Texas Hold'em Bonus strategy

Texas Hold’em Bonus plays like a heads-up hand of Hold’em against the dealer. You see your two cards, then decide street by street whether to keep betting as the flop, turn and river come out. Unlike Ultimate Texas Hold’em, you get a betting decision on every street. Preflop is almost automatic: you fold only five hands. The skill is in the turn and river bets. Bet them when you’re ahead and you get paid. Throw chips in when you’re behind and they quietly drain your stack.

How to play

These are standard Las Vegas rules with a single deck.

1. Place an Ante. Bonus is an optional side bet.
2. You and the dealer each get two cards.
3. Preflop: fold and lose the ante, or make the Flop bet of 2× the ante.
4. The flop is dealt. Before the turn, bet 1× or check.
5. The turn is dealt. Before the river, bet 1× or check.
6. The river is dealt. Both sides make the best five-card hand from seven cards. The dealer doesn’t need to qualify.

Each 1× bet is made before the card it’s named for. You decide the turn bet having seen only the flop.

Payouts

The Bonus bet pays on your first two cards, whatever happens in the hand (Las Vegas pay table, per Wizard of Odds):

House edge on the Bonus: 8.54%.

Strategy

Preflop: fold only five hands

Fold 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 2-6 and 2-7 offsuit. Make the 2× flop bet with everything else.

That’s the published optimal preflop rule. Even weak-looking hands like 8♣ 3♦ or 7♠ 3♥ are a call. Folding costs you a full ante. Playing on loses a little less on average, because you can still win, and you can check the turn and river for free when you miss.

Casino Coach’s own simulation backs this up. Calling with 8-3 offsuit averages about −0.84 antes, which beats folding at −1. Calling with 7-2 offsuit is about −0.95, barely better than folding. Calling with 3-2 offsuit is about −1.18, which is worse, so you fold it. Across all hands, you fold only about 4.5% of the time.

Memory hook: “Fold a deuce with a 7 or lower, offsuit.” Suited deuces play. A deuce with an 8 or higher plays. Pocket deuces play.

The turn bet: will you win more than you lose?

After the flop you can bet 1× before the turn or check. The rule is simple even if the math isn’t:

Bet when your chance of winning is greater than your chance of losing over the turn, river and every dealer hand.

That works because the bet is exactly one unit at even money. In practice, bet the turn with:

• A pair or better that uses a hole card. With K♠ 9♦ on K♥ 7♣ 2♦ you have top pair, so bet.
• Strong draws. Four to a flush or an open-ended straight draw, especially with overcards. J♣ T♦ on 9♠ 8♥ 2♣ is a clear bet. 9♣ 8♦ on 7♠ 6♥ 2♣, the same draw with no overcards, is a near toss-up that leans to checking.
• High cards on a dry board. A♣ Q♦ on 8♠ 5♥ 2♣ often still leads the dealer’s random two cards.

Check when you’re behind, for example 6♣ 4♦ on a board of K♥ Q♠ J♦ where you’ve connected with nothing.

The river bet: the same test, one card to go

After the turn, use the same question: do you win more often than you lose with one card to come? Pairs using your hole cards are usually bets. Missed draws with no high card are usually checks. The river decision is the same whether or not you made the turn bet, so judge it fresh each time.

No concise postflop chart for this game has been published (Wizard of Odds says as much, and Grosjean’s work covers only part of it). That’s why Casino Coach grades these bets by calculation rather than a rule of thumb. The trainer works out the turn bet over every turn and river card. It works out the river bet exactly, over every river card and every dealer hand.

Common mistakes

• Folding playable hands preflop. Only five hands fold. Folding K-4 or 8-3 forfeits an ante you could have fought for.
• Never making the turn and river bets. They’re where you get paid when you’re ahead. Checking a strong pair leaves money on the table.
• Betting the turn with nothing on a coordinated board you’re behind on.
• Treating the ante like the other bets. It only pays on a straight or better, so most of your wins come from the Flop, Turn and River bets.
• Playing the Bonus bet. At 8.54% it’s more than four times the main game’s edge.

House edge explained

Per Wizard of Odds, Texas Hold’em Bonus has a house edge of 2.04% of the ante with optimal strategy, under Las Vegas rules. You often bet several antes per hand, so the element of risk (edge per total money bet) is only about 0.53%.

What drives the edge:

• The ante pushes on most wins. It pays only when you win with a straight or better, but it loses every time the dealer wins.
• Your betting. The turn and river bets are even money, and you choose when to make them. Betting when you’re ahead and checking when you’re behind is how you claw back value.
• Tie rules. Las Vegas rules push ties. Some versions treat ties differently, so read the felt.

Rule variations to look for:

• Atlantic City version: the ante pays only on a flush or better, which raises the house edge to about 5.59%. Avoid it.
• Bonus pay table: the Las Vegas table with the 1,000-to-1 double-aces line has an 8.54% edge. Without that line it’s about 8.90%. Either way, it’s a bet to skip.

The house keeps its edge even with perfect play. Good decisions just keep it near 2%.

Practice in Casino Coach

In trainer mode, Casino Coach grades every Texas Hold’em Bonus decision. The preflop call or fold is checked against the five-hand fold list, with the simulated EV of calling shown. The turn bet is graded on computed EV with the best river play afterwards, and close calls under 0.01 ante accept either choice. The river bet is graded on the exact EV over every river card and dealer hand. Four drills target the game: Preflop call/fold (focused on the five folds and their neighbours), Turn bet, River bet and Bonus payouts. Analytics track your accuracy on each street and the EV each mistake cost. Train free with chips that have no cash value.

Updated October 24, 2026