What Is a Pick 3 Bet? — How to Place a Pick 3 Wager on Horse Racing
The Pick 3 bet is one of the multi-race horizontal wagers that has been pretty popular lately as it can offer lucrative rewards to bettors who manage to win it.
The main object of a Pick 3 bet is to select three winners in three consecutive races. If you pull it off successfully, you’ll receive a decent payout.
The chances of getting a Pick 3 bet right are low, as it’s often tough to predict the winners of consecutive races. Still, horizontal bets are fun to play, and they allow bettors to enjoy horse racing even more.
How to Make a Pick 3 Bet?
The bet is pretty self-explanatory — bettors need to choose the winners of three races in a row and get them all right to get paid.
They must place a wager on these races before the first one starts. The minimum bet depends mainly on the betting site you choose but can be anywhere from $0.01 to $2.
The best part is that you can bet on more than one selection per race. For example, you can bet on two horses in Race 3 but just one horse in Races 1 & 2.
If you want to bet $5 on your Pick 3 bet, it will look like this: $5 Pick 3 — Horse 1 / Horse 2 / Horse 3, Horse 4. Of course, instead of “horse,” you’ll see their names.
However, it’s important to mention that you’ll be making two separate bets for Horse 3 and Horse 4. In other words, if you get Horse 1 and Horse 2 right, you’ll win the bet if either Horse 3 or 4 wins the last race.
We should also mention that Pick 3 bets aren’t as lucrative as some longer multi-race bets. Still, if you play them well and make a correct guess, you can receive a decent payout.
Best Strategy for Pick 3 Bets
It’s safe to say that Pick 3 bets don’t require a specific strategy to increase your chances. The best you can do is know your horses and understand how the upcoming races will play out.
However, there are some tips and tricks that you might want to consider.
First of all, Pick 3 bets can have low payouts if you bet on the favourites every time. Imagine betting on three races where the favourites each have the odds of 1.10. In that case, you’ll receive $13.3 if you bet $10, and that’s not a fruitful payout. Instead, you should take a bigger risk if you want to make a profit in the long run.
The alternative is to be ready to invest more money and make higher bets when making Pick 3 bets.
Finally, Pick 3 bets also require you to find value in contenders that may have been overlooked by sports betting sites. In other words, if you’re sure that a horse has a good chance of winning despite not being recognized as a favourite, it is your best bet.
How does one find such a horse? This requires thorough research, so make sure to examine their overall state, age, stamina, past races, and more. Once you have enough information about the contenders, you might be able to make a profitable deduction and incorporate it in your Pick 3 strategy.
Main Advantages of Pick 3 Bets
Pick 3 has a slight advantage over longer multi-race bets, such as Pick 4, Pick 5, and more, as you can make it several times a day. Since multi-race bets apply on consecutive races, you’ll find only one or two multi-race wagers that involve more than three selections.
Therefore, there are several three-race sequences, and you can choose the one you feel the most confident about. On the other hand, Pick 3, 4 and 6 bettors are usually forced to select one or two sequences per day, which isn’t that fun if you’re not sure about the outcome for every race.
The Pick 3 bet is great for horse racing bettors who don’t have that much experience but still want to take one step further in exploring the available bets.
Alternatives to Pick 3 Bets
Once you feel confident enough with Pick 3, you can increase your risk by testing Pick 4, 5 and 6 bets. They bring much higher rewards if you get them right, but the probability of succeeding is much lower. Simply put, guessing the winners of six consecutive races is more complicated than guessing the winner of three.
If multi-race bets aren’t your thing, you can explore a wide array of other bets available in horse racing. After all, this is the sport with the widest range of potential bets.
