Rules
and Strategies
Rules
How to Play Red Dog
by Max Drayman
05 Mar 2000
Red Dog is a card game similar to Acey-Deucey and In-Between. This
card game is played on a blackjack-sized table with two betting spots
-- "bet" and "raise" -- using a 52-card deck.
Only three cards are played per hand. Card suit is not relevant
in Red Dog.
The
popularity of Red Dog is largely due to its simplicity. As the
pros say, if you can remember the number seven and know how to
subtract, then you can play Red Dog as well as anyone in the world.
Objective
As
a player, you place an opening bet and the dealer will deal two
cards. The object of this card game is to bet on the likelihood that
the rank of a third card is going to fall between the first two.
If it does fall between, you win. If it doesn't, you lose.
So
far, it's too simple. This is where the "raise" bet
comes in and it's based on the "spread". Spread is the
number of card values that lie between the two initial cards.
The value of any card from 2 to 10 counts at face value, a jack
counts as 11, a queen as 12, a king as 13, and an ace counts as
14.
A
couple of examples are worthwhile. Let's say the dealer deals
a 7 and a 10. What's the spread? Since 8 and 9 fall between the
7 and 10, the spread is 2. Ok, let's say the next hand plays a
4 and a 5. The spread? Since the cards are consecutive, no cards
fall between 4 and 5, it's called a "tie", you keep
your money and the hand is over.
The
interesting part of this card game is betting on the spread. This is
an optional second bet where you go for a bonus payout. The house
sets the odds based on a simple principle: the narrower the spread,
the higher the potential payout ("bonus").
Betting
As
indicated, you open with a bet and the dealer deals two cards.
The cards are placed face up on the table and the dealer will
place a marker to indicate (a) the spread and (b) the odds the
house offers on an additional bet (the "raise"). If
you bet no further, you will win your original bet at even money
if you win the hand.
If
you do decide to raise, you're betting at house odds as printed
on the Red Dog table. If you win, you get your original bet at
even money and the raise bet at the odds indicated.
If
the first two cards are a tie -- consecutive cards -- you keep
your bet.
If
the two cards are a pair, betting stops but you'll get paid at
11:1 if the third card makes it three of a kind. Otherwise you
lose your bet.
Finally,
if the third card matches either of the first two, you lose your
bet.
Payoff
In
a winning hand, opening bets are always paid out at even money.
Raise bets are paid out based on the spread as follows:
| Spread |
Payout |
| 1 |
5:1 |
| 2 |
4:1 |
| 3 |
2:1 |
| 4 through
11 |
1:1 |
Strategies
Red Dog Winning Strategy
by Max Drayman
05 Mar 2000
This
is probably the shortest strategy I'll ever write: only Double
on Spread 7 or better. Period. That's it. End of strategy.
Okay,
if you're still reading I'm assuming it's because you want a little
detail. It's still pretty simple, but here it is: the player only
gets an edge when the spread is 7 or more. This is actually quite
obvious. At Spread 7, 7 cards will give you a winning hand. And
since there are 13 cards from Deuce to Ace (2 ,3 ,4 ,5 ,6 ,7 ,8,
9, 10, J, Q, K, A), that means that only 6 cards will cause you
to lose.
Spread
7 gives the player about a 54% chance of winning and it gets better
from there on up to around 85% at Spread 11. So the strategy is
to only Double on the Spreads that give you an edge, namely 7
through 11. Spreads below 7 give the house an increasingly stiff
edge and should be avoided.
