Mississippi Stud: Rules, Payouts & How the 3x Bets Work

Last Updated on October 9, 2026 by Bala Kumar

Mississippi Stud is one of those casino table games that looks simple and then surprises you. There’s no dealer hand to beat, no bluffing, and no other players to worry about. You just build the best five-card poker hand you can and get paid off a fixed table.

The twist is the betting. You get three chances to raise during the hand, and each raise can be up to three times your ante. That’s what makes Mississippi Stud poker exciting, and it’s also where most players lose money they didn’t need to. This guide walks through the rules, the payouts and exactly how those 3x bets work.

What is Mississippi Stud?

Mississippi Stud is a five-card stud poker game played against a paytable, not against the dealer. Shuffle Master (now part of Light & Wonder) created it, and you’ll find it in casinos across the US and at many online casinos.

Each player gets two private cards. Three community cards are dealt face down in the middle and turned over one at a time. Your final hand is your two cards plus those three community cards. If that hand is a pair of 6s or better, you at least get your money back.

Mississippi Stud rules, step by step

1.      Place your ante. This is your starting bet. Everything else in the hand is measured against it.

2.      Get your cards. You receive two cards face down, and the dealer places three community cards face down.

3.      3rd Street decision. Look at your two cards. Either fold (and lose your ante) or bet 1x, 2x or 3x your ante.

4.      First community card is revealed. Now you’re on 4th Street. Fold, or bet 1x to 3x your ante again.

5.      Second community card is revealed. This is 5th Street, your last decision. Fold, or bet 1x to 3x your ante one more time.

6.      Final community card is revealed. Your five-card hand is complete, and every bet you made is paid at the same odds from the paytable.

One thing to remember: if you fold at any point, you lose everything you’ve already bet in that hand. Folding doesn’t get your earlier street bets back.

How the 3x bets work

This is the heart of the game. On each of the three streets you choose how hard to push: 1x, 2x or 3x your ante. If you play all the way to the end, your total bet ranges from 4 units (ante plus 1x three times) to 10 units (ante plus 3x three times).

Examples use a $5 ante.

Every bet gets paid at the same multiple. So if you finish with a straight (4 to 1) and you have $40 on the table, you win $160. If you finish with nothing, you lose all $40. That’s why the size of your raises matters far more than the ante.

In practice, good players rarely use 2x. The math usually points to either 1x (stay in cheaply) or 3x (you have a real edge, so press it).

Mississippi Stud payout table

Here’s the standard paytable used in most casinos. Payouts apply to the ante and every street bet.

Standard paytable per Wizard of Odds. Some casinos use different payouts, so check the table layout before you sit down.

A worked example hand

Let’s say you bet a $5 ante and you’re dealt K♠ Q♠.

•       3rd Street: Two high cards but no pair. Bet 1x ($5).

•       4th Street: The J♠ comes. Now you hold three suited high cards, a royal flush draw. Bet 3x ($15).

•       5th Street: The 10♦ lands. You have K-Q-J-10, an open-ended straight draw. Bet 3x ($15).

•       Final card: The 9♣ completes a king-high straight.

You have 40onthetable(5 + $5 + $15 + $15), and a straight pays 4 to 1. That’s $160 in winnings, plus your $40 back.

Now flip it. If that last card had been a 3, you’d have no pair and lose the full $40. That swing is Mississippi Stud in a nutshell.

House edge: what you’re really up against

With perfect strategy and the standard paytable, the house edge is about 4.91% of your ante. Because players bet an average of 3.59 units per hand, that works out to an element of risk of roughly 1.37% of all the money you put on the table.

In other words, the game isn’t as expensive as the 4.91% figure first looks, but only if you play correctly. Raising 3x on weak hands or calling with junk pushes your real cost way up.

Simple Mississippi Stud strategy

The easiest strategy uses a point system. Count each card as follows:

•       J, Q, K, A: 2 points (high cards)

•       6 to 10: 1 point (middle cards)

•       2 to 5: 0 points (low cards)

3rd Street (your two cards)

•       Any pair: bet 3x.

•       Two points or more, or 6-5 suited: bet 1x.

•       Anything else: fold.

4th Street (three cards)

•       Pair of 6s or better, or a royal flush draw: bet 3x.

•       Three suited cards, a low pair, three or more points, or a decent straight draw: bet 1x.

•       Anything else: fold.

5th Street (four cards)

•       Pair of 6s or better, any four-card flush draw, or an 8-high or better open-ended straight draw: bet 3x.

•       Other straight draws, a low pair, or four or more points: bet 1x.

•       Anything else: fold.

This is a summary of the optimal strategy published by Wizard of Odds. It covers the vast majority of hands you’ll see.

Common mistakes to avoid

•       Raising 3x on hope. A single high card isn’t worth 3x. Save the big raises for made pairs and strong draws.

•       Never folding. Folding feels bad, but staying in with low cards costs more over time.

•       Forgetting that 6s to 10s only push. A pair of 9s gets your money back, not a profit. Don’t treat it like a winner on early streets.

•       Ignoring the paytable. A casino that pays less on flushes or straights is quietly raising its edge.

FAQs

Bala Kumar

Founder of PokerClubGames.com and a Poker Researcher with 10+ years of experience in SEO, WordPress development, and gaming content strategy. Specializes in researching online poker sites, poker apps, tournaments, bonuses, and poker strategies. Experienced in poker platform reviews, affiliate marketing, and creating SEO-focused poker content for global audiences.

For collaborations, media inquiries, or poker-related partnerships:
Contact: partnerships@pokerclubgames.com