Ult Tx Holdem Trips Variant

NOTE: I originally posted this as a blog entry. I am new to this site and I should have posted this as a thread post.

I sometimes play Ult TX Hold'em at Isle Casino, Pompano, FL. Private bankers take the action and house takes a rake from the bankers. I think Isle Casino operates in a dozen other locations.
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The Blind pay table is 200 x for Royal Flush; 50 x for straight flush; 10 x for quads; 3 x for full house; 3/2 x for flush; and 1 x for straight. Blind pay table compares to regular blind table EXCEPT for Royal Flush.

Trips pay table is 50 x for Royal; 40 x for SF; 30 x for quads; 10 x for boat; 8 x for flush; 6 x for straight; 3 x for trips. The Full House, Flush and Straight pay tables are very generous relative to the typical trips tables. If my math serves me, the trips return favors the player. Except for a major wrinkle.

Major wrinkle: trips does not pay if player does not beat dealer. But trips is returned if dealer wins or pushes the hand. For example, if player has a flush and dealer has a full house, the trips bet does not pay out, But the trips bet is returned.

If both the dealer and have the same valued hand, there is no trips payout.

The questions are should the player a) play trips? and b) if so, should the trips play be greater than the ante-blind play? Any thoughts?

Zev

For the payout table you quote, I calculate that the trips bet would have a player advantage of about 13.96% if it always paid off, that is, even when player loses or ties. But the rule that the payout will be zero if your premium hand either ties or loses is very important. For example, sometimes the premium hand (trips or better) will be the 5 cards on the board resulting in no TRIPS payout because the dealer will at least tie the player's hand.

Using the methodology explained below, I estimate that this TRIPs bet has a net payout of approximately - 0.045; - a HE of 4.5%. So, I would recommend that the player not make this TRIPs bet.

My methodology is approximate because this is a complex calculation to do correctly. I would welcome anyone to provide a more rigorous answer.
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Methodology
Using the details of the payout table from the WOO page on UTX Hold'em I calculate these probabilities for the UTX Holdem player being dealt AND winning the following kinds of hands:

Royal Flush: 0.00003
Str. Flush: 0.000264
4oaK: 0.001524
Full House: 0.022583
Flush: 0.025715
Straight: 0.037279
3oaK: No info available

3oaK Player gets dealt a 3oaK hand with a frequency of 4.8299%. I have done an elaborate hand calculation to yield the following approximate estimates:

Player gets 3oaK and wins: 2.98%
Player gets 3oaK and loses or ties: 1.85%

Note that the reason the 3oaK does not win more frequently is because a significant fraction of the time the 3oaK is in the 5 common cards on the board.

Less than 3oaK. Player will be dealt less than 3oaK 0.8473% of the time, resulting in the loss of the trips bet (a payout of -1.)

Factoring in all of the above probabilities and the quoted Trips Payout Table, I calculate the net payout on this TRIPs wager to be -0.045; that is, a House edge of 4.5%.