Written by Let It Ride is a slightly odd game. Not so much for the way in which you play it – it’s actually quite an innovative poker variant and enjoyable to play. What makes it different is its complete artificiality. It has no history or traditions, no civil war soldiers, gold miners or cowboys played this, it was actually invented relatively recently by Michael Parisi and Karen Elder from Shuffle Master. It’s so new new in fact that it has its own trademark. It’s not really played in many venues, possibly because it’s a trademarked game, but one or two casinos in Australia feature it.
It’s a community card game, which as we know means that it involves players sharing the cards which are dealt face up on the table, as opposed to stud games in which there are no shared cards. The basic rules are as follows:
The game can accommodate quite a few players as each player receives three hole card (cards in his or her hand) and only two community cards are features. Players are ultimately looking for the best five card hand. In Let It Ride, players play against the house/dealer, not against each other and there is a hierarchy of wins available.
To begin, each player places three identical bets in front of him/her and then each player is dealt a card, then a community card is placed face down in the centre of the table. However before the first community card is dealt each player has an opportunity to withdraw one of the three bets or to Let It Ride.
There is a second opportunity to withdraw a bet after the player receives the second card but before the second community card has been revealed. The hand then plays out with both community cards revealed and all players with three cards. Any winning hands win as proscribed by the hand rankings chart.
The distinguishing feature of Let It Ride is of course the ability to minimise your losses. Various strategies have been formulated for this game but the best house edge available for a player is about 3.5%.
