Caribbean Stud Poker is in essence five-card stud poker, without the luxury of
a draw. Each player antes up and is dealt five cards from a 52-card deck. The
dealer also receives five cards, then reveals one of them. After seeing this card,
the player must choose whether to stay or fold. Folding loses the ante. Those
who stay, must double their bets and make a separate wager dubbed a "call
bet."
The dealer now exposes his
remaining four cards. If the dealer does not "qualify" by having at
least an ace/king, the hand is over, and those who called the hand win an amount
equal to their ante. If the dealer does qualify, the hand is played out, with
players winning their antes and call bets, on hands higher than the dealer¹s.
If the dealer¹s hand is higher,
the player loses both wagers. There is also a bonus payout schedule for hands
from one pair through a royal flush, but the dealer must qualify and the player
must be in the hand to get this bonus payout.
Caribbean
Stud offers the easiest basic strategy system to memorize of any card game: If
your five-card hand is an ace-king-jack-8-3 or better, call the dealer. If not,
fold.
Whether you should bet the optional
progressive jackpot wager, well, Miguel, I will report the arithmetic, you decide.
To
be eligible to win all or part of the jackpot (the progressive jackpot pays out
for straight flushes, for four-of-a-kinds, full houses and flushes), an additional
dollar must be wagered in a slot in front of the ante circle.
Luckily,
these jackpots are paid regardless of whether the dealer qualifies or not, but
you would need more than good fortune to hit one. You see, Miguel, there are 2,598,560
possible five-card combinations in a standard 52-card deck. With four ways to
make a royal flush.
The true odds of
hitting a natural royal are 649,760 to one. Put another way, if you played four
hours a day, 365 days a year, it¹s going to take you about fifteen years‹on
average; are you listening? ‹to hit a natural royal flush.
Bottom
line: With jackpots generally below $200,000 -- and the odds of hitting it close
to 650,000 to one‹to me, it¹s a no-brainer. Oops! You were supposed
to decide, weren¹t you?
Good
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