How to Play Louisiana Stud and Check Your Table's Rules

Louisiana Stud is a five-card game with three decisions to fold or raise. You receive two hole cards, and three community cards are revealed one at a time. Payouts and strategy depend on the exact rules and paytable; the sources below do not establish a universal strategy or numerical house edge.

This guide compares the published Rivers Portsmouth rules with the Nevada Gaming Control Board procedure PDF. The Nevada file has a metadata date of August 27, 2024, but carries a DRAFT watermark. It should not be treated as a final procedure or as rules that apply at every table.

How a Hand Works: Five Steps

You place an ante, receive two face-down hole cards, and make three decisions before the final community card is revealed. In the documented Nevada/Rivers version, each decision allows you to fold or raise from 1x to 3x the ante.

1. Place the ante and receive your cards. The ante is the required initial wager. You receive two face-down hole cards, while the three community cards remain face down.
2. Make the first decision. Look at your hole cards, then fold or raise from 1x to 3x the ante.
3. See the first community card. After it is revealed, fold or raise from 1x to 3x the ante.
4. See the second community card. Make your third decision: fold or raise from 1x to 3x the ante.
5. Reveal the final community card and settle the hand. If you have not folded, the third community card is revealed. Your final five-card hand is settled under the table's paytable.

This sequence and the raise limits appear in the Rivers Portsmouth rules and the Nevada draft procedure. The community cards do not form a separate dealer hand.

Louisiana Stud decision sequence and raise limits in the historical Harrington handoutHistorical, venue-specific Harrington handout from 2020/2021 showing the decision sequence and raise limits—not universal current rules.

How Much Does a Raise Cost, and What Do You Lose When You Fold?

A raise of 1x to 3x means wagering one to three times the ante at that decision. If you fold, you lose your ante and all base-game raises already placed, as stated in the Rivers Portsmouth rules.

With a $5 ante, each maximum 3x raise is $15. Making all three maximum raises puts this much into the base game:

$5 + 3 × $15 = $50.

After the third raise, $50 is in play. The final card is then revealed and the hand settled; there is no fourth decision in the documented procedure.

$50 is the maximum exposure—the money at risk in this example—not an expected loss. The example assumes a $5 ante, three 3x raises and no side bets. These are exact wager amounts, so no rounding is needed. The calculation shows how much you wager, not your chance of losing or your average financial result.

How to Read the Historical Harrington Paytable

In the historical Harrington example, a pair of jacks or better wins, pairs of sixes through tens push, and lower hands lose. This paytable belongs to that venue-specific example; read the actual paytable at your table before playing.

The source is the English-language Harrington handout, marked ©2020 AGS, with a file metadata date of November 15, 2021. It does not establish today's payouts or current game availability.

The handout explicitly states that the listed payout does not include the return of the original wager. Its “to 1” convention therefore describes winnings, with the original wager returned separately. A 1:1 payout is not the entire amount returned to you. A push under this schedule returns the wager without a profit.

Before calculating a payout, confirm which wagers the payout multiple applies to and which wagers are returned. Side bets have separate settlement rules and must not be paid using the base-game paytable.

Base-game and separate bonus paytables in the historical Harrington Louisiana Stud handoutHistorical, venue-specific Harrington handout from 2020/2021 showing the base-game and separate bonus paytables—not a universal current Louisiana Stud paytable.

How Does Louisiana Stud Differ From Cajun Stud Poker and Mississippi Stud?

These are separate games. You cannot transfer another game's payouts, strategy or house edge to Louisiana Stud without first confirming that the relevant rules and paytables match exactly.

Our guides to Cajun Stud Poker and Mississippi Stud explain those distinct variants, but do not replace a Louisiana Stud rules check. Compare the order in which cards are revealed, decision points, permitted raises, base-game paytable and side-bet conditions. Otherwise, a recommendation may apply to a different game.

What Is Known About 3-UP Bonus and STAX?

For 3-UP Bonus, a verified model gives the frequency of a qualifying combination on the three community cards. For STAX, the documented information establishes five-card evaluation and a separate paytable. Neither fact alone establishes whether a side bet offers favorable value.

How Often Does 3-UP Bonus Produce a Pair or Better?

Under a uniform draw from one standard 52-card deck, 5,660 of 22,100 possible three-card combinations are a pair or better under ordinary three-card poker ranking: 25.6109%.

There are 22,100 possible three-card combinations from a 52-card deck. The qualifying combinations break down as follows:

The percentage is rounded to four decimal places. These categories do not overlap: straight flushes are not counted again as flushes or straights.

25.6109% is only the unconditional frequency of a qualifying three-community-card outcome in this model. It is not a payout, the expected value (EV) of a decision or a house edge. It is also not the conditional probability after accounting for your known hole cards. Check your table's paytable for the actual 3-UP Bonus payouts and conditions.

What Can Be Said About STAX?

STAX is evaluated using five cards and has a separate paytable. Under the Nevada draft procedure, this side bet may remain in play after you fold in the base game.

That provision belongs to the draft procedure and does not automatically apply at every table. Before placing the bet, confirm how STAX is settled and whether it remains active after a fold. The information presented here is insufficient to claim specific payouts or special large-prize conditions.

What Should You Check Before Placing Your First Ante?

Read the posted rules and ask the dealer to clarify any uncertain points before betting. The goal is to identify the exact version being played, not to select a supposedly universal “correct” strategy.

Check these items in order:

1. Game name and rules version. Confirm that the game is Louisiana Stud and ask where you can read the full procedure.
2. Minimum wagers. Check the minimum ante and any separate side-bet minimums.
3. Three decisions and raise limits. Confirm whether raises of 1x to 3x the ante are allowed at each decision and which sizes are available.
4. Base-game paytable. Check every row, including pairs of jacks or better, pairs of sixes through tens, and losing hands.
5. Payout convention. Ask which wagers each payout multiple applies to and whether the listed payout includes the returned wager.
6. Folding rules. Confirm that folding forfeits the ante and raises already placed.
7. Each side bet separately. Read its paytable, eligibility conditions and rules for settlement after a base-game fold.

Then assess each decision against those exact rules: which cards you know, how much you have already wagered, which raises are available and how the final hand will be settled. The historical Harrington paytable does not replace this check or establish universal fold-or-raise thresholds.

First decision: the historical Harrington example

For the paytable in the Harrington handout (©2020 AGS; PDF metadata dated November 15, 2021), an exact dynamic-programming model gives these rules for your two starting cards:

The model uses the handout’s exact base-game payout schedule, one standard 52-card deck and three fold-or-raise decisions, each allowing a raise of 1x, 2x or 3x the ante, with no side bets. Future decisions are optimized after each reveal. An independent classification of all 1,326 starting two-card combinations under these rules found no mismatches with the model. The model never selected 2x at the first decision.

This example applies only to that dated Harrington paytable, not to every table or necessarily to a current version of the game. It covers only the first decision: later actions depend on the exposed cards and wagers already committed.

What Data Are Needed to Calculate Expected Value and House Edge?

Calculating the expected value (EV) of a decision requires complete table rules, a card-dealing model and a defined strategy. A hand-frequency table alone is not enough, and a numerical house edge also requires a validated model with its scope and wager basis clearly defined.

You need:

• The exact rules currently used at the table.
• Every entry in the base-game paytable.
• A precise explanation of what is paid and returned, and which wager each payout multiple applies to.
• Deck and shuffling information.
• The permitted raise sizes at each decision.
• A strategy for every decision state, accounting for cards known to the player and wagers already placed.
• A separate paytable and conditions for each side bet, including settlement after a fold.

The expected value (EV) of a decision accounts for outcome probabilities, the cost of each action and the final net profit or loss. Hand frequency answers only “How often does this happen?” A wager's value also depends on what it costs and what each outcome pays.

Neither the 25.6109% 3-UP Bonus frequency nor the $50 maximum exposure provides a numerical EV or house edge. There is no audited Louisiana Stud EV calculator matching verified rules and a paytable in this project. Without a complete, validated model, a numerical estimate would be unsupported.