Casino Table Games in the Philippines

The table games you will find in Philippine casinos

Walk into any of the large integrated resorts, whether in Entertainment City Manila, Cebu or Clark, and you will find a familiar core of table games alongside a few you may not have seen elsewhere.

At City of Dreams Manila the table lineup includes blackjack, Three Card Poker, Caribbean Stud-style poker, sic bo, roulette and the Money Wheel, a big vertical wheel that is one of the simplest games on any floor¹. NUSTAR Resort and Casino in Cebu spreads pontoon and sic bo among its table games³. Okada Manila offers the world's only Crapless Craps table⁷.

Beyond the resort floors, PAGCOR's e-Games cafés and smaller venues carry electronic versions of many of the same games, including blackjack, a whole family of "21" variants such as Pontoon, Super 21 and Match Play 21, plus Tri-Card Poker and Pai Gow Poker¹⁰. So even away from the big resorts, the same games are available in electronic form.

Baccarat remains the most popular table game in the country by far, and it has its own page covering it in depth. This page covers everything else on the felt.

Blackjack: rules, payouts and house edge

Blackjack is the most widely available table game in the Philippines and the one where smart play matters most. The aim is simple: be dealt a hand worth more than the dealer's without exceeding 21¹.

Each player receives two initial cards. A ten-value card plus an Ace is the best possible hand, called a Blackjack¹¹. Aces count as either 1 or 11, whichever helps your hand more, and any total over 21 is a bust, which loses immediately¹¹. After the deal you can hit (take another card), stay, double down, split a pair into two hands, or surrender when offered¹¹. If the dealer's face-up card is an Ace, you will be offered insurance¹¹.

A natural blackjack pays 3 to 2, insurance pays 2 to 1, and tied hands push, returning your bet⁴. Live tables commonly use eight decks⁴. The dealer must draw on 16 or less and stand on 17 or more⁴. If the dealer shows a ten or an Ace, she checks for blackjack; if she has one, the round ends and all players lose unless they also have blackjack, in which case they keep their original bet¹².

The house edge at blackjack is about 0.5% with optimal play, the lowest of the main table games⁵. Online variants vary by provider: Ezugi's live blackjack runs about 0.11%, Playtech Blackjack Switch 0.14%, Espresso Games single deck 0.15%, Gameplay Interactive live dealer 0.46%, and Stake's in-house version 0.57%¹³.

At live online tables, no wager can be increased, decreased or withdrawn after the first card of a round, except when splitting, doubling or taking insurance, and a system malfunction voids all pays and plays¹⁴.

Pontoon: the 21 variant without 10s

Pontoon looks like blackjack's close cousin, and it is: it is a variant of the American game, originally based on the French game Vingt-et-un (21), made popular in the UK and now spreading through the US and Asia³. NUSTAR in Cebu spreads it as a live table game³.

The objective is the same, get as close to 21 as possible without going over, but there is one big difference: Pontoon is played without the 10s³. Removing a quarter of the high cards changes the odds and the correct plays, so basic blackjack strategy does not carry over.

Each betted box receives two initial cards, and the dealer takes one³. In the Australian version of the game, which many Asian tables follow, the dealer does not take a hole card and hits soft 17¹⁵.

A related game, Spanish 21, uses the same no-10s deck and is sometimes offered online under the name Pirate 21¹⁶. If you enjoy pontoon, it is worth trying both.

Three Card Poker: how the dealer qualification works

Three Card Poker is one of the easiest poker-based table games to learn, and it is spread at City of Dreams Manila and other resorts¹. It uses a single 52-card deck with no jokers, and the cards are shuffled after every round².

Each round starts with an Ante bet, and optionally a Pair Plus wager. The dealer gives three cards face down to each player and takes three face down themselves⁶. The concept is simple: whoever has the higher three-card hand, dealer or player, wins⁶. Note that in three-card poker a straight ranks higher than a flush, the reverse of five-card games¹⁷.

After looking at your cards, you either fold and lose the Ante, or make a Play bet equal to the Ante⁶.

Now the qualification rule, which is the heart of the game. The dealer must turn over a Queen or higher to qualify⁶. If the dealer does not qualify, your Ante pays even money and your Play bet is returned as a push¹⁸. If the dealer qualifies and you have the better hand, both Ante and Play pay even money⁶. Ties are a push, with both bets returned¹⁷. The Ante bet wins about 44.91% of the time⁶.

The Pair Plus wager pays on your own three cards regardless of the dealer:

The Six Card Bonus side wager combines your three cards and the dealer's three into the best five-card hand:

At live online tables, stakes run from $0.50 up to $10,000 per hand¹⁹. The streams work on desktops and laptops as well as iPhone, iPad and most Android devices¹⁷.

Caribbean Stud Poker and Lunar Poker

Caribbean Stud Poker is five-card poker against the dealer, with no drawing and no bluffing. The dealer's hand must contain an Ace and a King or higher to qualify; the lowest qualifying hand is A-K-4-3-2 and the highest non-qualifying hand is A-Q-J-10-9²⁰. The common-sense approach: raise on a pair or higher, and fold on anything below a qualifying dealer hand²⁰.

Lunar Poker, spread at City of Dreams Manila, is a more elaborate five-card draw game against the house with a twist: you can bet on your own hand, on other players' hands, and even on the dealer¹. Your options each round include:

• playing your hand
• buying a sixth card
• exchanging two to five cards
• forcing the house to draw a card

That last option gives you far more control than Caribbean Stud¹. The resort points players to www.lunarpoker.com for the basic strategy, which is genuinely worth reading before you sit down, because the exchange and draw options change the math considerably².

Online, Caribbean Stud Poker is also available alongside Three Card Poker and other poker variants at crypto-based operators such as CoinPoker¹⁹.

Sic Bo: bets, odds and multipliers

Sic Bo is a dice game with deep roots in the region. The name is Chinese for a pair of dice, or literally "precious dice" or "jewel dice," and the game itself is simple: players bet on the outcome of a roll of three dice⁹. NUSTAR Resort Cebu spreads it as a live table⁹.

Players place chips on the different symbols of the electronic layout. Once the dealer calls "no more bets," the dealer presses the deal button, removes the cover, and announces the winning combination based on the illuminated lights⁹. Losing bets are collected and winners are paid at the odds printed on each area of the layout⁹.

The betting areas cover single numbers, totals, and combination bets. A two-number combination bet wagers on the chance of two specific numbers appearing among the three dice²¹. At NUSTAR, Any Triple pays 24 to 1 and Specific Doubles pay 8 to 1⁹. Older UK regulations set Any Triple at 30 to 1 and a specific double plus single number combination at 50 to 1, so check the layout at your table, because payouts for the same bet vary between venues²².

Dice games have a long history in the Philippines. The traditional game Prinola, documented in Manila in the 1890s, paid winners double the amount of their bets, and sic bo belongs to the same family of dice-betting games that traveled with Chinese communities across Asia²³.

Online, Super Sic Bo adds random multipliers of up to 1,000x per round, a big step up from the standard fixed odds²⁴.

Roulette and the Money Wheel

Roulette needs little introduction: you bet on where the ball lands, on a single number, a color, a column or a spread of numbers. Column bets pay 2 to 1 and red/black pay even money. After the ball settles, the table is frozen, meaning you cannot touch your chips until the croupier has finished paying all the winners²⁵. The house edge at roulette is about 5.3% on the double-zero wheel, and no playing strategy lowers it²⁵. European Roulette, the single-zero version, returns 97.3% to players over time, and online Lightning Roulette adds bonus multipliers of up to 500x²⁴.

The Money Wheel, spread at City of Dreams Manila, is the simplest game on the floor². City of Dreams describes it as:

You bet on the icon you think the wheel will stop on, the dealer spins, and winners are paid at fixed odds for that icon. There is no strategy at all, which is exactly its appeal for casual players.

Crapless Craps: exclusive to Okada Manila

If you want to play a table game found nowhere else in the world, head to Okada Manila. Crapless Craps is offered exclusively there, on the main casino floor⁷.

Crapless Craps is a twist on standard craps in which the awkward numbers for the shooter, 2, 3, 11 and 12, become points rather than instant results, which means longer rolls and more action before each round resolves⁷. In standard craps, the bets with the lowest house edge are the pass line, come, place and odds bets, and the same general logic applies at the crapless table²⁶. If you have never played craps in any form, ask the dealers; craps crews are famously the most talkable staff in any casino, and Okada's table is a rare chance to learn the game in its rarest form.

Side bets and progressive jackpots: Suiter and Blazing 7 Blackjack

Two side-bet packages you will meet at Philippine tables are Suiter Blackjack at Newport World Resorts and Blazing 7s Blackjack.

Suiter Blackjack, spread at Newport World Resorts, layers several optional wagers on top of the normal blackjack game²⁷. The High Low bet pays 1 to 1 when you correctly wager whether your first card will be higher or lower than the dealer's up card²⁷. The pair bets pay on your first two cards:

The Suited Triple bet, on your first two cards plus the dealer's first card, pays 200 to 1 for a suited three of a kind and 50 to 1 for a straight flush²⁷. There is also a Suited Blackjack wager with a ladder of payouts for matching suited blackjacks, player and dealer blackjacks, and even a player Ace in the first two cards²⁷.

Blazing 7s Blackjack is a progressive side bet that pays depending on how many 7s appear in your hand and the dealer's hand; the more 7s, the more you win²⁸. The prize ladder:

If the 10% and 100% prizes are hit in the same round, the 10% winner is paid first and the 100% winner takes what remains²⁸.

Who can play

Table games in Philippine casinos are open to anyone aged 21 or over, including visitors and foreign residents. Persons under 21 and students of any Philippine school, college or university are not allowed to play, and government officials and employees connected with the operation of the government, along with members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines including the PNP, are prohibited from entering, staying or playing in gaming venues; banning orders apply nationwide⁸. The practical risk of playing below age or while barred is simply being refused entry or removed from the floor. For licensed online play the same 21-and-over age applies, and while some international sites accept players from age 18, Filipinos are still held to their own country's age of 21²⁹.