Online Caribbean Stud Poker Tips

Caribbean Stud poker is a skill game. Sure, luck absolutely plays a role in determining which cards you see, but it is up to you to take your cards – good or bad – and make the best decision possible. The game is extremely simple to play but the optimum strategy for Caribbean Stud Poker is ridiculously complicated. Not to worry though; we can pick out the most important parts to create an informed strategy that does a good job of minimizing the house’s edge while being simple enough to memorize. Continue reading for the details.

To Raise or Not to Raise

The central decision for any Caribbean Stud Poker player is whether or not to raise; everything else is just a matter of fine tuning the details. The general rule is that you should never raise if your hand is less than the minimum qualified dealer hand (AK). If you have, on the other hand, a pair or higher, you should raise. That’s right, any pair warrants a raise. So the question narrows to, “should I raise or fold when my hand is Ace high with a King kicker (AK).” The answer: it depends. Here are the three situations where you should raise with an AK hand.

The first is if the dealer’s visible card is anything from a two to a Queen, and it matches one of your cards. The second situation where you should raise with an AK hand is when the dealer’s visible card is either an Ace or King, and you have a Jack or Queen in your hand. Finally, the third raise-worthy situation is when you have a Queen in your hand and the dealer’s up card both doesn’t match one of yours, and is worth less than four of your cards. In any other situation, you should fold your AK hands. This is not exactly the optimum strategy, but it is fairly close and significantly easier to use.

What’s the Deal with the Side Bet?

So raise vs. fold is not exactly your only decision in the game. Before you even get to that point, you will have the option to make a side bet on the game’s progressive jackpot. The side bet is generally worth one dollar, and the majority of that is contributed to the jackpot itself. At the end of the round, if you have a Royal Flush, then you will typically win 100% of the progressive jackpot. A straight flush is worth a 10% consolation prize.

So your odds of winning are always the same and the price you pay to play is also constant. The only thing that changes is the jackpot. What this means is that your expected return increases as the pot grows larger. Ultimately, the jackpot can get to a point where it is large enough to give you an advantage (the same thing can happen with lotteries) but that’s out of the ordinary. In general, making the progressive jackpot side bet is considered a bad move.