Let It Ride poker is a game where you try to obtain a high-ranking poker hand without playing against an opponent. You I win if you get a minimum hand of a pair of tens. Let It Ride is played at a table similar to a blackjack table. There can be up to six players. The atmosphere at a Let It Ride table is very friendly because the players aren’t competing against each other.

Let It Ride Poker Rules

Let It Ride is played with one standard fifty-two-card playing deck. The players are required to make three wagers of the same amount. The players make all three wagers while the dealer is shuffling the cards. The wagers can range from the table minimum (usually $5) to the table maximum, but the three wagers must be the same. Each player places his or her three wagers on the table in the three numbered betting circles (1, 2, $) directly in front of his or her place, as shown in the figure above.

Why three wagers? The rules of Let It Ride are designed to let the player make two choices on whether or not to let his or her bets ride. You can pull back your first two wagers, but the last wager must remain in the last betting circle. If you were allowed to pull back all three wagers, then the casino would lose money on Let It Ride because people would pull back any bet that was not a winner.

The dealer deals each player three cards, then places two cards face down. These are the community cards- cards that each player uses in their hand. Each player forms a five-card hand composed of his three cards and two community cards. After receiving their three cards, the players each must decide to either pull back his or her first wager or “let it ride.” Now you see how the game got its name. Pulling back a wager is simply telling the dealer to remove your bet from the betting circle, so it’s no longer considered a bet. At the end of the game, you can take the chips back.

After each player has made a decision on the first wager, the dealer turns the first community card face up. Each player now has to decide on the second wager. Once again, a player can pull it back or let it ride.

After each player has made a decision about wager two, the dealer turns the second community card face up. The three cards in your hand and the two community cards make up your five card poker hand. If a player has decided to let it ride and makes a final bet, there is no pulling back the first or second bets. In other words, the last and final bet for each player has to remain on the table and Can’t be removed. Players lose their last wager if they don’t have at least a pair of tens or higher. Players are paid according to the value Of their five cards hand. The payout is as follows:

Let It Ride Payout Schedule (High Hand To Low Hand)

The minimum needed to win is a pair of tens. If you have less than a pair of tens, you lose all your wagers remaining on the betting circles. If you have three wagers remaining on the betting circles, you get paid the appropriate payoff for each wager according to the payoff schedule.

It’s a simple game. The only decisions you have to make are whether or not to let your first two wagers ride or pull them back out of the betting. After the dealer turns over the final community card, he pays off all winning bets, takes all losing bets, and returns first and second wagers that were pulled back.

Let’s take an example. You approach the Let It Ride table and check the table minimum-maximum sign. The table minimum is $5. So you decide to buy in for $50, meaning you exchange $50 cash for $50 in chips. Now you make your three equal wagers. You decide to bet $5 on this hand. You place a $5 chip in each of the three betting circles in front of you.

Now the dealer gives the players their three cards and places two cards face down as the community cards. You look at your hand: ace of hearts, ten of diamonds, and seven of spades. You have to decide whether to pull back your first wager or let it ride. Since you don’t have a pair of tens or better (the minimum to win your bet) and no chance for a flush or straight, you should pull back your first wager.

Now the dealer turns over the first community card, which is a jack of clubs. You have to decide about your second wager. It makes sense to pull it back once again, because you still don’t have a winning hand and you have no chance for a straight or flush. So you now have only $5 remaining as a bet.

You place your three cards under your last remaining bet and wait for the dealer to turn over the last community card. The dealer flips over the ace of diamonds. Now the dealer looks at each player’s hand and either pays them or removes all their remaining wagers. The community ace of diamonds gave you a winning hand, a pair of aces, for your remaining third wager of $5. The dealer would pay you $5 for your hand (one to one for a pair). If you had left the first two wagers on their betting circles instead of pulling them back, the one-to-one payoff would have won you $15.