The Three-Card System is a strategy used in poker that involves selecting three cards from a standard deck of 52 cards. This strategy is often utilized in draw poker, where players are dealt a hand of five cards and have the opportunity to discard some and draw replacements to improve their hands.
In using the Three-Card System, players focus on forming three strong suits by keeping the highest cards within these suits. The strategy begins by sorting the hand into suits. Once this is done, the player eliminates the weakest suit, considering both its highest card and the number of cards in the suit compared to the other two.
The remaining two suits form the basis of the Three-Card System. Within each of the two suits, the player chooses the three highest cards, disregarding any smaller or offsuit cards. If any of the suits consists of less than three cards, the missing card(s) are replaced by the best high card(s) from the eliminated suit. This ensures the player ends up with three strong cards in each of the two suits.
The Three-Card System has a straightforward approach and tends to be suitable for beginners who are starting out with poker. However, as players improve and gain experience, more complex and nuanced strategies may be adopted to enhance their decision-making in various poker variations.