Casino Hold’em rules revolve around a single decision, made once the flop is on the table. Two private cards come to you, three shared cards appear, and the choice is between folding, which costs the ante, and calling with a wager equal to two antes. Once you call, the turn and river follow, the dealer turns over two cards and each side makes its best five of seven. A dealer hand has to include a pair of fours to count, and a paytable decides what the ante earns once you win or the dealer misses. Below you will find the qualifier, the two paytables, the 2 Hand variant and five hands to work out in chips.
Key Takeaways: Casino Hold'em Rules
- Flop Decision: After the three-card flop, players make one choice: fold to forfeit the ante, or call by wagering exactly twice the ante to reach the showdown.
- Dealer Qualification: The dealer needs a pair of fours or higher to qualify (75.78% of deals); pairs of threes, deuces, or unpaired hands miss the minimum.
- Ante Payout Rule: If the dealer fails to qualify, the ante pays out according to the paytable and the call bet pushes, regardless of which hand is higher.
- AA Bonus Wager: An optional side bet judging your cards and the flop; it pays on a pair of aces or better (10.88% frequency) with a 2.97% house edge.
One Decision After the Flop
The round moves through four stages, and your only choice sits at the third one.
| Stage | What you can see | What you do |
| Before the deal | Nothing yet | Place the ante, with an optional AA Bonus bet next to it |
| After the deal | Your two private cards | Wait for the flop |
| After the flop | Your cards and three shared ones | Fold, or call with twice the ante |
| After a call | All five shared cards, then the dealer’s two cards | Nothing more, since the showdown follows |
The ante is one base unit, the call bet is exactly two of those units, and the AA Bonus is whatever amount you choose. A fold costs the ante and nothing else.
The Dealer’s Minimum Hand
The dealer’s hand is accepted only if it contains a pair of fours or something stronger, which means any pair from fours through aces. Threes, deuces and unpaired hands do not make it. Over many deals the dealer reaches the minimum in 75.78% of rounds and misses it in 24.22%.
Suppose the shared cards are Qc 9d 7s 4h 2c. With 3c 3d the dealer’s best five are a pair of threes, with queen, nine and seven kickers, one rank below the minimum. With 4c 3s they are a pair of fours, with queen, nine and seven kickers, since the four on the board pairs with a private four, so this dealer is accepted.
Settling the Ante and the Call
The minimum is tested before the hands are compared. A dealer who misses it still owes the ante according to the ante paytable, which sets this game apart from most others, and the only bet returned is the call.
- Dealer short of fours: the ante collects by the paytable, the call bet comes back and the comparison is skipped.
- Dealer accepted, your hand higher: the ante collects by the paytable and the call bet wins 1 to 1.
- Dealer accepted, hands level: you get back both the ante and the call bet.
- Dealer accepted, dealer higher: the house keeps both the ante and the call bet.
Even when the dealer’s cards outrank yours, a miss on the minimum still leaves your ante paid in that round.
What the Ante Earns
Ordinary winning hands are paid 1 to 1 on the ante, and only the strongest hands earn a bigger multiple. One common version appears in the table.
| Winning hand | Ante pays |
| Royal flush | 100-1 |
| Straight flush | 20-1 |
| Four of a kind | 10-1 |
| Full house | 3-1 |
| Flush | 2-1 |
| Straight and everything below | 1-1 |
A flush or anything above it is needed to pass even money, and those hands turn up in 5.82% of seven-card deals. Other paytables reward the top hands differently, so check the numbers in the game’s information panel before relying on them.
The AA Bonus Bet
This side wager is placed ahead of the deal and pays no attention to the dealer. It reads your two private cards together with the three flop cards, and it pays when those five make a pair of aces or better. The table gives the paytable used here and the number of deals that produce each result among the 2,598,960 possible five-card hands.
| Best five after the flop | AA Bonus pays | Deals that make it | Probability |
| Royal flush | 100-1 | 4 | 0.000154% |
| Straight flush | 50-1 | 36 | 0.00139% |
| Four of a kind | 40-1 | 624 | 0.0240% |
| Full house | 30-1 | 3,744 | 0.144% |
| Flush | 20-1 | 5,108 | 0.197% |
| Straight | 10-1 | 10,200 | 0.392% |
| Three of a kind | 8-1 | 54,912 | 2.11% |
| Two pair | 7-1 | 123,552 | 4.75% |
| Two aces | 7-1 | 84,480 | 3.25% |
Some payout appears in 10.88% of deals, meaning 282,660 out of 2,598,960. This paytable gives the house an edge of 2.97%.
The 2 Hand Version
The 2 Hand variant deals two separate hands to you at one table, each against the house, and you may play either hand or both. It offers the AA Bonus too. A second hand multiplies the wagers in play, so the rules shown on the game screen decide the details, and the exercises below stay with the one-hand game.
Exercises: Five Hands, Five Outcomes
The ante is 10 chips and the call bet is 20 chips in every hand. Everything is on view, namely the five shared cards and both pairs of private cards, and your task is to calculate the chips won or lost.
❓ Practice: Settle Each Hand
Shared cards: Kh 9h 6h 3c 2s. Your private cards: Ah 4h. Dealer’s private cards: Ks Jd. Bets: 10-chip ante and 20-chip call. What is your result in chips?
Shared cards: Jd 9c 6s 4h 2c. Your private cards: Js Jh. Dealer’s private cards: Ad 7s. Bets: 10-chip ante and 20-chip call. What is your result in chips?
Shared cards: Js 9d 7c 5h 2s. Your private cards: Ad Kc. Dealer’s private cards: 3s 3h. Bets: 10-chip ante and 20-chip call. What is your result in chips?
Shared cards: Qs 9h 8c 5d 2c. Your private cards: Kd Jc. Dealer’s private cards: 9d 3c. Bets: 10-chip ante and 20-chip call. What is your result in chips?
Shared cards: 9h 8d 7c 6s 5h. Your private cards: 2c 3d. Dealer’s private cards: Ks Jd. Bets: 10-chip ante and 20-chip call. What is your result in chips?
More Guides in the Series
Among the games of the online poker series, this is the one whose ante follows a paytable and whose dealer must reach a pair of fours. The next pages to read are:
- Casino poker games: a side-by-side look at the five dealer games.
- Ultimate Texas Hold’em rules: Hold’em with a blind, and a play bet sized by timing.
- Texas Hold’em Bonus Poker rules: the same cards, no dealer minimum and a wager at each street.
- Texas Hold’em hands: how the best five of seven cards is picked.
- Poker hand rankings: the ladder both hands are measured on.
Keeping Casino Hold’em Within Limits
Losing a call costs three antes, because the ante and the call both go, and any AA Bonus stake sits on top of that. Two hands at once put more chips on the table each round. Set a loss limit in chips and a time limit before the first deal, and stop when either one is reached. In Ontario you can call ConnexOntario on 1-866-531-2600, and our responsible gambling page covers more tools and support services.
❓ Casino Hold’em Questions: Frequently Asked Questions
What does the dealer need to qualify?
How big is the call bet?
How is the ante paid?
What does the 2 Hand version add?
Author:
Lucas Portela
Owner, BoldGambler • Avanhandava/SP
Oddsmaker, affiliate and content creator in the iGaming industry.