Ultimate Holdem Strategy

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Ultimate Texas Hold'em (UTH) is one of the most popular novelty games in the market. For that reason, it is important to understand the multitude of ways that UTH may be vulnerable to advantage play. Ultimate Texas Hold'em Basic Strategy and House Edge. Ultimate Texas Holdem Betting Strategy playing free casino slots games at Slotomania are our special perks: from free spins to bonus rounds, making your Ultimate Texas Holdem Betting Strategy game even more enthralling. This product is intended for use by those 21 or older for amusement purposes only.

Ultimate Texas Holdem Strategy Guide: Rules for Winning

Don’t let the above title fool you – there’s no way to guarantee a profit in any casino game. But if you play your cards right, a good Ultimate Texas Holdem strategy can drop the house edge to 0.526%. Play it wrong, and the house edge will start at 2.85%, increasing with every bad decision made.

The first thing you need to know is that there’s a big difference between Texas Holdem Poker and Ultimate Texas Holdem. The former is a player-vs-player game that often involves bluffing and outwitting your opponents through mental aptitude.

Despite its similar appearance, Ultimate Texas Holdem is completely differently. This is a house-banked game that offers to such psychological advantage. It’s player-vs-dealer, and only the best hand wins. Therefore you’ll need a completely different Ultimate Texas Holdem strategy to win more often.

Ultimate Texas Holdem Rules

The rules of the game are simple, especially if you already know how to play Texas Holdem poker. Here’s a quick rundown of game play.

– 1 standard 52-card deck I used, reshuffled after every hand.
– Player makes equal Ante and Blind bet to start.
– Player and dealer each dealt 2 hole cards (face down); player may look at own cards.
– Player will either Check or Raise, with Raise equal to 3x or 4x the Ante.
– Three community cards are dealt (face up).
– If Player checked before, he may Check again or Raise 2x the Ante. If a Raise was already placed, no further bets can be placed.
– Final two community cards are dealt.
– Player must Raise equal to Ante if he’s checked on both previous rounds, or Fold. If a Raise was already placed, no further bets can be placed.
– Player and Dealer set highest ranking hands from their own hole cards and community cards.
– Highest ranking hand wins. Dealer must have Any Pair or better to “qualify”.

Ultimate Texas Holdem Payouts

Remember, there are three bets that may (or may not) win here; the Blind, the Ante and the Raise. The relative payouts and dealer hand qualifications are as follows.

– If the Player wins and the Dealer qualifies, Blind, Ante and Raise bets win.
– If the Player wins and the Dealer does not qualify, Blind and Raise bets win; Ante is a push.
– If the Dealer wins and qualifies, Blind, Ante and Raise bet are lost.
– If the Dealer wins and does not qualify, Blind and Raise bets are lost; Ante is a push.
– In the case of Tie, all bets push regardless of dealer qualification.

Blind Bet Pays: Ante and Raise bets are always paid even money. Blind bets pay according to the following pay table, based on the player’s progressive hand ranks.

Royal Flush Pays 500 to 1
Straight Flush Pays 50 to 1
Four of a Kind Pays 10 to 1
Full House Pays 3 to 1
Flush Pays 3 to 2
Straight Pays 1 to 1
All Others are a Push

Ultimate Texas Holdem Strategy

The biggest takeaway from the rules section is that the amount a player is allowed to Raise will decrease with each passing round of play. Either way, a Raise (aka Play Bet) must be made at some point, or the player must fold.

There’s a very basic chart players can use to ensure they are always making the right move. Note that this is an Ultimate Texas Holdem strategy for beginners, and that more advanced tactics can be applied later.

Note: If you’re dealt a pair in the hole, always Raise pre-flop unless they’re 2s (Raise after flop if 2s). For all other hands, follow this Ultimate Texas Holdem strategy chart. If your hand still falls into the “N” column after all community cards are dealt, fold.

Low Card
2
4
6
8
10
Q
A
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
S
S
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
N
S
Y
Y
J
N
N
N
S
10
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
7
N
N
6
N
N
N
N
Yes, Raise
N
N =
3
S =

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Casinos are always looking for new games to offer bored gamblers. Over the last decade or 2, these games are more commonly related to poker than anything else. But games like these—including Scientific Gaming’s Ultimate Texas Holdem—are more akin to blackjack than to poker. In fact, dealing Ultimate Texas Holdem is considered dealing a novelty casino game. The College of Southern Nevada covers how to deal Ultimate Texas Holdem in their blackjack class.

What’s the big difference between Ultimate Texas Holdem (and games like it) and “real” poker games? The main difference is who you’re competing with. In a so-called real poker game, you’re competing with the other players at the table. If you win money, you’re winning it from them. If you lose money, you’re losing it to your competitors at the table.

In casino-banked poker games, like baccarat, blackjack, or Ultimate Texas Holdem, you’re competing with the house. And for the most part, when you’re competing with the house, the casino has an edge over the player. In fact, the only exceptions are when players are either cheating or using some kind of advantage play technique.

This isn’t a value judgment. It’s perfectly all right to play house-banked casino games. Gamblers do it every day. I’m pointing out the distinction because it’s important to know what you’re getting into when you play a casino game.

With that as a premise—understanding in detail what you’re getting into when you’re playing a casino game—I offer you this post: “The Definitive Guide to Ultimate Texas Holdem.” The idea is to share everything you would ever need or want to know about Ultimate Texas Holdem. Luckily, it’s not that complicated a game. There’s no need to write an entire book about it, like you would do with blackjack or poker.


Ultimate Texas Holdem is a card game where you play heads-up against a casino dealer. Other players at the table are also playing heads-up against the dealer. It features a progressive jackpot, among other payouts.

You start by making 2 equal-sized bets:

  • The Ante Bet
  • The Blind Bet

At most casinos, the minimum bet is either $5 or $10. The maximum bet is usually between $50 an $500.

You also have 2 optional bets you can make:

  • The Trips Bonus Bet
  • The Progressive Bet

You start by getting 2 hole cards from the dealer—these are 2 cards that are dealt to you face-down, just like in regular Texas holdem.

When you get those cards, you can choose from the following actions:

  • Check
  • Bet 3X the Ante (A “Play” Bet.)
  • Bet 4X the Ante (Also a “Play” Bet.)

After you’ve made your decision, the dealer reveals 3 face-up cards—the “flop.” (This is also how regular Texas holdem works.)

If you checked when you got your hole cards, you have the option now to place a bet of 2X the Ante (another example of a “Play Bet.”) After that decision is made, the dealer turns over 2 more face-up cards—the turn and the river, in Texas holdem terms. Note that the action here is different than in traditional Texas holdem. Normally you’d have a turn, followed by a betting round, then the river, followed by another betting round.

Ultimate Texas Holdem combines the turn and the river into one phase. After this, if you haven’t already bet on your hole cards or on the flop, you have the option of placing a bet of equal size to the Ante. (This is the final example of a “Play Bet.”) You may also fold at this point.

Once you’ve made your decision, the dealer reveals her hole cards and announces the final hand. If your hand beats the dealer’s hand (using the standard poker hand rankings), you win even money on your Ante bets and the Play bets. On the other hand, if the dealer’s hand beats yours, you lose your Ante, Blind, and Play Bets. If you tie, then these bets are all treated as a “push.” (A push is when your original bet is returned to you, but without any winnings. You have neither a net win nor a net loss.)

The Blind Bet is handled differently. It pays off if you win AND if you have a straight or better. If you have less than a straight but still beat the dealer, the Blind Bet is treated as a push. The Blind Bet is paid off based on a pay table. The better your hand, the more it pays off. (It’s like video poker in this respect.)

Also, the dealer must qualify for the Ante Bet to pay off. The dealer qualifies by having at least a pair or better. The other bets still get action, regardless of whether the dealer qualifies. The progressive bet wins if you have a full house or better. The top jackpot pays off if you have a royal flush on the 1st 5 cards of the game.

Casinos generally use a shuffling machine called an “i-Deal single deck specialty shuffler.” That’s because this game was created by Shufflemaster, which is now a division of Scientific Games. Shufflemaster’s reason for existence is to sell shuffling machines to casinos, so creating new cards is something they do in service to this goal.

The Blind Bet and the Trips Bonus Bet have 2 different pay tables.

Here’s a common pay table for the Blind Bet:

HandPayout
Royal flush500 to 1
Straight flush50 to 1
4 of a kind10 to 1
Full house3 to 1
Flush3 to 2
StraightEven money

Keep in mind that the Blind Bet pays off regardless of whether the dealer qualifies. Also, notice that 3 of a kind doesn’t pay off for the Blind Bet, which is an interesting quirk of the game. The pay tables can vary—the casino gets to choose from multiple options. For example, some casinos pay off 40 to 1 instead of 50 to 1 for a straight flush. This changes the house edge for the game, of course.

Here’s a common pay table for the Trips Bonus Bet:

HandPayout
Royal flush50 to 1
Straight flush40 to 1
4 of a kind30 to 1
3 of a kind8 to 1
Full house8 to 1
Flush6 to 1
Straight5 to 1
Strategy

Here are a couple of facts to keep in mind about the Trips Bonus Bet:

  • Your hand doesn’t have to win. It pays off regardless of whether you or the dealer wins.
  • It wins even if you don’t have to use your hole cards. You can just play the board (the flop, turn, and river.)
  • It wins even if you fold.

How the Progressive Bet and Jackpot Works


The progressive bet in Ultimate Texas Holdem is also an optional side bet. At most casinos, this bet is a flat $1 bet. But at some casinos, the Progressive Bet is $5. You can win 1 of 2 progressive jackpots in this game—the smaller jackpot, or the larger jackpot. To win the smaller progressive jackpot, you must use at least 1 of your hole cards. The smaller progressive pays off for hands that are a full house or better.

To win the bigger progressive jackpot—which is 100% of the jackpot—you must use both your hole cards and the flop to form a royal flush. If you hit the royal flush on the turn or the river, you don’t win the bigger progressive. You can also win a percentage of the full big progressive jackpot

Ultimate Texas Holdem Strategy Chart

Casinos also feature something called an “Envy Bonus.” This is a bonus paid to any player at the table when one of the other players wins the progressive jackpot.

Casino games where you make decisions usually have a house edge that varies based on how well you make those decisions. In other words, your strategy matters. There’s always a mathematically correct play in every situation. In Ultimate Texas Holdem, your strategy is limited to whether you make Play Bets during the various stages of the game. For me, this isn’t an intuitive decision. You can find various websites offering strategies for this, but I have another recommendation:

Las Vegas Advisor caters to casino gamblers, and they offer a cheap, laminated strategy chart. You can buy it for less than $6. It was created by James Grosjean, who’s well-known as a blackjack and gambling expert. According to them, if you just try to play this game using your intuition, the house edge is probably at least 10%.

The house edge is the amount of each bet that the casino projects you’ll lose on average based on the probabilities behind the game. Obviously, the lower the house edge, the better for the player. You should do everything you can to minimize the house edge on any casino game you play.

If you use perfect basic strategy on Ultimate Texas Holdem, the house expects to win a little over 2%. Let’s assume that the house edge is 10% if you don’t know basic strategy. What does that do to the cost of playing the game in the long run?

Let’s assume you’re playing 40 hands per hour and betting $10 per hand. This means you’re putting $400 into action each hour. 2% of that is just $8/hour. That’s a reasonable entertainment cost for a lot of gamblers. 10% of that, though, is $40/hour. That’s a huge difference. It sounds to me like that $6 strategy card from James Grosjean will pay for itself in an hour or less.

There’s an interesting post at Two Plus Two from a gambler describing his basic strategy for Ultimate Texas Holdem. I don’t know how close it mirrors a mathematically perfect strategy, but here’s what “nonprofitgambler” says is the correct way to play:

Preflop, he suggests raising with any of the following hands:

  • Any ace
  • Any k5+, and any king suited
  • Q5s+, Q8+
  • J8s+, JT+
  • 33+ for pocket pairs

That small “s” after the number means that the cards are of the same suit (they’re “suited.”) On the flop, he says most people play the same, and that it’s correct—if you pair anything, you raise. But those obviously aren’t the only hands you should raise with here. You should also bet flush draws, straight draws, and combination draws. This means you have 4 cards to a big hand. On the river, you should bet any kind of made hand, but some boards are scarier than others.

Discount Gambling has an excellent colored chart explaining basic strategy for Ultimate Texas Holdem in detail. I respect the amount of work and skill that goes into creating such a thing, so I’ll refrain from reprinting or paraphrasing that strategy here. He explains that if you use his strategy, you’ll keep the house edge to between 2.2% and 2.3%.

Finally, I’d like to point out that the house edge on Ultimate Texas Holdem isn’t outrageous, but blackjack is still almost always a better deal. With perfect basic strategy, many blackjack games have a house edge of just 0.5%. This means you get the same kind of entertainment for closer to $2/hour instead of $8/hour.

You can play a nice, free version of Ultimate Texas Holdem at this site. It has a place where you can toggle the sound on and off. You can also toggle the “give advice” button off an on. If you’ve never played Ultimate Texas Holdem before, this page is a great way to practice. It’s refreshingly free of advertising, too, which is rare and unusual in this industry.

Ultimate Texas Holdem online, free

Also, if you like Ultimate Texas Holdem, I suggest you give multiplayer Texas holdem in the poker room a try—if you haven’t already. It’s a lot more fun, and you have more of an opportunity to get an edge, since you’re competing against other players.

Odds

That’s it for my “Definitive Guide to Ultimate Texas Holdem.” I can’t imagine any information you could want about the game that I’ve left out. But if I did miss something, or if you have questions about Ultimate Texas Holdem that remain unanswered, please put a note in the comments.

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