Criss Cross Poker for Beginners
The layout looks stranger than it is. Here is how to play Criss Cross Poker for beginners: the idea behind it, one hand narrated from the first chip to the last card, and the habits that keep a first session cheap.
bet Down
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What You Are Actually Doing
One sentence, and the rest follows.
Your two cards play twice: once across, once down.
You are dealt two private cards. Five community cards are laid out in a cross. Your two cards plus the three horizontal cards make your Across hand. The same two cards plus the three vertical cards make your Down hand. The card in the centre belongs to both.
Above, the king and queen of spades join the ace, jack and ten for a royal flush across. The same two cards go down with a four, the jack and a nine and make nothing at all. Two results from one holding, bet and paid separately.
Before You Sit Down
Three things worth knowing before the first deal.
The minimum is not the minimum. Every hand starts with two mandatory antes of equal size, Ante Across and Ante Down, so a $5 minimum costs $10 before you have made a single decision, and the raises that follow are sized off one ante. Bring a bankroll that assumes a hand costs several times the sign.
There is no dealer hand to beat. Nobody plays against you and nothing has to qualify. Your hands are read straight off a pay table, which is why one strong holding can be paid on three wagers at once, and why a weak one loses without a showdown.
One deck, seven cards. A standard 52-card deck with no jokers. Your two hole cards and the five community cards are the only cards in play.
The optional Five Card Bonus side bet is scored on the five community cards on their own. Your hole cards are irrelevant to it, and it pays whether or not you folded anything else that hand. See what it pays.
Your First Hand, Step by Step
Eight beats, in the order the dealer runs them.
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Post the two antes
Ante Across and Ante Down, equal and mandatory. Add the Five Card Bonus here if you want it.
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Take your two cards
Two hole cards come to you face down. Five community cards go out face down in a cross.
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Decide Across
Back the horizontal line for 1x, 2x or 3x your Ante Across, or fold and give up that ante.
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Left and right turn over
The dealer exposes the two outer cards of the row. You now know more about the Across hand.
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Decide Down
Back the vertical line for 1x, 2x or 3x your Ante Down, or fold it. The two lines are independent.
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Top and bottom turn over
The two outer cards of the column are exposed. Only the centre card is still face down.
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Decide Middle
An optional bet of 1x, 2x or 3x an ante. There is no Ante Middle, so skipping it costs nothing.
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The centre card reveals
Both hands are complete and every live wager is settled against the pay table.
Full rules, with every reveal illustrated, are on the how to play page.
The Three Decisions
Everything you control happens here.
Across
Made blind on your two cards alone. Raise or fold, and folding forfeits the Ante Across.
Down
The same choice on the vertical line, with two community cards already showing.
Middle
No ante, and graded on whichever of your two hands finishes higher. The best-informed bet at the table.
The beginner version of the strategy is short enough to memorise on the drive in. It gives up a little to the full chart, but it removes almost all of the expensive guesswork.
| What you hold | Beginner rule |
|---|---|
| Any pair, or suited cards headed by a jack or better | Raise 3x |
| Unsuited, unpaired, nothing above a five | Fold |
| Everything else | Bet 1x |
| The Middle bet | Almost always take it |
Only around 4.5% of hands are a genuine Middle fold. If you are unsure, taking it is the smaller error. The full strategy chart covers the borderline holdings this table rounds off.
The antes are graded separately and more simply: each one pays even money on a high pair or better in its own hand, pushes on a low pair, and otherwise loses.
The Five Mistakes Beginners Actually Make
None of them are about luck.
Forgetting the centre card counts twice
The card in the middle sits in your Across hand and your Down hand at the same time. One centre card can complete both or ruin both. Treat the two lines as unrelated games and you will misjudge how much is riding on that last reveal.
Raising 1x with a hand that deserves 3x
The raise sizes are not a matter of nerve. With a pair, or suited cards headed by a jack or better, 3x is the play; putting out 1x hands back most of what those holdings earn.
Skipping the Middle bet
Carrying no ante makes it look disposable. It is the one bet you place with four of the five community cards already face up, and it is graded on your better hand. Skipping it out of habit is one of the costliest things a beginner does.
Folding far too often
A fold surrenders that line and its ante. The genuine fold is narrow: unsuited, unpaired and nothing above a five. Anything else, including hands that feel unplayable, is a 1x bet.
Playing the Five Card Bonus as though your cards matter
They do not. It reads only the five community cards. Treat it as a separate lottery ticket with its own price, not as an extension of the hand you are holding.
What Good Play Is Worth
The honest numbers, both of them.
Played correctly, the game carries a house edge of 4.33% measured against the ante. That sounds steep because of what it is measured against: a single ante, while the money you actually commit across a hand is several times larger.
The fairer figure for a game with raises is the element of risk, which measures expected loss against everything you put on the felt. On that basis it runs at 1.48%, alongside other carnival games rather than above them.
Both numbers assume correct play. Neither of them can be turned positive. There is no counting, no comp play and no bet pattern that makes Criss Cross Poker beatable. Good strategy makes the game cheaper to play, not profitable. The reasoning behind each decision is here.
The gap between careful and careless play is still real. Folding on instinct, under-raising strong hands and skipping the Middle multiply what a session costs. Nothing in the rules above is difficult; it is a matter of deciding before you sit down rather than while the dealer waits.
Criss Cross Poker is a table game from AGS, developed by Ron LaDuca and In Bet Gaming.