Red Dog
About Red Dog
Red Dog is a pretty simple table poker game which is found in most online casino softwares.
Red Dog Rules
Red Dog uses a normal deck of cards (the number of decks is usually 1), and cards are ranked normally with Ace being the highest. After placing the bet, two cards are dealt face up on the table. In case the two cards have the same value, then third card is dealt and if it has the same value as well, player is paid 12 times his bet, otherwise the bet is returned (a push). In case the two cards are consecutive, then the bet is returned as well (a push). Otherwise the player may either call or double his bet, and wins according to the paytable if the third card drawn is ranked between the two cards. If the third card drawn isn’t between the two cards, then the player loses his bet.
Optimal Strategy
If the spread is 7 or higher then there is more than 50% chance to win the hand (as there is 13 ranks total). Therefore the optimal strategy is to double the bet on all Spreads of 7 or higher, and call otherwise. Even though spreads 1 – 3 have more than 1:1 payout you shouldn’t raise on these hands as the probability of winning is much smaller.
House Edge and Rule Variations
With the standard rules with 1 deck, the house edge of Red Dog is 2.67%. This makes Red Dog usually not the best choice for bonus wagering. Grand Virtual software allows the player to choose the number of decks used. The player should choose 8 decks as it minimizes the house edge to 2.34%. The reason for this is that 8 decks increases the probability to draw three cards of the same rank for 12x payout. Rival uses 6 decks, resulting to house edge of 2.38%.
Variance and Results Over Bonus Wagering Requirement
The standard deviation of Red Dog (1 deck) is 1.38. The following table shows Chance of Gain, Risk of Busting and the Bonus EV for different wagering requirements and bet sizes. See the return and variance calculator for other bet sizes and WRs.