INTRODUCTION TO CARIBBEAN STUD
This game is a 5 card poker variation in which players play against the dealer instead of playing against one another. There will be no cards changed in this game and no need to bluff out the other players, simply follow the rules of the game and you could end up a winner.
The goal of the game is to get a better hand than the dealer. This game is a great game to play at online casinos, players will play their hand against the dealer one at a time and will never be competing against each other. The game is fast, fun and exciting and great for online casino newbie’s.
CARIBBEAN STUD RULES
There are some basic rules to follow in the game of Caribbean Stud Poker. They are:
- In order to qualify for a ‘challenge’ from a player, the dealer’s hand must contain an ace and a king. If it doesn’t, the challenge is void and the player receives a 1:1 payoff on the original ante bet
- In the event that both hands are equal it’s a ‘push’ (tie) and the bet is returned to the player
- One hand per game, per player. Multiple hands are not allowed
- No exchanging or changing of cards is permitted
- If the player is dealt an incorrect number of cards, he cannot play for the remainder of the game and his bet is considered a push
- All five cards in a player’s hand must be within sight of the other players and the dealer at all times
HOW TO PLAY CARIBBEAN STUD
First the player must place an ante bet. Then the player will receive 5 cards in their hand. Then the dealer will also deal themselves five cards, one card will be face up and the other four face down. The player will then decide whether he or she will continue to play the hand or fold the hand simply having the one dealer face up card for reference.
If you think you should fold you will hit fold and start again. If you want to play on you will have to match your ante with another bet and then the dealer will show their face down cards and see who has the better hand. Whoever has a better hand will win.
Caribbean Stud Poker Strategy
Poker is a game of skill and comes in many, many variations. Because the game of poker is less about chance and more about players making decisions, their tends to be more complicated strategy to learn. For Caribbean Stud we’ve listed some of the basic strategy that’s important for any player to learn before delving into the more difficult ones.
Before you even begin playing make sure you understand the odds and payouts of this game as well as the hand rankings. Caribbean Stud, while a variation of poker, does not play anywhere near like a game of Texas Hold’em Poker would. Remember that in Caribbean Stud you are given a 5-card hand, and that is the hand you either chose to play with, or fold. No cards are ever exchanged in Caribbean Stud poker.
Now onto some strategy...the two basic rules for playing Caribbean Stud are to always raise with a pair or higher and to fold whenever you have less than a dealer’s qualifying hand (this would be an Ace and a King). These two rules should be considered the golden rules in terms of Caribbean Stud Poker. Stick by them and you’ll be okay to go, ignore them and you’ll be playing right into the casinos hands!
It’s best to assume the dealer will qualify his hand about 50% of the time. This makes it hard to choose what to do when you are faced with the Ace/King hand. There are a few strategies you can use in this case.
The first is to have a look at the dealer’s up card (he is always required to turn, face-up, one of his five cards in his hand). If he is showing an Ace or King, you may want to assume that the dealer will qualify his hand.
The second strategy is to always stay in if you’ve got an Ace/King hand. Many would argue that because the dealer only qualifies half the time, your chances of winning are better if you just play every hand with an Ace/King or higher. However, you can also choose to only raise if you had an Ace/King and another strong, high card in your hand, this is a bit of a safer move.
Finally there is the side bet in Caribbean Stud. Most strategists will tell you to avoid this bet (and many other side bets) because the odds of these bets are extremely low. In the case of Caribbean Stud, you could place a side bet as insurance so that if you receive a qualifying jackpot hand but the dealer doesn’t qualify, you are still paid the jackpot amount, whereas if you didn’t place the side bet you would receive only your ante bet back – heartbreaking when you think that Caribbean Stud often has a hefty progressive jackpot tied into the game! Either way, we won’t persuade you how to play this one, just remember, the odds of being dealt a straight or royal flush are about 1 in about 650,000 and 1 in about 72,000 respectively!
The game of Caribbean Stud comes with a lot of excitement and anticipation, especially when you get a great hand and all you want is to see the dealer qualify. Try out some free play versions online to test out the different strategies and see which works best for you!








