How to play 3 card brag

You are open and your opponent is blind: you are not allowed to see a “blind man,” you may either bet or fold as normal, but you are not permitted to see.
Both are blind: paying twice the blind (equal to an open bet) allows for hands to be compared. Normal seeing rules apply.
You are blind and your opponent is open: your opponent can not see your cards but you may see theirs. Pay twice the blind stake in order to see.

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How to play 3 card brag, how to play 3 card brag.

In the event there are only two players left in the game, and all others have folded, there is another option available. Players may see the other’s cards. To see a player must pay twice the amount of the previous. If you pay to see another player’s card, they expose their hand first. If your hand is better than your opponents, expose it to collect your winnings in the pot. If your hand is worse or equal to your opponents, it is not necessary to reveal your hand, they win the pot. Reminder, if hands are equal, the player who paid to see loses the hand.

How to play 3 card brag

OBJECTIVE OF BRAG: win the money in the pot by remaining in the hand and/or having the highest ranking hand.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4-8 players

NUMBER OF CARDS: 52-card decks

RANK OF CARDS: A,K,Q,J,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2

TYPE OF GAME: gambling

AUDIENCE: adult

INTRODUCTION TO BRAG

Brag, or three card brag, is a descendant of the spanish game primero. It is very similar to the popular card game in india, nepal, bangladesh, and trinidad teen patti, which means literally in hindi ‘three cards’.

Brag is popular british gambling game which employs the skill bluffing to deceive other players.

There are several variations of brag which use anywhere between 4 and 13 cards, although 6,7,9, and 13 card brag have a very different game mechanism.

THREE CARD BRAG

Set up

Before starting the game, players must agree upon:

The amount of the initial stake or the ante – a forced bet each player must make before each deal.

Minimum and maximum bet amounts – a bet the first player must make to stay in the hand.

The limit on how much bets can be raised, if any.

Any variations on the traditional rules.

Hand rankings (from high to low)

PRIAL: prial is short for “pair royal.” three cards of equal rank, for example, K-K-K

RUNNING FLUSH: three cards in sequences of the same suit. A-2-3 is a viable run and actually the highest, despite A being the highest ranking card. A-K-Q is the second highest run/running flush. 2-A-K is not a valid flush or run.

RUN: three cards in sequence of any suit. Running flushes beat all runs.

FLUSH: three cards, not in sequence, of the same suit. For example, if all cards are spades, 7-10-Q is a flush.

PAIR: in a three card hand, a pair is having any two cards of equal rank. For example, A-A-J.

HIGH CARD: A three card hand that doesn’t form any of the above combinations relies on high card- that is the highest ranking card. For example, in this hand: 5-10-K, K is the high card.

Suits are not ranked so equivalent hands are possible.

The ante & the deal

Prior to each deal, players must agree upon an ante. The ante must be paid by each player to the pot before the deal can begin. The deal and the play passes clockwise, the deal passes to the left with each hand.

Before the first deal, the dealer shuffles the cards. After, the cards are only shuffled if the last hand was ‘seen’ and was won by a prial. For the most part, cards are not shuffled between hands.

The dealer passes each player three cards, face-down, one at a time. Players have the option to look at their cards, but they do not have to. However, a player’s cards must remain secret from all other players in the game. There is only one exception to that, which is when the betting round ends with a “see.”

Betting

After the cards have been dealt betting starts with the player to the left of the dealer. The first bettor has two options: fold (throw down their cards and sacrifice their ante to the pot), or bet anywhere between the minimum and maximum amounts. If all but one player folds as betting continues the remaining player wins the pot and a new hand dealt.

If a player bets, the following players must either fold or make a minimum bet equal to the previous bet. Players may raise the bet, but it must be within the limit decided upon mutually by all other players.

Betting does not end until all but one player drops out or there are two players left and one pays to see the other.

Here is an example of turn of betting in a four player game, note there is no equalizing of bets as in poker:

Player A bets 3 chips, player B bets 3 chips, player C folds, player D bets 3 chips, player A must bet at least 3 chips to stay in the hand.

As a rule of etiquette, never fold out of turn.

Running out of money

Brag is rarely played with table stakes, as in poker. Table stakes means players keep all the money they are playing without on the table, in brag players keep much of their money in their pockets. However, there is typically a minimum players must have on the table.

If you do not have enough money to bet but would like to stay in the hand you may cover the pot by betting all the money you have, putting it in the pot, and placing your cards face down on top. Players continue as normal but place their bets in a new pot. After the new pot is square, the winning hand is exposed. The hand covering the pot is compared with the winning hand, the old pot is won by the higher ranking hand. If the hands tie the winner of the new pot wins the old pot as well.

Covering the pot may be exercised when there are only two players left in the hand, however, the betting round ends. Some players, instead, practice that if there are two players and one runs out of money they must either: borrow money to bet or show their cards to potentially win the pot.

Playing blind

Any player has the option to play blind. Playing blind means you do not look at your cards and keep them on the table, face-down. Blind player’s bet normally but their bets are worth double. This means they only have to bet half the minimum or previous bet of an open player.

If you’ve been playing blind on a hand, when it is your turn to bet you always have the option of looking at your cards before choosing to bet or fold. However, this means you are now an open player and must bet equal to other open players to remain in the hand. You may not revert back to blind on that hand.

In the event you are playing blind and all other players fold, you do not win the pot. The pot continues on to the next hand.

Rules of seeing with blind players:

You are open and your opponent is blind: you are not allowed to see a “blind man,” you may either bet or fold as normal, but you are not permitted to see.

Both are blind: paying twice the blind (equal to an open bet) allows for hands to be compared. Normal seeing rules apply.

You are blind and your opponent is open: your opponent can not see your cards but you may see theirs. Pay twice the blind stake in order to see.

Retaining a blind hand

If you have a blind hand and all other players fold you may keep that hand for the next deal. The dealer will still deal you three cards so that you have two hands. You have three options:

Look at the new hand

Look at the old hand

Play double-blind

If you look at a hand you must decide if you want to keep it or fold immediately. Keeping the hand means you fold the other. You play as an open player, not a blind one. If you fold the hand you looked at, you may play blind with the other hand.

You may choose to look at neither and play both hands blind. If on your turn you decide to look at a hand you must follow the rules described above.

In the unlikely event you are the last player standing at the end of this hand, with two blind hands, you must sacrifice one. You cannot have three blind hands. You may only look at one hand.

VARIATIONS

Four card brag

The same rules are three card brag apply but players receive four cards as opposed to three. Players who look at their hands may dispose of one card to make the best three card hand they can. If there is a tie between two hands, the fourth card is the decider of the winning hand- high card wins. If those cards are also equal it is a tie.

Blind players keep all four cards on the table, if they decide to look at them, they must dispose of one card.

Five card brag

Played exactly like four card brag except players discard two cards as opposed to just one.

Wild cards

Brag can also be played with wild cards, referred to as floaters. Players must agree upon the details of wild cards before the game begins. Here are the common options:

All 2s are wild OR

Only black 2s are wild OR

One-eyed jacks are wild (jack of hearts and jack of spades) OR

Suicide king is wild (king of hearts) OR

A joker or both jokers

Wildcards can be used to represent any card. In the case of equal hands, the natural hand- the hand without the wild card(s)- wins. A hand with fewer wild cards beats one with more.

How to play 3 card brag

Brag is a card game which is usually played for money but can also be played without stakes. There are many variations of brag but one of the most popular versions is three card brag, which is the game that we’re going to concentrate on here. Learning how to play three card brag can be done quickly with many players able to grasp the basics in a few minutes but becoming an expert of the finer intricacies of three card brag can take a lifetime.

Unlike online poker and other card games the skill of card counting can be employed while playing three card brag. This is because unless a hand is won with a prial (three of a kind) the cards are simply placed to the bottom of the deck and the next hand is dealt. Besides the beginning of the game the pack is only shuffled if the previous hand is won with a prial.

To play three card brag you need at least two players and usually no more than eight. At the start of each hand all players must pay an ante into the pot before being dealt three cards face down. If it is the first deal of the game the dealer should shuffle the pack then deal the cards one at a time in a clockwise direction starting with the player to the dealer’s left until all players have three cards face down in front of them.

Once the cards have been dealt players can look at their cards or choose to play blind. If a player chooses to play blind they may only call a bet not raise a bet but they only have to pay half the bet into the pot. The player to the left of the dealer is the first to act and they must decide whether to fold their cards and forfeit the hand (and the money in the pot) or to make a bet. There is no option to simply check without making a further bet like in other cards games. If a player makes a bet the other players must decide whether to fold, call or bet again. If all but one of the players folds their hands the remaining player takes the pot unchallenged. At the end of the hand the dealer turn is passed to the left.

If a player decides to make a bet then all players at the table must decide whether to fold or to bet at least as much as the original bet. The betting continues around the table until the all players have either folded or matched the final bet. In certain variations of three card brag there may be a draw phase where players can exchange one, two or all three of the cards dealt to them and there may also be a limit on the number of raises in each round of betting.

Once all but two players have folded their hands there is another option available. A player can pay to ‘see’ the other player’s hand. Seeing costs twice the value of the other players previous bet however it forces them to show their hand first. If you pay to see your opponent’s hand and your hand is the stronger you should turn over your cards and take the pot but if they are equal or worse you can simply fold your hand without showing your opponent your cards. It should be noted that if the hands are equal the player who pays to see loses.

During every hand of three card brag betting continues until all players except one have folded or when there are just two players remaining in the hand and one player pays double to see the other player’s hand. At the end of the hand the dealer turn is passed to the left.

Three card brag

Three card brag is a card game with a rich history dating back to the 16th century. It’s widely considered to be the first british card game to use the concept of “bluffing,” thus paving the way for the poker variants we know and love today. We cover the rules of three card brag and explain how to play this entertaining game for real money bets.

Rules of 3 card brag

Three card brag is a popular game played among friends.

The aim of three card brag is to get the best three card hand possible, beating all other players – although you also have the option of bluffing (“bragging”). Bluffing means you can lie about the value of your hand in a bid to deceive other players in the hopes they’ll believe you have a stronger hand than theirs and fold out of the game.

The value of the initial ante bet must be established before gameplay commences, along with the minimum and maximum amount of the initial bet and a limit on the amount that a bet can be increased by each subsequent player.

How to play three card brag

Once the betting rules have been established, gameplay unfolds as follows:

Ante bets are placed by all players.

The dealer now deals three face-down cards to each player, one at a time.

Players look at their cards, not revealing their hand to anyone else. Anyone choosing to play blind can now do so (explained in further detail below).

Betting now begins from the left of the dealer. Players have the choice to fold (forfeit their ante bet and eliminate themselves from the game) or bet, which requires any bet amount within the agreed minimum and maximum betting limits, provided it’s equal to the previous player’s bet or higher. If you can’t at least match the size of the bet before you, you must fold.

Betting continues as many times around the group as necessary until only one or two players remain in the game. If all but one player folds, that player is the winner and takes the pot. If two players remain, a third betting option now becomes available, known as “see,” which costs double the amount of the previous bet.

If you pay to see the other player’s cards, they must now reveal their three-card hand. If your hand is better, you need to prove it by showing it to the table. If your hand is worse or equal, you can fold without having to reveal your cards. In the event of a draw, the player who paid to “see” is the loser.

Blind betting explained

After the initial three card hands have been dealt, players have the option of betting blind, which means you bet without looking at your cards. Choosing to play blind means each of your bets will cost half the amount of the standard non-blind bet. You can choose to look at your cards at any stage, however you will no longer be considered a blind player and will be subject to the standard betting amounts.

If you’re playing blind and all other players fold, you don’t win the pot, but instead the pot carries over to the next game and you’re allowed to keep your current hand. When the next deal takes place, you can then decide whether to play with your new hand or keep your old one.

Hand rankings and odds

Hand rankings in three card brag are slightly different to classic poker, and come with some different terminologies. The potential hands are listed below in value from best to worst, along with their odds:

Prial (three of a kind) – odds of 459 to 1

Running flush (straight flush) – odds of 459 to 1

Run (straight) – odds of 31 to 1

Flush – odds of 20 to 1

Pair – odds of 1 to 6

High card – odds of 3 to 1

The best possible hand you can get is a prial consisting of three threes (which comes with odds of 5,524 to 1), although all other prial hands rank in regular order descending from three aces to three twos.

Strategy

One of the odd factors of gameplay in three card brag is that cards are rarely shuffled, and are instead simply placed at the bottom of the deck after each round. The only time cards are shuffled is at the beginning of the game and when a round is won with a prial hand. This means technically, if you’re astute enough and familiar with the concept, card counting could be applied in three card brag.

While it’s unlikely players of this casual card game will bother with card counting, recommended three card brag strategy suggests that players should embrace the concept of bluffing. Playing by the odds too rigidly is a sure way to lose quickly, and as bluffing is half the fun of this game, three card brag is a great chance to work on your poker face.

Playing blind should also only be done by experienced players. This is a difficult practice that takes a certain amount of expert knowledge to do well. If you do want to have a crack at betting blind, make it an occasional thing and ensure you’re financially prepared for the likely chance of losing.

Playing three card brag online

Note: online gambling is illegal in australia as of september 2017 following the introduction of the interactive gambling amendment bill 2016, so for australians the content on this page is informational in nature only. The information below is for international readers only.

Given the large variety of online card games available at our top-rated casinos, it’s unfortunate that three card brag isn’t available to play at any of our recommended casinos. This is likely due to the fact that bluffing is an imperative part of the game, which just doesn’t translate properly over a computer screen. If you’re keen to play three card brag, kick it old school and grab a deck of cards, round up some mates and see why this game has been so popular at social gatherings in britain, india and nepal for centuries.

Alternatively, three card brag is very similar to three card poker, which is available in both RNG and live dealer formats at several of our recommended casinos.

Play card game alternatives to three card brag, like three card poker or blackjack, at guts casino, where new players can claim a 100% matched deposit welcome bonus plus 100 free spins to use on selected slot games.

9 card brag, rules & complete how to play guide

9 card brag is a traditional british card game. Nowhere near as popular as 3 card brag, but never the less it was played in many homes up and down the country. Card games brought families together at christmas, millions played traditional games with everyone involved.

9 card brag seems a little complicated, rest assured it really isn’t. Here a breakdown.

9 card brag quick quick rules guide

Play always moves clockwise

Players are dealt 9 cards face down in turn

Each player splits their cards into 3 x brag hands

4 bets are placed, 1 for each hand and 1 to the main pot

Each hand is shown 1 at time, best to worst

Every hand won wins that hands ante

If a player wins all 3 hands they also win the main pot

The main pot keeps building every round until someone wins all 3 hands.

9 card brag deal and betting

Each player is dealt 1 card face up. The player with the highest card is the dealer.

If 2 or more players have the same value card, those players are dealt a further card to see who is the dealer.

Ante’s and betting: each player places 4 bets on each game of hand. 1 bet for each hand and a further bet to “the pot”. The best way to view this is as 4 separate pots.

Split the ante’s or bets into 4 separate pot i.E pot 1, pot 2, pot 3 and let’s call the last a bonus pot.

Dealing the cards: each player is dealt 9 cards, face down, the action is always clockwise and cards are dealt 1 at a time.

How to play 9 card brag

Each player splits their 9 card into 3 x 3 card brag hands.

9 card brag is almost 3 games in one. Starting from the left of the dealer each player shows the best of their brag hands, the highest wins pot 1

The second round follows the same – starting with the winner of round 1= each player shows their second-best brag hand, highest hand wins pot 2

3rd and final round – starting with the winner of round 3 = all players show their final and worse 3 card brag hand – highest hand wins yet again.

Should a player win all 3 rounds in a game of 9 card brag, he or she also wins the bonus pot.

Hand rankings in 9 card brag

The hands rank the same as in all brag games, 3 card brag being the most popular. 3 x 3s is the highest hand as the whole game revolves around the number 3, 3 of a kind is known as a prial. The 3 card is only really important in a prial, a running flush or a run. Hands lower than this just play on face value.

Hands best to worst

A prial: 333 highest then AAA, KKK and 222 being the worst

Running flush: 3 cards in number order and the same suit. A23 is the highest followed by AKQ the lowest is 234.

Run: 3 cards in number order. Again A23 is the highest followed by AKG, KQJ down to the lowest of 234

A flush: all cards of the same suit. Card value does count so AKJ id the highest flush and 235 is the lowest.

A pair: AA is the highest pair and all run in value don to 22 the lowest pair in brag.

High card: ace high is the best high card hand i.E AKJ is the highest. All 3 card play as an example AK9 would beat AK8

9 card brag strategy and tips.

The real skill in 9 card brag is deciding which way to split your hands! You can go for a guaranteed winner in round 1. Or perhaps break that up to make 2 stronger hands? Could this give you a better chance of winning 2 and maybe all 3 pots.

The decision on splitting hands is a hard one. The best way to see it is that in round 1, any running flush should be good enough,. That said prials are quite common in 9 card brag. For this reason, you may be quite often beaten in round 1, but successful in rounds 2 and 3.

It just takes time and practice.

The main thing to pay attention too is the way the other players split their cards. You will see a pattern which will give you an advantage over them by knowing how they tend to think.

How to play 3 card brag

You may well have played poker before, but do you know how to play 3 card brag? Sometimes known as three-card poker in a casino setting, this simplified twist on the popular game has become a table standard across the globe as well as online.

In fact, it’s thought the game may even traditionally outdate its wider equivalent. Poker in itself can be a fairly long game if you have plenty of great players at the table.

This version of the game, however, can often be speedier – and may not need as many players involved at once.

If you’ve never played the game before, here’s your chance to learn more about what’s involved, and what you’re going to need to do to win.

More and more online casinos and gaming sites are bringing 3 card into their live 3 card casino line-ups, which means there’s never been a better time to get brushing up on how to beat the dealer at their own game.

3 card brag how to play

Anyone looking for a 3 card brag how to play guide need look no further. While there are 3 card strategies and systems which can help to boost the probability of you winning every time, we are going to focus today on the basics. That is, what makes up the game, how you win, and what’s at stake.

Three card is thought to date back to 16 th -century britain, where it’s supposedly a forerunner of a number of bluffing games which are still popularly played in casinos and for fun all over the world today.

It’s a game which may well be known to eastern players as faras or teen patti. One of the main differences between this game and poker in general lies in the fact that there’s less cards – and that there are some big changes when it comes to hand rankings.

With this in mind, if you’ve played poker before, you may be surprised by some of the variations.

3 card brag rules

Let’s take a close look at the basic 3 card brag rules, step by step.

Firstly, a table of three players or more is dealt three card per person, all face down.

As with poker, the first round now takes place, whereby players will choose to bet or fold based on the hands they’ve been dealt.

You’ll choose to bet if you think you have the makings of a 3 card winning hand, and fold if you don’t.

As with poker, however, you may choose to bluff – which could influence the decisions made by other players. This means that you could choose to bet even if you don’t have the best hand around. You’ll be banking on other players dropping out, intimidated by your alleged hand.

Betting will continue round until there are only two players left in the game, when the players will be requested to show their hands. The highest hand, based on the hand rankings, will take away the pot money.

The pot money is composite of all bets placed during the game.

When it comes to your turn in betting once more, you will need to make sure to honour at least the same amount you bet in the preceding round. You can, of course, raise your bets – if you are confident.

In three card, you do also have the choice of betting ‘blind’ or ‘open’. Betting blind means that you place your bet without having looked at your cards. When you do this, other players will need to double your initial bet if they are betting open.

Betting open essentially means that you have already seen your cards and are making a bet based upon such knowledge.

How to play three card brag

Knowing to play three card brag is half the battle – it’s knowing how to bluff and when to bet that counts! Brave players choose to bet blind when they feel they can get an advantage over other players – while some players may choose to bluff their way into the final pair.

Bluffing will only stand to work in this game if you do have the makings of at least a small hand – as otherwise, you will likely be beaten in the final showdown.

The game is slightly different to the main poker games out there in that it is largely rounds of betting based on only one deal. Other variations of poker may see you pick up extra cards, or even work from a ‘community’ pile.

Community piles are where a run of cards are placed in the middle of the table and can be used by all players to help make up hands.

Plenty of players prefer this version of the game as it can be a quicker alternative. What’s more, learning the various hands and combinations needed to win can be seen as far easier.

You will come across lots of 3 card sites online, some will offer free 3 card games and others will offer new 3 card games. Make sure you have a look at the various sites so you can find the best three card poker games for you.

Three card brag hands

It’s a good idea to acquaint yourself with the hands required to win in the game while you are learning to play 3 card.

It takes a lot of skill and luck to summon up the best hands – and thankfully, unlike some of the more advanced poker variations, it’s not as difficult to remember the winning hands required. Here is a brief rundown of the hands you’ll need in ranked order:

Prial – a prial hand is the most valuable, and it’s otherwise called a ‘pair royal’. Score three cards of the same value – e.G. QQQ or JJJ – to claim one. The higher the card value, the more valuable the prial, so AAA is most sought-after.

Running flush – get three cards in sequence, e.G. A-2-3 (the highest combination).

Run – a run is three cards of the same suit in sequence, e.G. 3-4-5 of diamonds.

Flush – a flush offers you any three cards of the same suit.

Pair – nice and simple, just find two cards of the same value.

High card – the lowest hand, simply use your highest value card.

All tips and tricks strategies

Check out the in-depth list of tips and tricks strategies for various online games.

The full list shows the various strategies for online gambling sites.

So, let's see, what we have: how to play three card brag the gambling card game. Here you will discover the rules for playing brag along with several fun variations on the game! At how to play 3 card brag