Bits & Odds

Push Pairs, Pullbacks, and the Point System in Table Poker

Updated 2026-11-08

Among five-card table poker games, Mississippi Stud and Let It Ride stand out because neither pits the player against a dealer hand. Every round is a five-card draw against a fixed pay table using hole cards and shared community cards. Yet the two games manage risk in opposite directions: Let It Ride starts with three equal bets and lets the player pull two back, while Mississippi Stud starts with one Ante and requires a 1x to 3x bet or a fold on every street.

Why optimal strategy differs so sharply between the two games comes down to a single rule: what happens when a five-card poker hand finishes with a medium pair?

Why Let It Ride Pulls Back Nearly Everything

When inventor John Breeding patented Let It Ride in 1994 (US Patent 5,288,081), he built the pay table around a Pair of Tens or Better paying 1 to 1, Two Pair paying 2 to 1, and Three of a Kind paying 3 to 1, up to 1,000 to 1 for a Royal Flush. Out of 2,598,960 five-card hands, only 619,620 (23.84%) finish with Tens or Better; the remaining 76.16% lose.

Because the third bet ($) is locked in, Bet 1 (on three cards) and Bet 2 (after the first community card) are zero-cost options: let them ride only when the conditional expected value exceeds zero. Across all 22,100 three-card hands, only 1,608 hands (7.28%) let Bet 1 ride:

  • Any made paying hand (Pair of Tens or Better, or Three of a Kind).
  • Any three cards to a Royal Flush.
  • Three suited consecutive cards from 3-4-5 suited through 9-10-J suited.
  • Three cards to a Straight Flush spanning four ranks with at least one 10-or-higher card, or spanning five ranks with at least two 10-or-higher cards.

After the first community card is revealed, the player lets Bet 2 ride on 15.09% of deals—with Tens or Better, Two Pair, Three of a Kind, four suited cards, an outside straight draw, or an inside straight draw with four high cards (10-J-Q-K). Pulling back Bet 1 on 92.72% of hands and Bet 2 on 84.91% of hands leaves an average wager of 1.224 units. Over all 51,979,200 ordered deals, the house edge is 3.51% of one base bet, and the Element of Risk is 2.86%.

How the 6s-to-10s Push Rule Creates the Point System

Mississippi Stud flips that mechanic upside down. The player posts one Ante unit, receives two hole cards facing three face-down community cards, and must either fold—forfeiting every dollar in the pot—or post a new 1x to 3x bet on 3rd, 4th, and 5th Street.

The game’s mathematical pivot is the Pair of 6s through 10s push rule. While a Pair of Jacks or Better pays 1 to 1 and a Pair of 2s through 5s loses, any five-card hand whose best rank is a single pair of 6s through 10s is a Push: the Ante and all three street bets return without loss.

Because every card from 6 through 10 carries three outs to pair up and rescue the accumulated pot with a push, and every card from Jack through Ace carries three outs to win even money on every street bet, Joseph Kisenwether showed that card ranks divide cleanly into three point tiers:

  1. High cards (Jack, Queen, King, Ace = 2 points): Pairing one wins 1 to 1 on all bets.
  2. Middle cards (6, 7, 8, 9, 10 = 1 point): Pairing one pushes and refunds the entire pot.
  3. Low cards (2, 3, 4, 5 = 0 points): Pairing a low card without further improvement loses.

Those point values match the conditional expected value thresholds on each street:

  • 3rd Street (two hole cards): Any pocket pair raises 3x (28.8% chance to hit Two Pair or better). Non-pairs with at least 2 points (plus 6-5 suited) bet 1x; everything lower folds.
  • 4th Street (three cards visible): Raise 3x with a Pair of 6s+, Three of a Kind, or a qualifying Straight Flush draw. Bet 1x with at least 3 points, a low pair, any three suited cards, or an unsuited straight draw with at least two middle-or-high cards.
  • 5th Street (four cards visible): Raise 3x with a Pair of 6s+, Two Pair+, a four-card Flush draw, or an 8-high+ outside straight draw. Bet 1x with at least 4 points, a low pair, a low outside straight draw, or an inside straight draw with at least 2 points.

You can practice the street-by-street point system with live EV grading in our Free Mississippi Stud Game and test the 0-exception pullback rules in our Free Let It Ride Poker Game.

Sources

Free Mississippi Stud Game Free Let It Ride Poker Game Free 3 Card Poker Game Free Video Poker