1. Ultimate Texas Hold'em Strategy Card
2. Ultimate Texas Holdem Strategy Chart
3. Ultimate Texas Hold'em Rules

Prepare yourself by learning the proper strategies, and it’s a table game worth wagering on

by Michael Shackleford

Ultimate Texas Hold'em Strategy Card

The simplest and most effective Ultimate Texas Holdem strategy to remember is pre-flop, and that is: Bet the max (4x your ante and not 3x) when you are dealt premium hole cards What hands qualify as premium hole cards? The Ultimate Guide to Pre-Flop Raising in Texas Hold’Em By Timothy Dawson on March 26, 2018 Texas hold’em players have a common saying about pre-flop strategy: If your hand is good enough to call with, it’s good enough to raise with. By Leticia Updated: Jul 04, 2020 in Holdem strategy Texas Hold’em Hands – What You Need in Order to Win in Poker. Texas Hold’em hands – from weakest to strongest Poker is the game that challenges players’ minds and skills all over the world. A free online version of Ultimate Texas Holdem. Test out your Ultimate Texas Hold'em strategy here. Practice for the casino. Ultimate Texas Hold'em is a variation of the game Texas Hold'em in which you play against a casino dealer. The game is available at casinos using Chartwell software, as well as many land based casinos. The game's low expected loss per unit wagered makes it a useful alternative for clearing bonuses.

Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em is a good bet when you use optimal strategy. The game also has a slow pace, which means you’ll lose less money per hour on average. Another side benefit is that casinos often comp these poker-based games pretty well.

Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em is one of the more popular poker variations to make it into the crowded business of casino table games. The twist to this game is that the player makes a one-time Play bet of either four times his Ante bet after seeing his hole cards; two times his Ante after the flop; or one time his Ante after the river. Here’s a rundown of the complete set of rules.

1. A single, ordinary 52-card deck is used.
2. The player must make equal bets on both the Ante and Blind.
3. Two cards are dealt face down to the player and dealer. The player may look at his own cards.
4. The player may check or make a Play bet equal to three or four times the Ante.
5. The dealer deals the three community cards (the flop).
6. If the player previously checked, then he may make a Play bet equal to two times his Ante.
7. The dealer deals two more community cards (the turn and river).
8. If the player previously checked twice, then he must either make a Play bet equal to exactly his Ante or fold.
9. The player and dealer will both make the best possible hand using any combination of his own two cards and the five community cards. The higher hand shall win.
10. Winning Ante bets pay even money. However, if the dealer can not open with a pair or higher, then Ante bets will automatically push.
11. Winning Play bets always pay even money.
12. Winning Blind bets pay according to the posted pay table.

Blind Pay Table

The Play bet works strongly in the player’s favor. It’s a way to get more money down when you know you have good cards, and it always pays even money. However, the player pays for that with the Ante and Blind bets. The Ante bet works in the dealer’s favor, because the dealer needs a pair to open. If he doesn’t have a pair, the player will most likely have the higher hand, but the Ante will push. The Blind bet also favors the dealer, because wins of three of a kind or less push.

Strategy

The following strategy advises you when to make the 4X raise. The player should never make a 3X raise at this point.

Pairs: Raise on 3s or higher.

Ace high: Always raise.

King high: Raise except with unsuited K4 or less.

Queen high: Raise with Q8 or higher and suited Q6 and Q7.

Jack high: Raise with JT and unsuited J8 and J9.

All other: Don’t raise.

The strategy for raising after the flop and river is rather complicated. I don’t have enough room to cover it here; I recommend the website www.discountgambling.net for the complete strategy.

Odds

Assuming the player follows optimal strategy, the house edge, as defined as the ratio of the expected loss to the Ante bet, is 2.185%. The purpose of the house edge is to estimate losses per hand over time. So, if the player started with $10 bets (on both Ante and Blind), for two hours and we assume 50 hands per hour, the expected loss would be 10*2*50*0.02185 = $21.85.

For the purposes of comparing one game to another, I prefer to use the “element of risk,” which is the ratio of the expected loss to the average bet. In this case, the final bet will be 4.152 times your Ante bet by the end of the hand. Thus, the element of risk is 2.185%/4.152 = 0.526%. That’s very low!

Trips Bet

Every poker-based game seems to offer at least one side bet, and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em is no exception. A popular offering is “Trips.” It pays based on the poker value of the player’s final hand. Four pay tables are known. The following table shows what each hand pays under each pay table, and the house edge.

Progressive Jackpot

Some tables now have a $1 progressive jackpot side bet, also based on the player’s cards only. The following pay table is the one I have seen in Las Vegas:

Player flops royal flush pays the jackpot.

Any other royal partially on board pays 5% of jackpot.

Royal entirely on board pays $3000.

Straight flush pays $250.

Ultimate Texas Holdem Strategy Chart

Four of a kind pays $100

Full house pays $10.

The return is 50.19% plus 3% for each $10,000 in the meter. To reach breakeven, the meter would need to get to $165,959.74. Most of the time the meter will be much less, and thus it carries a high house edge.

In Conclusion…

Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em is a good bet when you use optimal strategy. The game also has a slow pace, which means you’ll lose less money per hour on average. Another side benefit is that casinos often comp these poker-based games pretty well. The strategy is rather complicated, however. Before you give this game a shot, you should at least memorize when to make the big raise. For more information about Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em, visit my web site www.wizardofodds.com or www.discountgambling.net.

Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em.

I just wrote a post about Mississippi Stud, which is one of these new poker-based casino games that are slowly replacing blackjack tables in casinos throughout the world. The other new-ish and popular game of this ilk is Ultimate Texas Hold’em, which is a trademark of Bally Gaming, Inc. This post has no association with Bally—it’s just meant to be purely informational and educational.

One thing I’d like to point out right away is that casino games like Ultimate Texas Hold’em aren’t really poker games. They’re casino games which use some of the aspects of poker for their game-play and rules. The difference is where the money comes from.

Ultimate Texas Hold'em Rules

In a casino game, you’re playing against the house. It’s you versus the dealer or you versus the pay table. You don’t have to beat the other players at the table to win, and when you win, the other players don’t pay you off—the casino does. That’s a huge difference. It usually means that you can get an edge at a real poker game, by being more skilled than the other players. The same isn’t true of poker-based casino games like Ultimate Texas Hold’em.

You don’t have to know how to play real Texas holdem to play Ultimate Texas Hold’em, but it doesn’t hurt. Here’s how the game works, and it’s pretty easy:

Once you’ve checked or played, the dealer spreads 3 more face-up cards. This is the flop. These are community cards that you and the dealer both use to make your final hand. If there are other players at the table, they’re using the same community cards, too. Now there’s another betting round. If you checked before the flop, you can make a play bet of 2X the size of the ante. If you played before the flop, you can only check on the flop.

Ultimate Texas Hold’em combines the turn and the river into a single round. In other words, he deals 2 more cards face up, finishing the deal. If you checked on the previous 2 betting rounds, you now have the option to bet the size of the ante. If you’ve already bet on either of the 2 previous betting rounds, you have no option besides checking at this point.

Your payout depends on whether the dealer opens and on whether your hand is better than the dealer’s. The dealer opens if he has a pair or better. The size of your win for the various bets is based on the game’s pay table. The payouts also vary based on whether the casino is paying off the ante bet, the blind bet, or the play bet. If the dealer opens, and you win, then you win all 3 bets.

If the dealer DOESN’T open, and you win, then you win the blind bet and the play bet. The ante bet is a push, which means you get it back, but you don’t get any winnings with it. (A “push” is the same thing as a tie.) If the dealer opens, and the dealer wins, then you lose all 3 bets. If the dealer doesn’t open, and the dealer wins, then you lose the ante bet and the play bet. The blind is treated as a push. If you and the dealer tie—if you literally have a hand of the exact same poker ranking—then all bets are treated as a push. The pay table for the ante bet and the play bet is easy to remember. If those bets pay off, you win even money. In other words, if you bet $100, you win $100. That’s a 1 to 1 payout.

The blind bet is where the money comes from. The payouts for that bet are based on the final poker hand you have, as follows:

• A royal flush pays off at 500 to 1.
• A straight flush pays off at 50 to 1.
• A 4 of a kind pays off at 10 to 1.
• A full house pays off at 3 to 1.
• A flush pays off at 3 to 2.
• A straight pays off at even money.
• Any other hand is treated as a push.

The trips bet has its own pay table, and it pays off regardless of the dealer’s hand value. The casinos have 4 options to choose from for that pay table, but most of them are similar:

• The royal flush always pays off at 50 to 1.
• A straight flush always pays off at 40 to 1.
• A 4 of a kind pays off at 30 to 1 or 20 to 1, depending on which pay table you’re facing.
• A full house pays off at 9 to 1, 8 to 1, or 7 to 1, depending on the pay table.
• A flush pays off at either 7 to 1 or 6 to 1, depending on the pay table.
• A straight pays off at either 5 to 1 or 4 to 1, depending on the pay table.
• A 3 of a kind always pays off at 3 to 1.
• All other hands result in a loss on the trips bet.

By the way, if you’re familiar with Jacks or Better video poker, you’ll notice that the hands where the casino has flexibility in payouts are the same hands that vary on a Jacks or Better game—the full house and the flush. Ultimate Texas Hold’em pay tables also offer different payoffs for straights, but most of the changes come on those 2 key hands.

3- Ultimate Texas Hold’em House Edge

The house edge for Ultimate Texas Hold’em, assuming you’re making the optimal bets and raises from an expected value standpoint, is only 2.18%. If you’re using an “approximate” strategy that’s less than perfect, it’s more than that—maybe 2.5% or so using some of the published strategies on the internet. That’s far worse than most blackjack games, but it’s a lot better than many other table games, too.

According to Eliot Jacobson, one of the experts on advantage play in casino games, there are techniques for lowering that house edge even further, even to the point where a player might have an edge over the casino. Most of these techniques involve finding a sloppy dealer who either reveals his hole cards or one of the flop cards.

In advantage play lingo, this is called “hole carding.” It’s a common method of getting an edge at blackjack. When playing with a competent dealer, this is practically impossible. You can use the house edge for a game to compute your expected losses per hour. You just multiply the average number of hands per hour by how much you’re betting per hand. That gives you the total amount of action you’re bringing the casino each hour.

In Ultimate Texas Hold’em, the number of hands per hour is probably about 40. It could vary based on the dealer’s proficiency and the players at the table and how long they take to make decisions. If you’re betting $100 per hand and making 40 bets per hour, you’re putting $4000 per hour into action. If the house edge is 2.18%, you can expect to lose—in the long run, on average–$87.20 per hour.

You can use this information to estimate how much this kind of entertainment costs you and compare it other forms of entertainment. You should always keep in mind that this is an estimate based on the long term, which means 1000s of hands. In the short run, over a few hours, you could lose far more than this. You could also win.

4- Ultimate Texas Hold’em Strategy

Since you have meaningful decisions to make in Ultimate Texas Hold’em, this is a game where you can and should learn a strategy. In fact, that 2.18% house edge that I mentioned is a number that assumes you’re using the mathematically correct strategy. Most people can’t memorize or use an optimal strategy, so you should assume that even if you study an appropriate strategy, you might face an effective house edge of more like 2.5% or so. According to Eliot Jacobson, this is a reasonable approximation of the correct strategy for this game:

Preflop

Here’s how you should play the following hands preflop. You should make the maximum possible raise with any of the following hands whether the cards or suited or not:

• Any hand with an ace in it.
• Any hand with a king in it if the 2nd card is 5 or higher.
• Any hand with a queen in it if the 2nd card is 8 or higher.
• Any jack + 10.

If you have suited cards, you should also raise the maximum amount with these hands:

• K2, K3, or K4
• Q6 or Q/7
• J8 or J/9

Also, if you have a pair of 3s or better, raise the maximum amount. If you have ANY other cards, you should just check.

Strategy on the Flop

If you raised preflop, you have no choice but to check now. If you checked preflop, then you should raise in the following situations only:

• If you have 2 pair or better.
• If you have a pair of 3s or more using at least one of your hole cards.
• If you have a 4-card flush draw where at least one card is 10 or higher.

In any of those cases, you should raise the maximum amount. Otherwise, just check.

Strategy on the Turn + River Round

This is where the strategy gets most complicated. You should raise at this point if you have a pair of 3s or better using at least one of your hole cards, of if the dealer has less than 21 outs. “Outs” are cards that the dealer might have in the hole which will beat your hand. This is where being a poker player might come in handy, because understanding the concept of outs is fundamental to being a poker player.

Here’s an example of an out:

To the best of my knowledge, Ultimate Texas Hold’em is not available to online players for real money. It’s a trademarked game belonging to the Bally Corportation, and they’re pretty serious about protecting their intellectual property. I was able to find a couple of sites offering free versions of Ultimate Texas Hold’em that you can play online. These games use “play money” chips, which have no monetary value. There’s no substitute for actually trying a game and learning how it works before playing it in a live casino setting, by the way.

I don’t know how long any of these free versions of the games will be available on the internet, though, so I haven’t listed links to any of them here. I suspect that any site hosting a free version of Ultimate Texas Hold’em without getting Bally’s explicit permission first will receive a cease and desist at some point. But I don’t know.

Ultimate Texas Hold’em is a fun, skill-based, poker-based casino game that resembles Texas holdem. The biggest difference is that you’re playing against the casino dealer instead of the other players at the table. And instead of having a pot made up of the bets the other players made, you have a pay table that determines how much you get paid off if you win.

The house edge on the game is reasonable for this kind of game, but at 2.5%, it’s still not nearly as good as blackjack. Give it a try, though, if it sounds interesting. The basic strategy presented in this post isn’t that hard to follow.