Caribbean Stud Poker

Please note that the exact rules of Caribbean Stud Poker can vary between casinos, both online and offline. Always check the rules for the particular table you wish to play at.

Caribbean Stud Poker is a casino game based on five card stud poker, but played against the house – not against other players. There can be numerous players at the same table as you, but you hand will only be compared to the dealer’s hand.

Tips! If the casino you wish to play in doesn’t offer Caribbean Stud Poker, check out the other available casino poker games, because you might find a game that is very similar (or even identical) to Caribbean Stud Poker. For legal reasons, it is quite common for casinos offer this type of poker under another name.

The basics

• Caribbean Stud Poker is typically played with a standard 52 card deck without any jokers or other wild cards.
• This is not a poker game where you can exchange cards or get more cards after your initial hand has been dealt. You get five cards at the start of the round, and that’s it.
• Caribbean Stud Poker has a progressiv jackpot. It is common for casinos to pool this jackpot, i.e. connect numerous Caribbean Stud Poker tables to the same progressiv jackpot.
• You are not allowed to reveal anything about your hand to other players at the Caribbean Stud Poker table. Since only one 52 card deck is used, it would be easy for players to find out too much about what the dealer’s hand can and can’t be if they were to pool all their information about their respective hands. (If there are seven players at the table, and each one get five cards, there are only 17 possible cards left for the dealer’s hand.)

Playing Caribbean Stud Poker

If you want to play online you need to register with an online casino and login to play Caribbean stud poker.  I recommend Red Stag casino but there are many other good casinos to chose from. You do not have to deposit any money to play.  You can play using play money.  If you want to be able to win real money then you need to deposit and play for real money.

1. All players place their ante wagers in front of them. Player’s who want to also make a special jackpot wager.
2. The dealer gives each player five cards, face down.
3. The dealer gives herself four cards five down and one card face up.
4. Players are allowed to look at their respective cards. The dealer doesn’t look at her four face-down cards.
5. Players who want stay in the game make a bet wager, which is always twice the size of their ante wager. Not placing the bet wager means that you are leaving the game and you automatically lose your ante wager (plus any jackpot wager).
6. The dealer collects the cards and ante wagers belonging to players who have left the game.
7. The dealer turns over her four face-down cards to reveal her hand.
8. The dealer’s hand is either too weak to qualify or strong enough to qualify. You can read about these two scenarios below. To put it simple, if her hand doesn’t qualify, any player that is still in the game gets paid some money, regardless of how poor his hand is. If the dealer’s hand does qualify, each player hand will be compared to it. If the player’s hand is better, the player gets paid. If the player’s hand is weaker, the player lose all their wagers on that hand.

What happens when the dealer hand doesn’t qualify?

Exactly how good the dealer’s hand must be to qualify can vary between different tables, but ace + king or a common treashold (i.e. the hand 5-7-J-Q-K would not qualify, while the hand 5-7-J-K-A would.)

If the dealer’s hand doesn’t qualify, all players that are still in the game gets paid 1:1 on their ante wager and gets to keep their bet wager. (The jackpot wager is always lost in Caribbean Stud Poker.)

Example: You bet €50 ante wager, €1 jackpot wager, and €100 bet wager. You get paid €50 on your ante wager, lose the jackpot wager, and get to keep the bet wager. You now have €50 + €50 + €100 in front of you = €200. You wagered €151 and have made a €49 profit.

When the dealer doesn’t qualify, you get paid regardless on how poor your hand was. This is why there is a certain element of “bluffing” in Caribbean Stud Poker. You can elect to stay in the game even with a really poor hand, hoping that the dealer will fail to qualify.

What happens when the dealer hand is strong enough to qualify?

If the dealer’s hand is strong enough to qualify, each player hand will be compared to the dealer’s hand.

• If your hand is better than the dealer’s hand, you get paid 1:1 on your ante wager. You also get paid on your bet wager, and how much you get depends on the rank of your hand. See table below.
• If you hand is weaker than the dealer’s hand, you lose all your wager on that hand.
• If it’s a tie between you and the dealer, you get to keep your ante wager and bet wager, but you don’t get paid on them.

How much do I win on my bet wager when the dealer qualifies and my hand is the stronger one?

If the dealer’s hand qualifies and your hand is the stronger one, you get paid according to the paylist that is posted by the poker table.

Here is an example of what it can look like:

Royal Straight Flush	100:1
Straight Flush	50:1
Four of a Kind	20:1
Full House	7:1
Flush	5:1
Straight	4:1
Three of a Kind	3:1
Two Pairs	2:1
One Pair	1:1
Ace + King + a higher kicker than the dealer	1:1

Example

Your ante wager was €50 and your bet wager is €100. The dealer qualifies with a pair, but you have three-of-kind so you win over her.

1. You get paid €50 on your €50 ante wager.
2. You get paid €300 on your €100 bet wager.
3. You now have €50 + €50 + €100 + €300 in front of you. You wagered €150 and made a €350 profit.

Winning something from the progressive jackpot

As mentioned above, you can elect to make a separate wager on the progressiv jackpot when playing caribbean stud poker. The jackpot wagers are used to feed the jackpot. Only players who have made this contribution to the jackpot can win something from the jackpot.

The jackpot wager is fixed in size and typically small compared to the main wagers, e.g. €0.50 on a table where €10 is the minimum ante bet. If you are playing Caribbean Stud Poker offline, you can expect there to be a special slit in the table where you place the casino chip. As the round starts, the dealer pushes a button an all the jackpot wagers fall down into a collection box below.

So, how do you win the progressiv jackpot – or a part of it? The answer is that you need a good enough poker hand, and that in most (but not all) casinos this means Flush or better.

Example of a commonly used payment schedule for the progressive jackpot:

Do I get paid for a jackpot hand even if the dealer’s hand fail to qualify?

Yes you do, but you have to alert the dealer. Otherwise she will just pay out wins on the ante wager and collect your cards without looking at them. (This is naturally not an issue in online casino’s since win payments are automatic there.)