card Bonus

Hand	Pays	Combinations	Probability	Return
Royal flush	20,000	4	0.000002	0.030782
Straight flush	1,000	36	0.000014	0.013852
Four of a kind	100	624	0.000240	0.024010
Full house	75	3,744	0.001441	0.108043
Flush	50	5,108	0.001965	0.098270
Straight	25	10,200	0.003925	0.098116
Three of a kind	4	54,912	0.021128	0.084514
Two pair	3	123,552	0.047539	0.142617
Tens or better	1	422,400	0.162527	0.162527
Loser	0	1,978,380	0.761220	0.000000
Total	2,598,960	1.000000	0.762730

3-Card Bonus Bet

Some casinos offer a side bet based on the value of the player's three cards, similar to the Pair plus bet in Three Card Poker. The main difference is in Let It Ride the bet has a separate win for a 'Mini Royal', defined as a suited ace, king, and queen. The following table table shows the most common pay table for this bet.

3-Card Bonus

Hand	Pays	Combinations	Probability	Return
Mini Royal	50	4	0.000181	0.00905
Straight flush	40	44	0.001991	0.079638
Three of a kind	30	52	0.002353	0.070588
Straight	6	720	0.032579	0.195475
Flush	3	1096	0.049593	0.148778
Pair	1	3744	0.169412	0.169412
Nothing	-1	16440	0.743891	-0.743891
House Edge	22100	1	-0.070950

The next pay table shows other possible variants of the Three Card Bonus bet.

3-Card Bonus

Hand	Table 1	Table 2	Table 3	Table 4	Table 5
Mini Royal	50	50	200	100	50
Straight flush	40	40	40	50	40
Three of a kind	30	30	30	30	30
Straight	6	5	6	6	6
Flush	3	4	3	3	4
Pair	1	1	1	1	1
Nothing	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1
House edge	7.10%	5.39%	4.38%	4.20%	2.14%

The only casino I am aware of that offers pay table 5 is the Borgata in Atlantic City (source).

6-Card Bonus

Some casinos add on a side bet known as the 6-Card Bonus. This side bet is found on multiple poker-derivative games, so I created a special page for it. For more information, please see my page on the 6-Card Bonus.

Millionaire Progressive

This is a $5 'red light' progressive side bet that pays $1,000,000 for a royal flush in spades, using the player's five-card hand. For all the rules and analysis, please see my page on the Millionaire Progressive.

Seeing Extra Cards

Although players are not supposed to share information, you can often accidentally see other player cards, or this rule is ignored and players voluntarily show each other their cards. Seeing other cards can make the difference in borderline plays, namely the zero house edge straights listed under the 4-card strategy above. In his book Mastering the Game of Let It Ride, author Stanley Ko offers a strategy for these situations. He doesn't state how much it lowers the house edge, but James Grosjean does in his book Beyond Counting (Exhibit CAA). According to Grosjean, if you can see every player card in a 7-player game, and made perfect use of the information, it would lower the house advantage from 3.51% to 2.34% only.

Let It Ride Poker In Las Vegas

Inside Links

Appendix 1: Details on how the strategy and expected return were determined.
Appendix 2: Details on the Isle of Capri (Black Hawk, Colorado) rules.
Appendix 3: Analysis of 16 different Let it Ride pay tables.

Outside Links

German translation of this page.