RED DOG

The game starts with you making a wager-big surprise right. Actually, there is a little bit of thinking involved, because you’ll get to increase that wager. Okay, so you have the wager on the table. Next, the dealer deals two cards face up in the center of the table.

It’s important to note that an Ace is always the high card. So the pecking order goes: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A.

Once the two cards are dealt, the dealer will announce the “spread.” The hand is over if there’s no spread.

Let’s say that the first card is a 5 and the second card is a Jack, the spread is five-there are five cards (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) between the two cards. At this time, you can either leave your wager as is or increase it. You can add a new amount that’s up to the value of your original wager. So, if you bet $10 initially, you’re added wager can be up to $10.

The bigger the spread, the lower the potential payout. Here’s a listing of the payoffs.

1 card spread: 5:1
2 card spread: 4:1
3 card spread: 2:1
4 card spread or higher: 1:1

Once you decide whether to place an additional wager or leave your bet as is, a third card is dealt. If it falls between the first two cards, you win-pay is as shown above.

For instance, let’s imagine that the first two cards are a 3 and a 6. You would have a two card spread (4,5). The payout would be 4:1. If that third card is a 4 or 5, you win. If not, you lose.

That’s all there is to Red Dog. It’s an incredibly simple game to learn and play. It’s really the classic “guessing game.”

Red Dog can be played with 1-8 decks. And here’s something different. You actually want more decks-unlike Blackjack where less is better. The house edge in Red Dog is about 3.2% with one deck and drops to about 2.8% with eight decks.