Caribbean Poker Rules
CARIBBEAN STUD POKER – RULES Caribbean Stud Poker is a casino table game played against the dealer. The player antes, and is then dealt a five-card hand; the dealer is also dealt five cards of which only one is exposed. The player now either folds, losing his ante, or bets an additional amount equal to exactly twice the ante. Basic Rules of Caribbean Hold’em Poker Ante Bet: A new hand of Caribbean Hold’em Poker begins with an ante wager. Place this in the circle marked “Ante”. Progressive Side Bet: The player also decides to make the progressive side bet or not. This is a blind bet, with no. The Deal: The player. Caribbean Stud Poker Payouts, Odds and Rules Caribbean Stud poker is a casino version of the traditional 5 card draw poker. The main difference between Caribbean stud and the traditional game is you play against the house not other players. Caribbean Stud Poker Casino Game Rules. There are five basic rules to Caribbean poker. Bets are placed before cards are dealt. Each player gets five cards all hidden. The dealer gets five cards too and only one is exposed. Players must make a decision to play or fold based on the strength of their five cards and the dealer’s exposed card.
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.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.
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:
- 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)
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.
Back in the 1990s, Caribbean Stud Poker was all the rage. The clever little fusion of traditional Five-Card Stud and house-banked table gaming took the industry by storm after being introduced in the late ‘80s.
At one point, you couldn’t reach your blackjack table without bumping into a crowd of rabid Caribbean Stud Poker fanatics.
Over time, the game’s popularity waned, thanks in large part to a “new wave” of hybrid table games that expanded on the classic Caribbean Stud template. Popular table games of the modern era like Mississippi Stud Poker, Three-Card Poker, and Let It Ride all owe their inspiration to Caribbean Stud Poker.
Today, you’ll only find the game spread in two Las Vegas casinos, the Venetian and the Palazzo. Fortunately, the best online casino platforms out there have Caribbean Stud Poker.
To help you play your best game, I’ve compiled three Caribbean Stud Poker rules and strategies that most modern players don’t know much about.
1 – That Second Raise Bet Only Gets Paid When the Dealer “Qualifies”
Once, when I was enjoying a Caribbean Stud Poker session by my lonesome, a hotshot businessman wearing Armani from head to toe sat down in the next seat over. I was betting $5 red chips and he pulls out $100 black chips from his pocket, giving me a little look of derision as he upped the table ante.
A few hands passed by in silence before the following deal took place.
Mr. Hotshot gets his five cards and immediately makes the raise bet for $200 more, his hands almost shaking as he slides the stack forward. My cards are trash, and the dealer is showing the ace of spades anyhow, so I fold quickly, anxious to see what’s in store on the showdown.
Sure enough, Mr. Hotshot turns over the mother of all poker hands, A-K-Q-J-10, all in hearts, for a natural royal flush.
“Yeah, baby! Gimme the money! That’s a royal, gimme my 20 grand!”
I catch the dealer’s eye for a moment, then see a sly smirk flash for just an instant, and I know instantly what’s coming next. The dealer turns over his hand one card at a time, adding the lowly 2-5-7-Q combo in rainbow suits to his ace of spades.
“Dealer doesn’t qualify sir, it’s a push on the raise bet. But you did win $100 on the ante bet. Congratulations.”
The “congrats” was delivered with nothing but contempt, and I could’ve sworn Mr. Hotshot’s head was going to explode.
He berated the dealer, unleashing a stream of obscenities. Like I said, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen…
So, here’s what happened. If you scan the following pay table, Mr. Hotshot’s $200 raise bet was indeed eligible for a $20,000 payout at 100 to 1 odds.
Caribbean Stud Pay Table
| Hand | Ante | RAISE* |
| Royal flush | 1 to 1 | 100 to 1 |
| Straight flush | 1 to 1 | 50 to 1 |
| Full house | 1 to 1 | 7 to 1 |
| Flush | 1 to 1 | 5 to 1 |
| Straight | 1 to 1 | 3 to 1 |
| Two pair | 1 to 1 | 1 to 1 |
| One pair | 1 to 1 | 1 to 1 |
| High card | 1 to 1 | 1 to 1 |
*Only paid when dealer has a qualifying hand of A-K high or better
But as the all-important asterisk makes clear, those raise bet “bonus” payouts are only awarded when the dealer shows down a qualifying hand. And in Caribbean Stud Poker, a qualifying dealer hand must be ranked at A-K high or better.
That might not seem quite fair if you’re just now learning the game, but Caribbean Stud Poker can be a cruel mistress.
Of course, after he calmed down a half-hour later, I eventually pointed out to Mr. Hotshot that his royal flush could’ve been worth even more. Had he tossed a measly $1 chip down on the progressive jackpot side bet, that lightning strike longshot of a hand would’ve paid out $125,000 and change.
He didn’t though… And now that I think back on it, that was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on the casino floor.
2 – The Best Strategy Is to Avoid the Progressive Jackpot Side Bet
Speaking of the progressive jackpot side bet, all it takes is an extra $1 chip to become eligible for the following commonly found pay tables:
Common Caribbean Stud Poker Progressive Jackpot Pay Tables
| Hand | Table 1 | Table 2 | Table 3 | Table 4 | Table 5 |
| Royal flush | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Straight flush | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% |
| Four of a kind | $100 | $150 | $500 | $500 | $500 |
| Full House | $75 | $100 | $100 | $150 | $75 |
| Flush | $50 | $50 | $50 | $75 | $50 |
Many newcomers to Caribbean Stud Poker bet on the progressive by default, seeking a safeguard against the nightmare scenario Mr. Hotshot likely never lived down. And indeed, this optional wager removes the dealer qualification caveat, so if you hit gin with a royal flush or straight flush, the dealer’s hand doesn’t matter, you’re a massive winner.
Unfortunately for players, this side bet is truly awful in terms of expected return. With a house edge of 26.46%, it’s among the worst offered in all of casino gambling. I’m talking “as bad as keno” worse, or “three times as bad as the hard eight in craps.”
If you want to play Caribbean Stud Poker strategically, skipping the progressive jackpot side bet every time out is a great place to start.
3 – Playing Perfect Strategy Involves a Simple Three-Rule System
Based on your five-card starting hand’s relative worth, you should always know whether a fold or a raise bet is the right play.
And here’s how you do it.
Caribbean Poker Free Download Game
- With any hand ranked at A-K-J-8-3 or better (one pair; A-K-Q-x-x; A-K-J-9-x; etc.), you should ALWAYS make the raise bet.
- And with any hand ranked at A-K-J-8-2 or worse (A-Q-x-x-x; A-K-10-x-x; A-K-J-7-x; etc.), you should ALWAYS fold.
Yep, believe it or not, that about does it for Caribbean Stud Poker’s optimal strategy.
When you play using these guidelines, the house edge and element of risk for the game come to 5.32% and 2.60%, respectively.
Conclusion
As you can probably tell if you made it this far, I really do love Caribbean Stud Poker. The game just has an elegance that its later derivatives simply can’t match.
Rules Of Caribbean Poker
It’s a shame to see my favorite “fun” table game go by the wayside of late, but with a rebirth in the offing thanks to online casinos, I hope learning about the rules and strategies presented here serve you well down the road.