Three Card Poker: Wild Winning Streaks – Gaming and Destinations

Summary

This piece by John Grochowski examines extraordinarily rare winning streaks in Three Card Poker, anchored by a reader report of being dealt four straight flushes in a row (the first two identical). The article walks through the maths behind the odds, contrasts those chances with other casino jackpots, and offers additional table anecdotes that show how streaks — while improbable — do occur.

Key Points

There are 22,100 possible three-card hands from a 52-card deck; 48 of those are straight flushes (about 1 in 460.417 hands).
Two consecutive straight flushes ≈ 1 in 211,984; three ≈ 1 in 97.6 million; four ≈ 1 in 44.9 billion.
Because the first two straight flushes in the reported streak were identical, the true odds of that exact sequence are far longer — about 1 in 2.16 trillion.
Even with busy casinos dealing many hands, a streak like this is astronomically rare — estimated to occur roughly once every 2.5 million years in a hypothetical always-full two-table setup described by the author.
Pair Plus pays 40-1 for a straight flush; a $10 Pair Plus bettor would have won $1,600 total across four straight flushes. Parlaying those winnings (ignoring table limits) would produce extreme but unrealistic payouts.
The article also recounts other notable streaks: a player hitting eight winning Pair Plus hands in a row (an event with odds around 1 in 53,320) and an on-the-spot straight flush dealt after another player received three of a kind.

Content summary

Grochowski begins with a reader’s astonishing report of four consecutive straight flushes in Three Card Poker and then breaks down the combinatorics: 22,100 three-card combinations and 48 straight flushes. He multiplies probabilities to show how quickly odds become astronomical when hands repeat, and explains why the identical first two hands push the chance into the trillions.

The article compares Three Card Poker frequencies with rarer jackpots in other games (for example, royal flush odds in Let It Ride and Caribbean Stud) to put the event in perspective. It then runs a practical casino-throughput thought experiment to show how even heavy dealing wouldn’t make such a streak practically inevitable. Grochowski closes with two table-side anecdotes that illustrate the game’s capacity for surprising runs of fortune.

Context and relevance

The piece is useful for players, casino staff and enthusiasts who want a clearer sense of how improbable extreme streaks actually are. It highlights the difference between plausible, repeatable payouts (Pair Plus straight flushes occur with measurable frequency) and truly extraordinary sequences that are statistically negligible. This helps temper expectations around ‘hot tables’ and reminds readers that rare events, once observed, don’t imply change in underlying odds.

Why should I read this?

Want a quick, entertaining lesson in casino probability with real table tales? This one is for you. It explains — in plain, punchy terms — how a seemingly impossible run can happen, how unlikely it really is, and why casinos rarely make a fuss even when a player gets absurdly lucky. We read it so you don’t have to slog through the maths yourself.