How to play Online Casino games

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After Ante and any Progressive bets are placed, all Players and the Dealer will be dealt five cards each. The Players' cards are face down and the Dealer will place four of his cards face down and one face up. Now, go ahead and look at your cards. Then, look at the Dealer's one face-up card. Now, look at your cards again. OK, try not to take too long. Your decision is simple. Do you have a winning hand based on basic poker hand rankings? If you have absolutely nothing, not even a pair, fold. Immediately, you will lose your Ante bet and, if placed, your Progressive bet. Placing your cards on the table is a sign to the Dealer that you're out of this hand.

If, however, you have a playable hand, perhaps a pair or straight, and you believe that you might beat the Dealer's hand, it's time to place an additional bet. In the box marked Bet, you must wager twice the amount of the Ante bet. For example, if your Ante bet was $10, you must place $20 on the Bet box.

Once all Players have made their decision to either play or fold, the Dealer reveals his hand. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as your hand beating his. The Dealer's hand must contain a minimum poker hand ranking of an Ace and King. If his cards do not contain the minimum hand, he folds. At that time, Players who stayed in the game, receive 1:1 odds on the Ante bet. However, their secondary bet is returned to them with no additional money. Continuing with our example, you would receive your original $10 Ante, plus an additional $10, and your original secondary bet of $20 would be returned.

If the Dealer's hand contains at least an Ace and King, he must then play his hand against each Player based on traditional poker hand rankings. If your hand beats the Dealer's, you win even money on your Ante bet. For your secondary bet, the odds are as follows:

If the Dealer beat your hand, you automatically lose your Ante and secondary bets. However, if you placed a Progressive bet and were dealt a flush, full house, four-of-a-kind, straight flush or royal flush, you would win the Caribbean Stud Poker table Progressive Jackpot even if you lost to the Dealer.

Caribbean Stud Strategy

Always call bet when you have:

A-K-J x x or higher ... or ... A-K and the dealer's upcard denomination. Otherwise fold.

A common mistake many players make is to refuse to bet on low pairs like twos, threes and fours, and strong Ace highs because they seem to lose a lot more often than they win. ..They're right! They do. But what they don't realize is that not betting those hands and forfeiting the ante bet every time, is more costly in the long term than betting them. It's like splitting a pair of eights vs. a dealer ten in blackjack. Costly, but not splitting is even more so.

Analysis of Caribbean Stud Poker

When the dealer doesn't qualify the player's bet wins the ante and the dealer's payoff on the ante. In other words, if the dealer doesn't qualify the player is paid even money on the bet. However, in the long run the dealer will qualify 56.3% of the time. A bluff is always an unfavorable bet. Even the best possible bluff--where the player holds an Ace or King, another card which matches the dealer's upcard, and a four-flush of the same suit as the dealer's upcard--is unfavorable. This means that a player who always folds hands worse than Ace-King will lose less in the long run than one who sometimes bluffs.

A pair or better should always be bet. A bet on even the worst possible pair--deuces, with no Ace nor King, no card matching the dealer's upcard, and no card of the same suit as the dealer's upcard--yields an expected profit. This means that a player who always bets a pair of deuces or better will lose less in the long run than one who sometimes folds such hands.

The dealer will fail to qualify 43.7% of the time, and will qualify with an Ace-King (no pair) 6.4% of the time. The player who holds an Ace-King and bets will win even money more than 43.7% of the time (because the player's holding Ace-King reduces the chance of the dealer qualifying), and will be paid two to one (1:1 bet payoff plus 0.5:1 ante plus 0.5:1 ante payoff) when the player's Ace-King beats the dealer's. Therefore, there are some player Ace-King hands which should be bet, depending on what other cards the player holds. For example, if the player holds a card having the same value as the dealer's upcard, the chance of the dealer having a pair is reduced.

The optimum strategy is to bet when the player holds:

(1) AKQJ or better (including any pair or better)
or
(2a) AKQxx with any card in player's hand matching dealer's upcard; or
(2b) with both x cards having higher value than dealer's
upcard; or
(2c) with a four flush of the same suit as dealer's upcard and:
at least one of the x cards being either:
8 or better (i.e., 8, 9, or 10)
or
of higher value than dealer's upcard.
or
(3) AKJ with any card in player's hand matching dealer's upcard
or
(4) AKxxx with any x card matching dealer's upcard
The results of this strategy and two simpler strategies are shown below, each based on computer simulation of 200 million deals. "Expected loss per ante amount per hand" is the average amount that the player will lose per hand in the long run as a percentage of the ante amount. "Payback per $1 risked" is the average long run total payback on each dollar wagered--on antes plus bets.

Expected loss per
Strategy Bet frequency ante amount per hand Payback per $1 risked

Optimum 52.0% 5.23% $0.9743
Bet any pair or better 49.9% 5.48% $0.9726
Bet Ace-King or better 56.3% 5.75% $0.9729
For the casual player, "Bet any pair or better" is the recommended strategy. The expected difference in total loss versus the optimum strategy over a couple of hundred hands is about half of one ante. "Bet Ace-King or better" provides more betting action at the cost of another half an ante per couple of hundred hands.