The Caribbean Stud Poker rules and best strategy are easy to remember. Free games are available at some of the online casinos for practice. Caribbean Stud odds are a little heavy in favor of the house (about 5.2%), so look for the payouts that are shown below. If you play the optional jackpot and catch a few more big poker hands than usual, you can win quite a bit of money in a short time. This is one of the more exciting table games.
After all the players have acted, the dealer reveals his four hole cards. If he has an ace with a king or higher hand, he qualifies to compete with the players. If he does not qualify with the A-K or higher required, he pays all the bettors even money on their ante bets. Each call bet, in this case, is a 'push'. If the dealer does qualify with A-K or higher, he then compares his hand to each of the player's hands. If the dealer's hand is higher, the player loses both the ante bet and call bet. If the player's hand is higher than the dealer's, then he or she wins even money on the ante bet and the bonus amount on the call bet, in accordance with the call bet bonus schedule. A common mistake that many Caribbean Stud Poker players make is to refuse to bet on low pairs like twos, threes and fours, and strong ace highs because they seem to lose a lot more often than they win. They're right! They do. But what they don't realize is that not betting those hands and forfeiting the ante bet every time, is more costly in the long term than betting them. It's like splitting a pair of eights vs. a dealer ten in blackjack. Costly, but not splitting is even more so.
- A free online version of Caribbean Stud Poker. Test out your Caribbean Stud Poker strategy here. Practice for Vegas. Try your luck at the progressive jackpot.
- CARIBBEAN STUD POKER STRATEGY CALCULATOR. Select five player cards and the dealer upcard. You can make the card selections by either clicking on the deck of small cards or by entering.
Caribbean Stud is a five card stud poker game played on a blackjack type table with a standard 52 card deck. The cards are normally dealt from a multi-deck 'shoe' or by an automatic shuffling machine that deals in groups of five card hands. Players try to beat the dealer with the best poker hand.
CARIBBEAN STUD POKER Caribbean Stud is based on five card stud, a variation of Poker. The game is played with a single deck of 52 cards. The game is made more challenging and exciting because players have the additional chance to win a progressive Jackpot Payout.
Each seat at the Caribbean Stud table has a player's layout and chip slot like the drawing at the right. The slot fixture has small lights that light up when a chip that has been placed in the slot is allowed to fall through for collection by the dealer. Always watch the lights to make sure your jackpot bet is indicated, before the hand is dealt. Sometimes they don't work properly and that could cost you a lot of money.
Caribbean Stud Poker Rules and How to Play Procedure
Before any cards are dealt, you place a bet in the 'ante' box in your table layout. This ante bet can be any amount within the posted table limits.
With each hand you may also play for the optional progressive jackpot. If you want to do this, you place a $1.00 chip in the chip slot in front of you. When all the players that want to play for the jackpot have their bets down, the dealer presses a button allowing all the $1.00 chips to drop through the slots for collection. The lights on your slot fixture are activated by the chip drop and stay illuminated until the hand is over to show that you made the jackpot bet.
The dealer then gives five cards, face down, to all the players and gives himself four down and one up. You then look at your cards and decide to either play or fold. If you choose to fold, you lose your ante bet. If you choose to play, you place double the amount of your ante in the 'bet' box. This is your 'call' bet.
Poker Hand | Full Pay Call Bonus Table | Full Pay Jackpot Table |
---|---|---|
Royal Flush | 100 to 1 | 100% Total Jackpot |
Straight Flush | 50 to 1 | 10% Total Jackpot |
4 of a Kind | 20 to 1 | $500 |
Full House | 7 to 1 | $100 |
Flush | 5 to 1 | $50 |
Straight | 4 to 1 | - |
Three of a Kind | 3 to 1 | - |
2 Pair | 2 to 1 | - |
Pair or less | 1 to 1 | - |
If the player made the $1.00 jackpot bet and has a flush or higher, he or she receives payment for the hand, in accordance with the jackpot payout schedule. When players are eligible for jackpot payouts they must announce that they have a jackpot hand to the dealer, as soon as they see it and before the hand is over. This is to protect your hand from the dealer accidentally scooping it up and mixing it in with the dead cards. Protect this hand and never take it off the table or out of overhead camera sight. If you do, the casino has the right to enforce the game rules and not pay you for it. The progressive jackpot bet is a separate side game. The player wins whether he or she beats the dealer or not.
Caribbean Stud Poker Strategy and Tips
The percentage crunching experts will advise you not to play the jackpot game because the house advantage is too high. But I'll bet that even they will slip a coin in the jackpot slot when they think nobody is looking. Without the jackpot bet feature, the game of Caribbean Stud would soon be history. Just about everyone plays for the big progressive jackpot payouts.
The Progressive Jackpot
Actually the experts are sort of right when they complain about the jackpot odds, especially when the player is getting the common 50/75/100 payout and the progressive starts out at $5,000. But when you factor in a full pay schedule with some progressives reaching over $600,000 the picture starts to look pretty good for the player. With an average or near to average run of cards, you probably won't win at Caribbean Stud. However, if you are playing the progressive when the poker gods bless you with some unusually powerful hands or an unusually good run you can win a lot!
Optimal Caribbean Stud Poker Strategy
Always call bet when you have:
Always call bet when you have:
- A-K-J x x or higher
- A-K and the dealer's up-card denomination (for example you hold A-K-2-9-5 and the dealer's up card is a 5)
All other hands should be folded.
So to give you the best shot at some nice winnings follow these tips: look for full pay games, large progressive jackpots and always play the optimal strategy.
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This American casino game, also known as Caribbean Poker or Cyberstud Poker, is not really a poker game since players play against the bank rather than against each other. The adjective 'stud' is also misleading, since players receive all five cards before betting, not one card at a time with a betting round after each as in real stud poker.
Note. Gambling can be dangerously addictive. You can find information and advice on our Responsible Gambling page.
The players each place an ante and the players and the bank are dealt five cards each from a standardc international 52-card pack. One of the banker's cards is dealt face up. After players have seen their own cards and the banker's face up card, each player in turn must either
- make a call bet, increasing their stake by an amount equal to twice their original ante, or
- surrender, in which case the bank wins the ante.
There is then a showdown.
- If the bank does not have A-K or better the player's ante and call bet are returned, plus an amount equal to the ante.
- If the bank qualifies by having A-K or better, a player wins if the player's hand beats the bank's (see poker hand ranks). The bank pays out even money on the ante plus fixed odds on the call bet as follows:
- evens for a pair or high card
- 2-1 for two pairs
- 3-1 for three of a kind
- 4-1 for a straight
- 5-1 for a flush
- 7-1 for a full house
- 20-1 for a four of a kind
- 50-1 for a straight flush
- 100-1 for a royal flush
- If the bank has A-K or better and the player's hand is worse than the bank's the ante and call bet are both lost.
- If the player ties with the bank it is a 'push': the ante and call bet are simply returned to the player.
In addition there is usually a progressive jackpot into which a player can pay a fixed stake on each deal. Part of all of the jackpot is paid out to any player who is dealt a flush or better.
Optimal strategy for Caribbean Stud Poker is complex and difficult to apply without using a calculator tool to deduce the correct decision. When applied, fully optimal strategy results in a House Edge of 2.56%. A simplified strategy would see the player Call with any hand of AKJ83 or stronger. While not entirely optimal this will result in a House Edge within 0.1% of the optimal strategy. To save time the hands that are worth checking are any AK high hand.
The Pogg provides a comprehensive guide to Caribbean Stud Poker rules, variants and strategies.
Caribbean Stud Poker Strategy
The Caribbean Stud Poker page of beatingbonuses.com has a good summary of strategy and how it varies according to the payouts offered.
Caribbean Stud Poker Payouts Poker
The Carribean Stud section of Casino Advisor has rules and information. The advice on this site is relevant mainly to land-based casino rules and should be used with caution, especially if playing online where payout tables may vary widely between oprators.