Let It Ride is a casino variation of poker, where the player wagers on the five-card poker hand formed by their own three cards and two community cards. Let It Ride is played at a relaxed pace relative to other casino card games, which has made it attractive to older players and to table game neophytes. Among dealing staff, Let It Ride has been nicknamed 'Let It Die', since the tipping rate is slow.
Let It Ride was invented by John Breeding (US Patent #5,288,081) of Shuffle Master,Inc which owns the trademark to both the name of the game and the logo.
Contents |
Let It Ride is a variation of five-card stud, based on three player cards and two community cards. The two community cards are initially dealt face down. The most distinguishing feature of Let It Ride is that the player is given two opportunities to withdraw exactly one-third of their initial wager. One chance occurs after the player looks at their hand but before the first community card is revealed, and the second occurs after the first community card is revealed, but before the second is revealed. The player may reduce their wager on either of these occasions, or on both, or neither. If the player decides not to withdraw part of their wager, they are said to "let it ride".
In the event of a winning hand after the second community card is revealed, what remains of the player's wager is paid out according to a payout table such as the one given below. There are small variations in payoffs between casinos, but the lowest paying hand in Let It Ride is typically a pair of 10's; a pair of nines or less is a losing hand, which results in the player forfeiting their remaining wager to the house.
| Hand | Payout |
|---|---|
| Royal flush | 1,000 to 1 |
| Straight flush | 200 to 1 |
| Four of a kind | 50 to 1 |
| Full house | 11 to 1 |
| Flush | 8 to 1 |
| Straight | 5 to 1 |
| Three of a kind | 3 to 1 |
| Two pair | 2 to 1 |
| Pair of 10's or better | 1 to 1 |
In order to ensure that the player's initial wager is divisible by three, each player must distribute their wager between over three betting spots which must all contain the same chip value. On some table layouts these spots are given the symbols (1),(2) and ($), with (1) and (2) indicating the thirds of the wager which the player can withdraw before the first and second community cards respectively are turned up, and ($) representing the third of the wager which there is never a chance to withdraw.
After players have placed their bets, the dealer starts from their left, and deals each player one card, followed by the first face-down community card, followed by a further card to each player, followed by the second community card, followed by a final card to each player. Players are not permitted to show their cards or to see the cards of other players at any point before the end of the deal.
Like blackjack and video poker, player decisions in Let It Ride affect the house edge. The strategy outlined below assumes the standard payout structure shown above. With correct strategy, the casino's edge in Let It Ride is about 3.5% of the final, non-withdrawable third of the initial wager.
The correct strategy for withdrawing parts of the wager depends in general on the exact payout table. The following strategy applies to the example table above:
After the player has seen only their own hand and no community cards, they should withdraw a third of their wager unless they have any of the following:
After the player has seen a further community card, they should inspect the four cards which they can see, and withdraw a third of their initial wager unless it contains any of the following:
Common side bets for Let It Ride include: