Casino "poker" isn't always player-vs-player. The most popular poker games on the floor are played against the dealer or a paytable — fast, beginner-friendly, and built on simple decisions, with no bluffing. Start here, learn the correct strategy with a built-in coach, then sit down at the real machine or table knowing exactly what to do.
The best place to start. You and the dealer each get three cards; you make one decision — Play or Fold — and the whole optimal strategy is a single line: play Queen-Six-Four or better, fold everything worse. There's an optional Pair Plus side bet that pays up to 40:1 on your own three cards.
One quirk to know going in: with only three cards, the hand rankings flip from regular poker — a straight beats a flush, and three of a kind beats both, because they're harder to make with three cards.
Play the free Three Card Poker trainer →
The lowest-edge poker game in the house. It's five-card draw against a paytable — no dealer, no opponent. You're dealt five cards, hold the ones you want, and draw replacements; a pair of Jacks or better wins, up to the royal-flush jackpot. On a 9/6 full-pay machine, perfect play returns 99.54% — a house edge of about 0.46%.
Two habits make all the difference: always bet 5 coins (the royal jumps from 250-for-1 to 800-for-1 only on the fifth coin), and hold the right cards every hand. Our coach computes the exact optimal hold for any deal, so you can train your reads against the math.
Play the free Video Poker trainer →
The casino version of Hold'em, played against the dealer — the most popular poker table game on US floors. You and the dealer share five community cards, and the whole game is one decision: when to make your single Play raise. It shrinks the longer you wait (4× before the flop, 2× after the flop, 1× at the river), so betting big early with a strong hand is the key.
With optimal play the house edge is about 2.2% per ante (0.53% element of risk). The coach shows the exact 4×/2×/1×/fold move every street — and on the river it counts precisely how many of the dealer's possible hands beat you.
Play the free Ultimate Texas Hold'em trainer →
The one skill the house games can't teach: reading opponents. In real player-vs-player poker you put others on a range of likely hands and narrow it as they bet. This trainer makes that visible — a transparent bot (nit, TAG, LAG, calling station, or a balanced player) acts across the streets while a 13×13 grid of all 169 starting hands narrows in real time.
It's honest about the limits: each bot's range and bluff frequency are a defined model, so the read is provably correct for that bot — you're drilling the mechanical half of hand reading, the part that transfers to a live table. Then test yourself in Guess the range mode.
Play the free Poker Reads Trainer →
A quick reference for live and online Hold'em: all 169 starting hands on a 13×13 grid, color-coded by strength so you can see at a glance which hands to raise, which to play with care, and which to fold. Pocket pairs on the diagonal, suited hands above, offsuit below.
See the free starting hands chart →
Casino poker is played against the house, not other players. Ultimate Texas Hold'em is Hold'em — same hand rankings and community cards — but you play against the dealer with no bluffing and fixed math. Three Card Poker and video poker are simpler house-banked games. All are good ways to learn before sitting at a live player-vs-player table.
Video poker. A 9/6 full-pay Jacks or Better machine returns about 99.54% with perfect play and max coins — a 0.46% house edge, one of the lowest in the casino. Among table games, Three Card Poker is strong at about a 2% edge (element of risk) if you follow the Queen-Six-Four rule.