Caribbean Stud Poker Strategy
Caribbean Stud Poker Strategy. Since so many people come to our site looking for the optimal Caribbean Stud Poker Strategy, we’ve decided to make it easier for you all by producing this great instructional video. Don’t be overwhelmed, it really is quite easy. Adding a progressive side bet changes the basic Caribbean Hold’em strategy. When you study Hold’em Poker tips, stick to pages which discuss RealTime Gaming’s Caribbean Hold’em Poker strategy specifically. Also, keep in mind that progressive side bets change Hold’em Poker odds from 2.16% to 6%. The house edge remains a comparable or better than most games with.
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.
Caribbean Stud Poker is popular because of its easy-to-understand rules, fair odds, and generous payouts. Since the game bears a striking resemblance to blackjack in that it is played against the house and not against one’s opponents makes it attractive to blackjack players too. Since the aim is to beat the dealer by creating a hand stronger than the dealer’s, the game is much more relaxing than other variants of poker such as Stud, Omaha, and Hold’em. The highlight of Caribbean Stud Poker is its progressive jackpot feature, which can be activated by placing the optional side bet of $1, considered by many as a sucker bet.
Players’ Aim
As previously mentioned, the aim of the player is to beat the house by producing a poker hand stronger than the dealer’s. At the beginning of the game, both player and dealer get 5 cards each. While players can view their cards right away, only one of the dealer’s cards is a hole card. The entire game is played with cards dealt at the beginning of the game. The rules, therefore, are easy, and players can improve their chances of winning by employing certain proven and tested strategies.
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Importance of Strategy
Contents
Implementation of strategy can help players reduce the house edge, but they should implement the strategy correctly and at the right time. Caribbean Stud Poker is one poker variant that is friendly to players with different sizes of bankrolls. Players usually follow two major types of strategies while playing Caribbean Stud Poker:
- Basic Strategy – This is a simple strategy that is easy to understand and easy to remember, allowing players to reduce the house edge by a fraction.
Advanced Caribbean Stud players must understand the basic strategy thoroughly before attempting to understand the advanced strategy.
- Advanced Strategy – This strategy is slightly complex, but it definitely reduces the house edge by a considerable percentage.
Basic Strategy
The basic strategy includes 3 simple points:
- Avoid folding small pairs – Folding small pairs is a common mistake made by beginners. In case of Caribbean Stud Poker, players will find themselves getting small pairs often. In the long run, these small pairs prove to be extremely valuable, owing to which players must avoid folding these small pairs.
- Avoid playing weak hands – Players who get a weak, unplayable hand must not hesitate to fold, as they will simply lose money in the long run. Experts say that players must fold if they have got a hand weaker than the Ace and King combination.
- Play the Ace and King combination properly – If players get the Ace and King combination, they should play only if the other card in their hand matches the dealer’s face-up card. Since dealers qualify most of the time, players must make doubly sure that their hand is strong enough to beat the dealer.
Advanced Caribbean Stud Strategy
Once players have grasped the basics, it is time to move on to advanced Caribbean Stud strategies. If players understand this strategy well and implement it properly, they can convert Caribbean Stud Poker into a player friendly game.
- Raise on a hand comprising pairs or better
- Fold hands lower than Ace and King
If players find that their first two cards are an Ace and a King, here is what they can do:
- Raise only if their third card is a Queen or a Jack and if the dealer’s face-up card is a King or an Ace
- Raise only if the dealer’s face-up card is a Queen or a lower card, which forms a pair with a card in their hand
- Raise if their third card happens to be a Queen and their fourth card is better than the face-up card of the dealer.
Caribbean Stud Poker Rules Strategy
The golden rule is that players must fold if they get any other hand.
Best Strategy For Caribbean Stud Poker
Is there a perfect strategy for Caribbean Stud Poker? Most advanced Caribbean Stud players, who have tried out a number of strategies at a number of casinos, ask this question. Several sources claim to have the perfect Caribbean Stud Poker strategy, and all players need to do conduct the required research before trying it out. Several players feel that advanced Caribbean Stud strategies are too difficult to understand, which is why they stick to the basic and advanced strategies outlined above.