What are Gambling Card Games?
Playing cards were believed to have first been invented during the Tang Dynasty of China, during the technological advancement achieved by the scholarly era of 9th Century China. The concept of paper cards used for gambling spread from East to West as Asia and Europe traded and interacted increasingly during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Ancient Romans would use dice to gamble, while the Sumerians played a board game known as the Royal Game of Ur. Playing cards are merely one of many tools that human beings have used to wager money on the outcome of gaming.
Since their widespread adoption, playing cards have been used for gambling, the activity of wagering an amount of money on a particular card game.
Most Popular Casino Card Games
As in the other card game categories, there are a wide variety of games available. Below you can find a selection of gambling card games that we have found to be the most popular options overall.
Poker (Texas Hold’em)
One of the most prevalent casino card games in American media. Texas Hold’em is the game used to show a character is suave, cool under pressure, and highly intelligent. The game manages to live up to this reputation.
A game of luck and skill, with a depth of betting strategy that gives the game a psychology unlike any other. Question whether your opponent is bluffing or not, and make a high bet that makes it distasteful for other players to bet without going so high the bluff is obvious.
The monetary charge of Poker is integral to its gameplay. People are much less willing to make wild bluffs when they stand to lose every cent they bet.
Blackjack
Another game made famous both by the silver screen and its prevalence on the House floor. Blackjack is normally used to demonstrate a character’s intelligence and pattern recognition skills. Blackjack is seen as the preeminent casino game by professional gamblers.
A good advantage Player, also known as a card counter, is able to make money for themselves by calculating the probability that particular cards are likely to be in the Dealer’s hand. With this estimation of the Dealer’s hand, an advantage player is able to bet high when they are likely to win, and bet low when they are not. This averages out their winnings to be a positive, leaving them with more money than they had when they arrived.
Baccarat
The card game of chance, the Hollywood favorite to demonstrate a character with a lot of money, and a lot of class. Baccarat is the favorite of high-rollers, with many high-end casinos offering a VIP lounge where high-stakes gamblers can partake in individual games of Baccarat costing tens of thousands of dollars.
Baccarat is essentially a coin flip, where Players and Dealers compare their cards, and the other Players bet on the outcome. However, the game is made more interesting (and more profitable as a margin for the House) by including the Tie Bet. A Player that successfully wagers on a tie will be paid a large multiplier of their original bet.
Casino War
Casino War is a gambling version of the chance-based card game. A proprietary game, originally produced by Bet Technology in 1993, casinos pay for the right to utilize the ruleset of Casino War at their tables. The rules are slightly different from the classic game of War.
Due to the monetary nature of gambling, Players are able to use their money as a game mechanic. In the case of a tie, Players are given the choice to surrender, losing half of their bet, or going to war. When going to war, a Player then doubles their wager.
However, a Player only wins back their original wager in the case of a victory. There must be a second tie after the first in order for a Player to be awarded their full double wager.
Although the House has a slight edge, a Player who always surrenders when prompted still has a chance of making money, as the House margin is slight.
Pai Gow Poker
Pai Gow Poker is a combination of the Chinese game of Pai Gow and the American Poker game. Players use a deck of 53 cards, the standard 52-card Anglo-American deck, in addition to a single Joker.
Players attempt to form two different Poker hands out of a hand of seven cards. A five-card hand, and a two-card hand, which each are of a higher quality than the Dealer’s respective five and two-card hands. The game is extremely popular in casinos worldwide, though it is relatively new, being invented in the 1980s.
Caribbean Stud
Caribbean Stud is a variation of Five Card Stud Poker. Caribbean Stud follows all of the same rules as Five Card Stud, except Caribbean Stud, is played against the House similar to a game of Blackjack.
As each Player is against the House, rather than a game competing against each other, the method of distributing winnings is different from regular Poker. Simply having the superior hand is not the best way to win. A Player that wins with a better hand wins a higher payout. This means that a superior meld, such as a Royal Flush or Four-of-a-Kind, can pay out dozens or a hundred times the original wager.
Andar Bahar
Andar Bahar is a game from India, popular at casinos in India as well as in other countries in South Asia where gambling is legal. Andar Bahar is particularly popular among the many digital gambling websites hosted in India.
Essentially a game of pure chance, Andar Bahar is similar to the game of Baccarat, where Players are essentially betting on a 50/50 occurrence. The Dealer will place one card, the card that must be matched. The Dealer will then deal cards into the Andar and Bahar piles, alternating between the two of them, as Players bet on whether the card which matches the first card will be dealt into the Andar, or Bahar pile.
Three Card Poker
Three Card Poker is a more fast-paced version of the traditional five-card Poker. Players sitting at the table must pay an ante if they want to be dealt cards. If Players want to play the round, they must then double their ante.
Once each Player has placed their wager, the Dealer will then reveal their cards, and each Player will reveal their cards one at a time, collecting or paying their wager depending on their performance in the hand. Cards that traditionally must be five cards to be valid need only three cards in Three Card Poker. For example, all three cards in the hand being the same suit would be a flush.
Omaha
Omaha, also known as Omaha Hold’em, is a variation of Texas Hold’em in which Players are dealt four cards instead of two. However, players can still only use two of the four cards they were dealt in their final meld.
Omaha is available for play in many different North American casinos, however, the game is not widely played outside of the United States.
Video Poker
The card gaming of the future. Video Poker is essentially the same as Five-Card Draw, except it isn’t played using cards at all! Instead, the game is completely digital, with a Player sitting at a machine similar to an arcade cabinet.
Players insert their money and then are dealt five digital cards. As per the rules of Five-Card Draw, Players are then given the chance to discard parts of their hand to potentially create a meld. If a Player’s hand beats the computer’s hand, they win a payout for their wager.
More Games
Further Information
Banking Games
Banking games are a type of popular card game in casinos. All those games above that make mention of Players facing the Dealer, rather than other Players, such as Caribbean Stud, are banking games. Banking games are, essentially, games that possess a Player known as the Banker. In a banking game, the Banker controls enough money in order to accept and payout the bets of multiple Players at once.
In a game of Blackjack, for example, Players are not playing against themselves, but rather against the Dealer, a hand of these games is made up of many individual comparisons between the Players and the Banker. In most casinos, the Banker and Dealer are the same person.
Vying Games
In contrast to Banking games, Vying Games are those games above that involve betting on the outcome of another Player’s hand. Vying Games are similar to Banking games, in the sense that there is a Banker who pays out for all of the bets, and Players are facing the Banker rather than each other.
However, Players do not wager on their own game, and instead wager on the outcome of another Player’s game against the Banker. Examples of Vying Games include Poker and Andar Bahar.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the easiest gambling card game?
The easiest gambling card games would be those that are almost entirely or entirely based upon chance. A game of chance requires no real thinking, as there is no real way to alter the outcome.
Although Casino War and Baccarat do both have some small situations in which better strategy can be employed, these games are overall based entirely on random chance. There is no active way to improve your odds of winning the game itself.
Which gambling card games can you play at home?
Many people enjoy playing games of Blackjack in order to pass the time. However, the traditional American card game to play at home is Poker.
Many people in the United States hold regular Poker nights, inviting friends over to enjoy snacks and alcohol while playing low-stakes games. A twenty-dollar buy-in may only pay out 100 dollars with five friends, but that’s still an incentive to win the game.
Which card game of chance has the best odds?
The card games with the best odds depend on what kind of Player you are as an individual. Advantage Players of Blackjack, for example, have the ability to increase their odds to such a degree that they regularly win.
However, for a casual player, the best odds can be found on games like Casino War, or Baccarat, where the house advantage is naturally very low, below 2%.
What is the oldest gambling card game?
This is a question with no definitive answer, though there is some contention. The oldest recorded European card game is Karnöffel, a German game popular among the Landsknecht mercenaries as a way to spend their wages.
However, there are references to something known as a “leaf game” in Tang Dynasty China. This is speculated by Sino-centric historians to be the world’s first card game, first referenced in texts from the 9th century.
Are there any casino card games available online?
There are a few, though Players should beware of the site they are using, as there are many online casinos that claim to be legitimate, however, there have been complaints against some of them for refusing to pay out to customers.
Generally, places like PokerStars and the sites listed below are safe places to play games without worrying about viruses or theft of personal information.
