How To Play Ultimate Texas Hold Em
What is Ultimate Texas Hold Em?
Ultimate Texas Hold’em (also known as Extreme Texas Hold’em) is a relatively new casino table game found in both brick and mortar casinos and online. Ultimate Texas Hold’em is essentially the classic game of poker we all know and love, though it has been modified to be played against the house rather than other players.
Of course, as with all table games, Ultimate Texas Hold’em has a slight house edge, meaning you will be losing money in the long run. With that in mind, it’s still an exciting game which adds much needed variety to a casino's table game offering, helping those casinos stand out from the ones which only offer blackjack and roulette.
It's easy to be intimidated by the complex layout of the board in Ultimate Texas Hold’em, but you shouldn’t be. The different areas of the board simply highlight the different bets that can be made, and understanding what they are and how to make them should put your mind at ease.
Your first step to learning how to play ultimate texas hold’em should be to learn the standard poker hand rankings, your winnings depend on how strong your hand is based on these hand rankings, so it's very important to know.
Poker Hand Rankings
Below is our poker hand rankings guide. It's good to know what hands beat what in poker because it will help you understand why you are winning (or indeed losing) when you play.
Unlike in standard Texas Hold’em (which is played against other players rather than the house) you wont need to declare your hand in Ultimate Texas Hold Em, the dealer will take care of that, but it is good to know what you have.
Hand Stages In Ultimate Texas Hold Em
If you are unfamiliar with standard texas hold em poker, you may not know how poker hands progress.
In the traditional texas hold’em game you are dealt 2 cards face down (these are called your ‘hole cards’). 5 ‘community cards’ are then dealt face up on the table, and you must make the best possible hand using any 5 of the 7 cards available to you using the hand rankings above.
The 5 community cards are dealt in order of flop (3 cards), turn (1 card) and river (1 card). In standard texas hold’em a round of betting occurs after each deal. So the hand stages look like this:
A round of betting before the flop is dealt - or pre-flop
A second round of betting after the flop (the first three community cards) has been dealt
A third round of betting after the turn (the fourth community card) has been dealt
A final round of betting after the fifth community card, the river, has been dealt
However, in Ultimate Texas Hold Em, the turn and river are always dealt together so you get 3 community cards (the flop) and then a further 2 cards are dealt (the turn and the river together) with no round of betting in between. So in Ultimate Texas Hold’em, the hand stages progress like this:
You place your blind and ante before you are dealt any cards (the blind and ante have to be the same amount).
You are dealt two cards face down and a round of betting occurs (it is worth noting that you can only bet either 3x or 4x your blind and ante at this stage). If you do not want to bet on your cards, you can check.
If you check, the dealer will deal the flop, and you will be able to place a bet which is limited to 2x your ante amount, or you can check again.
If you check again, the dealer will deal the fourth and fifth cards, and if you want to bet on your hand strength at this point, you will be limited to just 1x your ante amount. If you still don’t like your hand and dont want to bet, you must fold and forfeit your ante and blind bets for that hand.
If you bet pre-flop, the dealer will deal all 5 community cards with no further rounds of betting. The same is true if you bet on the flop. Players are only able to bet on a hand once in Ultimate Texas Hold’em.
Bet Types In Ultimate Texas Hold Em
In Ultimate Texas Hold Em there are 4 types of bet you can place. These are:
The ante and blind (sometimes called odds) which must be placed before the hand begins and be equal amounts.
You then have the “play” bet which represents your raise amount during the hand. If you like your hand and wish to raise you can put 3x or 4x your ante bet in the play box when the action is preflop, 2x your ante bet when the action is on the flop and 1x your ante bet if you are at the river. When you make a play bet your action for the hand is over, the dealer will deal any remaining community cards and reveal their hand. The winner is then decided on hand strength.
Finally, you have the optional ‘Trips’ bet which is a side bet and will payout based on the strength of your hand regardless if you win or lose. See the payouts section below for more info on what you can win.
Note: If the game you are playing only allows you to place a 3x bet pre flop, it's a slightly different game called Heads-Up Poker. See the strategy section below for how Heads-Up Poker differs to Ultimate Texas Hold’em.
Winning at Ultimate Texas Hold em
A game of Ultimate Texas Hold’em is decided after all the community cards have been dealt and betting has concluded. At this point, the dealer will reveal their cards to you and whoever has the strongest hand (based on standard poker hand rankings as shown in the chart above) wins.
However, there are other ways to win in Ultimate Texas Hold’em, even if you don’t have the strongest hand, depending on which above four bets you placed at the start of the game.
Ultimate Texas Hold Em Payouts
The pay tables for ultimate texas hold em vary for the different types of bet you can make. The payout will also depend on how strong your hand is and how strong the dealer's hand is.
To put it simply, the best case scenario in Ultimate Texas hold 'em is where you make a very strong hand like a flush or full house and the dealer makes a hand at least as strong as 1 pair. In this case you would win 1:1 on the ‘ante’ and ‘play’ bets, and you would win on the ‘blind’ bet according to your hand strength. If you also made a ‘trips’ bet you would get a payout based on your hand strength there too.
| Ultimate Texas Hold Em Paytable | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wager Result | ||||
| Winning Hand | Dealer Qualified | Ante Pays | Play Pays | Blind Pays |
| Player | Yes | 1:1 | 1:1 | Win |
| Player | No | Push | 1:1 | Win |
| Dealer | Yes | Lose | Lose | Lose |
| Dealer | No | Push | Lose | Lose |
| Tie | Any | Push | Push | Push |
| Trips/Blind Paytable | ||
|---|---|---|
| Trips | Blind | |
| Royal Flush | 50:1 | 500:1 |
| Straight Flush | 40:1 | 50:1 |
| Quads | 30:1 | 10:1 |
| Full House | 8:1 | 3:1 |
| Flush | 7:1 | 3:2 |
| Straight | 4:1 | 1:1 |
| Trips | 3:1 | Push |
| All other | Lose | Push |
What is the House Edge In Ultimate Texas Hold Em?
For a relatively new casino game Ultimate Texas hold Em has a very reasonable house edge. The absolute house edge on the ante bet is around 2.19%, but that’s not the full story.
You should remember that during the hand you will place additional bets which pay at a 1:1 ratio. This means that, on average, the total bet per hand is around 4.1x the ante amount. So this means that you should take the house edge to be around 0.53%. This is right in line with Blackjack when played with perfect strategy.
Working out the house edge can be quite confusing for games where there are additional bets once the hand has started. The most important thing to remember is that with perfect strategy you can get a game with a house edge of just over half a percent (0.53%).
Ultimate Texas Hold Em Strategy
You should always try to use this simple strategy when playing Ultimate Texas Hold Em, it will make the game more fun and you should win more money as a result. If you want to get close to that 0.53% figure from above you should follow this guide.
As a rule of thumb, never take the 3x raise. The 4x raise is always the better option if you have the choice.
When To Make The 4x Raise
You will want to make the 4x raise in the following situations
You have any Ace
Any suited King or any hand K5 or better
Q6 suited or better, Q8 offsuit or better
J8 suited or better, J10
Pocket pairs 33s or better
Sometimes, you’ll find that the 4x raise is not an option and the most you can raise by is 3x pre flop. This is a slight variant on the game called Heads Up Hold Em. The strategy for making the 1x and 2x raises are exactly the same but for 3x raises you should use the following strategy.
When To Make The 3x Raise
Make the 3x raise only when the 4x raise is unavailable and you have:
Any Ace, suited or unsuited
K5 suited or better, if unsuited K7 or better
Q8 suited or better, if unsuited Q10 or better
J10 suited
Any pair except pocket 2s
When To Make The 2x Raise
Any hand 2 pair or better
Any pair that includes one of your hole cards except a pair of 2s
4 to a flush where you hold the 10 or better of that suit
When To Make The 1x Raise
Any pair that includes one of your hole cards
Fewer than 21 cards can beat you. Do not count 2 card combinations for this, simply figure out what cards the dealer can have that beat you and if it totals more than 21 you should fold.
Why You Should Play Ultimate Texas Hold Em
Firstly, now you know the game there is no excuse not to play Ultimate Texas Hold’em.
If you are a regular Blackjack player, you have to admit that it can get a bit boring over time, especially if you’re not counting cards and taking the casino for all they've got.
Ultimate Texas Hold Em is a great way to spice up your casino visit without having to play a super high house edge game like Roulette or, dare I say it, slots.
Ultimate Texas Hold Em FAQ
How do you play Ultimate Texas Hold em?
The game is played with a standard 52 card deck
The player must make equal bets on the ante and blind spots to begin a hand
The player and dealer each get two face down cards. The player may look at their cards.
The player can check or make a play bet equal to 3x or 4x the ante.
The dealer reveals 3 community cards
If the player previously checked, then they may make a Play bet equal to 2x their Ante or check again. If the player already made a Play bet, then they may not bet further.
The dealer reveals 2 more community cards
If the player previously checked twice, then they must either make a Play bet equal to exactly their Ante, or fold, losing both the Ante and Blind bets. If the player already raised they may not bet further.
The face down cards are revealed and the best 5 card hand is made for each the dealer and player.
What are the house odds on Ultimate Texas Holdem?
The house edge for the ante bet is around 2.19% however after all raises and taking the blind bet into consideration the edge is more like 0.53%, very good for a casino game.
Should you play the trips bet in Ultimate Texas Hold em?
The trips bet is a side bet which means the house edge will be much worse than the main game. If you are comfortable with a house edge in excess of 3% then go for it. 500:1 on a straight flush is very enticing.
Can you beat Ultimate Texas Holdem?
Ultimate Texas Hold Em is a house edge game so the short answer is no. There is a perfect strategy you can use to really bring the edge way down to only 0.53% which is very good and probably the best you will find in a casino, outside of BlackJack.
Where can you play ultimate texas hold'em?
You can play Ultimate Texas Hold’em either online or in brick and mortar casinos. However, be aware that it’s not available at every brick and mortar casino out there, so you might have to do some research first. We have been playing Ultimate Texas Hold’em online at PokerStars, but most online casinos have this game.
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