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Fans of casino table poker games can ride to riches in the new DraftKings online casino game “Ride It Out,” with rules similar to the popular “Let It Ride” card game.
The main draw of Ride It Out is that it gives players control over their wager throughout the hand. You’ll get to choose how much you want to bet before each of the two community cards are revealed. You can reduce, or “pull,” your bet from the table if the initial three cards don’t look like winners to you.
I remember when Let It Ride from Light & Wonder came out, it was a play off of the famous Texas Hold’em poker game. Ride It Out, from Black Throne Studios – DraftKings’ in-house online game maker, has one big, new option from the original Let It Ride, but the game play is the same. It looks like the patent on Let It Ride was allowed to lapse, allowing DraftKings do recreate the game with a new backdrop.
Here we’re going to break down the game play for Ride It Out, compare it to Let It Ride and tell you the biggest way the games are different.
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Making The Most of The River Run
The biggest difference between the original Let It Ride and Ride It Out is the addition of a new side bet, the “Run to the River.” In Ride It Out, you start by placing three equal wagers on the main bet area (with the option of pulling some back later), and then you can optionally participate in three different side bets:
- Pairs & Up
- 5-Card Combo
- Run to the River
Run to the River is unique to Ride it Out, and rewards near misses. Any winning hand in the base game will cause Run to the River to pay out, but only even money, regardless of how good the hand is. However, if you lose the main bet, you get a sixth card to try to improve your hand. If that river card helps you, then Run to the River pays out according to a pay table, which offers up to 1,000-1 if the sixth card completes a Royal Flush.
I found myself playing Run to the River with every hand. There was something about that sixth card being dealt that prolonged the excitement.
Winning Strategies for Ride It Out
The beauty of Ride It Out is players have control of their bets late into the hand. The best strategy for both Let It Ride and Ride It Out is to use that power.
When your first three cards don’t have any connection, you can pull back your first bet and wait for the first community card to drop. Then you can evaluate your chances again. Does the first community card look good? Does it give you a pair, or a chance at a straight? If not, you can pull back your bet again before the second and final community card comes in.
There are some borderline situations but here are some hard rules that always apply:
- Always keep your bets in if you already have a paying hand. That much is obvious.
- With three cards, usually keep your bets in if they’re all of the same suit and close enough together to potentially make a straight. (There are some exceptions for low cards that are also spaced out too much.)
- With four cards, keep your bets in with any four-card straight that includes a high card, or four-card flush.
- This is important: Don’t keep bets in for a small pair! Like most forms of table poker, straight flushes and royals are where the money is. Chasing three-of-a-kind or two-pair is for suckers.
Pairs and Up is another side bet that is based solely on your first three cards you’re dealt. Get a pair and you win, a royal flush pays 200x on that side bet. The 5-card combo bet is another side bet that pays when you hit a specific 5-card poker hand like a flush, straight or full house when you combine your three cards with the two community cards.
The Numbers Game for Ride It Out
The expected RTP listed at Ride It Out is 97.1% playing with the optimal strategy. The version of Let It Ride I played at The Trop was 96.49%, so DraftKings has tweaked it to be a little more favorable to the player.
The pay table for the main bets for Let It Ride and Ride It Out were the same: Royal Flush 1000-1 all the way down to a pair of 10s or better, which pays even money.
Digging deeper, we’re talking same bets, but different names and slightly different odds at the two games. The 5-card bonus for Let It Ride is similar to the 5-card combo for Ride It Out. Ride it Out has a higher payout 25,000-1 for a Royal flush compared to 20,000-1 for Let It Ride and 400-1 for four of a kind at Ride It Out compared to 100-1 at Let It Ride.
The 3-card bonus play at Let It Ride is the same as Pairs & Up at Ride It Out. The payout on Ride It Out for a mini Royal Flush is 200-1, compared to 50-1 for the same hand at Let It Ride. Every other payout is the same.
