Ultimate Texas Hold'em

Ultimate Texas Hold’em is the casino version of Texas Hold’em: you play heads-up against the dealer instead of other players, with the same two hole cards and five community cards. Its twist is the Play bet. You get one raise per hand, and the earlier you make it the bigger it can be — four times your ante before the flop, twice after it, once at the river. The game was invented by Roger Snow of Shuffle Master, and Evolution, working with Scientific Games, streams the live online version. This guide covers the rules, every payout, the house edge and the strategy that keeps it among the lowest-edge games on a casino floor.

Ultimate Texas Hold’em Rules

1. Bet the Ante and the Blind. Both are compulsory and must be equal. You can also add the optional Trips side bet.
2. Two cards each. You and the dealer get two cards face down; you look at yours.
3. Before the flop: check, or make a Play bet of 3x or 4x your Ante.
4. The flop (three community cards). If you checked, you may now bet 2x your Ante, or check again.
5. The turn and river (the last two community cards). If you checked twice, you must now bet exactly 1x your Ante or fold, losing your Ante and Blind.
6. Showdown. You and the dealer each make the best five-card hand from your two cards and the five on the table. Once you have made a Play bet you never bet again.

Hands rank as in ordinary poker; our poker hand rankings guide has the full order.

How Each Bet Is Settled

The dealer needs at least a pair to open (qualify). That only affects the Ante: if the dealer does not open, the Ante is returned, but the Play and Blind bets still win or lose against the dealer’s hand.

The Blind only pays a bonus when you win with a straight or better; on any other winning hand it is returned.

Three Examples

With an Ante and Blind of 10 each, and a 4x Play bet of 40:

The Trips Bet

Trips is an optional side bet on your own final hand, whatever the dealer holds: it pays on three of a kind or better and loses otherwise. Casinos use one of several pay tables. The most generous common version pays:

On that table the house edge on Trips is about 0.9%. Other tables pay 8 to 1 on a full house or 20 to 1 on four of a kind, and the edge rises to between 1.9% and 6.2%, so check the game’s help screen before you add it.

Ultimate Texas Hold’em Strategy

Because you choose when to raise, the game rewards a simple strategy. This is the one published by Wizard of Odds.

Before the flop: raise 4x with

• Any pair from 3-3 up (check with 2-2).
• Any ace.
• King: any suited king, or K-5 offsuit and higher.
• Queen: Q-6 suited and higher, or Q-8 offsuit and higher.
• Jack: J-8 suited and higher, or J-10 offsuit.

Otherwise check. The strategy never uses the 3x option: a hand worth raising early is worth raising the maximum.

After the flop: raise 2x with

• Two pair or better.
• A hidden pair — a pair that uses at least one of your hole cards — except pocket twos.
• Four cards to a flush, including a hole card of 10 or higher in that suit.

At the river: bet 1x or fold

Bet 1x with a hidden pair or better. Otherwise, count the dealer hole cards that would beat you: roughly, any card that pairs a board card, plus any card higher than your best hole card (cards that would only tie do not count). With fewer than 21 such outs, bet; with 21 or more, fold.

House Edge

Played perfectly, Ultimate Texas Hold’em has a house edge of 2.185% of the Ante. Because the average hand ends with about 4.15 times the Ante on the table, that works out at only 0.526% of everything you bet. For comparison, single-zero roulette has a house edge of 2.70%. The simple strategy above gives up very little: it plays to an edge of 2.43% of the Ante, or 0.58% of the total bet.

Ultimate Texas Hold’em vs Casino Hold’em

Both are house-banked Hold’em. In Casino Hold’em you bet an Ante, see your two cards and the flop, then must either call with a 2x bet or fold, and the dealer qualifies with a pair of fours or better. Ultimate Texas Hold’em gives you three chances to raise instead of one call, lets you see all five community cards before deciding if you check through, and adds the Blind with its 500 to 1 royal flush.

Where to Play Live Ultimate Texas Hold’em

The live online game is Evolution’s, played with a real dealer in a studio. These casinos run Evolution on their live floor; look for the game under live poker in the lobby:

Each review covers the full welcome terms, the games and the payment methods. Live tables have minimum and maximum bets, and the royal flush payout on the Blind can be capped by the table maximum, so check the limits before you sit down.

More Hold’em: our poker rules, Texas Hold’em strategy and Omaha rules.

Set a budget before you play for real money and stick to it. Free, confidential support is available at BeGambleAware.org. 18+ only.

Also worth a look: another quick heads-up game against the dealer: Three Card Poker.

Also worth a look: Mississippi Stud, where you play against a pay table instead of the dealer.

Another game against the dealer: Caribbean Stud Poker, with a single fold-or-raise decision.

Ultimate Texas Hold'em: frequently asked questions