Caribbean stud poker Rules, Strategy and House Edge

It is very much similar to the five card stud poker and the only difference being it is played against the house rather than other players. This game has gain popularity since the last five years. It encourages players to make side bet to get the taste of jackpot. Out of 649,740 to 1 is the probability of winning a big jackpot.

Rules

The following rules are based on the U.S casino. The payout might vary from one place to another.

1. To begin the game, each player has to place his Ante on the table layout (A specific place on the table to place bets). Progressive Jackpot feature is offered to all the players to participate in it.

2. Both the dealer and the player have received five cards facedown. The dealer has to expose one of his cards and push it towards the player. Then, the player is free to examine his cards but that information should be confidential.

3. The players have to decide among the choices to either fold or play. Fold by player means he has chosen to forfeit his ante while if chosen play, player have to raise the bet. The amount of the raise would be double the amount of Ante.

4. All the 4 hole cards would be revealed by the dealer after all the players have made their decisions.

5. The dealer will play if his hand contains a king and ace or a pair higher than this combination.2, 3, 4, king and ace is the lowest qualifying hand and combination of 9, 10, jack, king and queen is the highest non qualifying hand.

6. The comparison between the dealer’s hand and players hand commence. It usually starts with the player extreme right to the dealer. The player wins if their hand beat the both the Ante and the Raise bet.

7. The Ante bet would be paid to the player if his hand beats the dealer as he fails to qualify. The respective raise of players would be Push (amount of raise would be returned to the respective players).

8. Both the Ante and Raise would Push if player ties with the dealer.

Some important rules that must be kept in mind by a player while playing Caribbean stud poker:

1. Players are not permitted to wager of hold multiple hands. One hand per player is the first rule of this game.

2. The “Indicator Light” is ON which ensures that $1 wager has been inserted into the slot for the players who chose to participate in the progressive Payout feature.

3. The information of a players hand must be limited to him only. They are free to look their cards but exchange of information while playing is not permitted.

4. Dead hand would constitute to a player only if he has incorrect quantity of cards.

5. Decision of the casino is final and all the players are obliged to it.

6. Dealer has to deal with an additional one card if he has dealt with only four cards in order to complete his hand. Any other misdeal to the dealer would result in reshuffling of the cards.

7. Players are obliged to keep their all five cards in view of the dealer to avoid any possible scam. Players can scrutinize their cards only once and then place them facedown on the layout. They cannot touch the cards again.

Strategy

Unlike other game, house edge can be reduced in this game. Player should fold any pair less than Ace-King and play any high order hand other than that. This is the basic of Caribbean stud poker. Fold any pair less than Ace-King and play any pair higher than that. This strategy has certain limitations and player have to go according to the conditions.

1.Player should raise Ace-King-Queen and Ace-King-Jack if an ace or king is shown by the dealer. Player would have blockers to their pairs by doing this.

2.If the face up card of the dealer is deuce through a queen than player should raise Ace-King.

3.Raise Ace-King-Queen or Ace-King-Jack if the dealer shows display a deuce through 5 as the turned card.
This method reduces the house edge by 2.3% which is considered as very good in Caribbean Stud Poker.

Payout

Even Money would be received by the player if his hand beats the dealer on the ante. The payout table is described below:

Bet wagers will be void if there is no Ace-King in dealers hand and only even money on the Ante would be received by the player.

The progressive feature is offered by the house to the players for just one dollar chip after placing their respective Ante.

Player Strategy

5.224% is the house edge for the Ante utilizing optimal strategy. Players are not able to implement it properly as it is complicated.

Having the idea what other players can do would certainly decrease the house edge. A 2.3% gain can be achieved by the player if he has the knowledge of 30 cards (six players).

Progressive Jackpot Side Bet

Players have the option to make a $1 bet for progressive payout that pays 10% for Straight Flush and 100% for Royal Flush. I have not seen two players simultaneously winning Royal Flush but it happens, so the player right to the dealer would win the jackpot and the other player would win the reseeded jackpot which is usually $10,000. This is because the player from the right is the first one to show its hand. So, the right one takes the advantage of jackpot.

In case the two players win a straight flush simultaneously the right one gets the 10% of the jackpot while the other will receive 10% of the remaining amount of jackpot. I have also heard that if one player scores a Straight flush and the other scores Royal Flush in the same hand then the player with the Right (Scores Royal) takes the jackpot and the other player (Straight Flush) only receive 10% of $10,000 which is only $1000. The return varies as the amount of jackpot varies but 26.46% is the average house edge which is quite high.

It has been conducted in a survey that for $1, 29 cents is kept by the casino and the remaining 71 cents is added to the jackpot. The amount varies from one location to another but is nearly equal to 71 cents for a dollar.