GUTS

I was bored the other day and jumped on a Guts table at this site I play at. For those of you who don't know what Guts is, every player put up an ante, and then is dealt 3 cards. Each player then decides if their hand is good or bad, and then decides if they are in or out. When everyone decides, the people who chose in flip their cards, and the best hand takes the pot (3 card straights beat 3 card flushes, straight flush is best hand, etc.). The loser then has to post the amount of that pot as their ante in the next round, thus the name guts.

Anyway, I never really play the game, but I sat down at a full 10 person table, 25 cent antes, with 25 dollars, and got it to 50 dollars in about 20 minutes. I played twice since then, and made money each time. I really hate gambling, I normally only stick to regular poker, but it seemed to me that there might be a way to beat this game...

SO, what I basically want to know is, at a 10 person guts table, if I only stay in with hands of a certain value or higher, am I statistically favored to make money? If you put your starting hand value too low, you will obviously lose to better hands all the time, but if you start your lowest hand value too high, you will get anted down to the felt. Is there a middle value, say a low 5 high flush, that I can use as a marker for what hands to play and make money? Any math gurus wanna take a stab?

[AlphaWice]

It sort of depends on other players strategies.

I am lazy to do the work, but basically suppose each player plays the top x% of hands, and you play the top y% of hands. This lets you understand the nature of the game, after some calculation.