Caribbean Stud Poker

Caribbean Poker Rules & Strategy

Caribbean stud poker has been gaining in popularity and is now offered at many online casinos. You might start your look at Hampton Casino, Casino Miami Beach, and Sci-Fi Casino. Following is the basic play and strategy.

Ante Bet
To begin, each player must place an ante bet (as in standard poker) prior to the dealer announcing no more bets. Each player receives five cards face down. The dealer gets four cards face down and one card face up.

Progressive Jackpot Bet
In order to participate in the progressive payouts, a player must wager an additional $1.00. An acceptor device is provided for each player which will accept this bet.

Bet To Call Dealer
If a player feels his hand will beat the dealer's hand and wishes to continue playing, the player must place an additional wager of exactly twice the ante bet.

Surrender Or Fold Hand
If a player feels he cannot beat the dealer's hand, the player will fold his hand and surrender ante.

Dealers Hand
The dealer must have Ace/King or better to continue to play. If he does not qualify, the players ante wager is paid even money (1 to 1) and the bet wager is a push, (no action is taken on the bet wager). If the dealer does have an Ace/King or better and the players hand is higher in rank than the dealers hand, the player collects on his ante and bet wagers. If the dealer's hand tie (all five cards are identical in rank), the ante and bet wagers are both pushes and no action is taken.

Bet Wager Payout Schedule
If the dealer's hand is high enough to open and the player's hand is high enough to beat the dealers hand, the player qualifies for the following payout:

1 Pair or Less - 1 to 1
2 Pair - 2 to 1
3 of a Kind - 3 to 1
Straight - 4 to 1
Flush - 5 to 1
Full House - 7 to 1
4 of a Kind - 20 to 1
Straight Flush - 50 to 1
Royal Flush - 100 to 1

Progressive Payout Bet
Regardless of the dealers hand, players who win the caribbean poker progressive payout must show the casino supervisor their hand to receive the applicable progressive payout. Winning progressive payout hands are paid in accordance with the amount on the meter when it is the players turn to be paid. However, if more than one player at a table has a royal flush progressive payout hand, each player shares equally in the amount on the meter when the first player with a royal flush is to be paid. The following are the typical progressive payouts:

Royal Flush: 100% Of the Progressive Meter
Straight Flush: 10% Of the Progressive Meter
4 of a Kind: $500.00
Full House: $100.00
Flush: $ 50.00

Casino Rules
Players may not exchange or communicate information regarding their hands. Any violation will result in a dead hand and forfeiture of all wagers.

A player may play only one hand per round of play.

Each player who makes a bet wager is responsible for his or her own hand and no other person other than the dealer may touch the cards of that player.

Each player is required to keep the five cards in full view of the dealer at all times. Once each player has examined his or her cards and placed them face down on the layout, they may not touch the cards again.

If a hole card is exposed prior to the dealer announcing no more bets, all hands shall be void.

Players choosing to play for the progressive payout are responsible for ensuring that the indicator light on the acceptor device is properly illuminated.

If a player is dealt an incorrect number of cards, that player's hand is void. If the dealer is dealt four cards of the five card hand, the dealer will deal an additional card to complete the hand. Any other misdeal to the dealer will result in all hands being void and the cards will be reshuffled.

Caribbean Stud Poker Strategy

Guest columnist Michael Shackleford, the Wizard of Odds, offers this strategy.

The player should raise on any pair or better, fold on anything less than ace/king, and should sometimes raise and sometimes fold on ace/king. To play Caribbean stud perfectly would involve memorizing the charts in my appendix on when exactly to raise on ace/king. Of course nobody is going to do that so a more simplified strategy is clearly called for. By studying the appendix you will notice certain patterns of when the odds favor raising and when they don't. I have summarized these patterns in the following suggested rules of thumb on when to raise on ace/king:

	Raise if the dealer's card is a 2 through queen and matches one of yours.
	Raise if the dealer's card is an ace or king and you have a queen or jack in your hand.
	Raise if the dealer's rank does not match any of yours and you have a queen in your hand and the dealer's card is less than your fourth highest card.

This strategy is unique but is not the only strategy I have heard of. Following are various other strategies, their total loss based on all possible 19,933,230,517,200 combinations of hands, the house edge, and the "element of risk" (defined below). The "matching rank" strategy calls for raising on any pair or better and on ace/king when one of the player's cards matches the rank of the dealer's up card (which lowers the odds of the dealer forming a pair).

Strategy Statistics in Caribbean Stud Poker
Strategy	Total loss	House edge	Element of risk
Perfect strategy	1,041,372,912,372	5.224%	2.555%
Three rules of thumb (above)	1,041,417,758,724	5.225%	2.554%
Raise on ace/king/jack/8/3 or better	1,059,715,400,580	5.316%	2.596%
Matching rank	1,063,176,931,284	5.334%	2.616%
Raise on any pair or better	1,090,272,101,460	5.470%	2.738%
Raise on any ace/king or better	1,132,600,203,540	5.682%	2.672%
Playing blind (raise on everything)	3,310,360,338,060	16.607%	5.536%

Progressive Jackpot Side Bet
In Caribbean Stud Poker, the player has the choice to make a side bet of $1 which pays for hands of a flush or better. The specific payoff tables vary from place to place, but always feature a progressive jackpot, paying 100% of the jackpot meter for a royal flush and 10% for a straight flush. In the very unlikely event that two players had a royal flush in the same hand, at most places the first one to the dealer's left would win the jackpot and the second would win whatever the jackpot is reseeded to, usually $10,000 or $20,000. Some places would split the jackpot between the two players. In the event that two players received a straight flush at the same time, the first one to the dealer left would get 10% of the meter and the second would get 10% of what was left after the first player was paid. In other words it pays to sit as close as possible to the dealer's left.

While the expected return varies depending on the size of the jackpot, it is a sucker bet the vast majority of time. The average house edge is 26.46%.

Our thanks to the Wizard of Odds. If you have a question, feel free to ask the Wizard.

For a general poker site, we recommend the site at Gambling Poker.