Caribbean Stud

Caribbean Poker has become a popular game aboard cruise ships and casino's around the world. It's an easy game to learn and employs many of the basic rules and skills of standard 5-card Stud. While it is popular because of how quickly it can be learned, the house edge is over 5% so this is a game that should be played strictly for "entertainment"!

Objective:

Each player is dealt a 5 card poker hand. The object is to beat the dealers hand

Basic Rules:

• The player places an initial bet called the "Ante".
• The dealer will then deals five cards to each player and five to themselves.
• The dealer then turns one of their cards up.
• At this point you can make an additional bet -- the "call" bet -- or surrender or "fold".
  • The Call bet is 2x the Ante
  •  If you surrender you lose the hand and your ante.
• If you make the "call" bet then the dealer turns over their cards.
• To continue to the showdown, the dealer must "qualify" by holding at least an Ace-King or better. If the dealer does not qualify, you win the ante but your "call" bet is simply returned, no matter what the cards show.

If the dealer does qualify then it's a good old fashioned showdown, with a catch. If you win, the ante pays even money. But if you win with anything better than a pair, then the house pays you a multiple of your "call" bet based on a bonus ranking. The better your hand, the higher the bonus.

Payoff in Caribbean Poker is very simple.

If you "call" and the dealer fails to qualify, you win even money on your ante and the "call" bet is simply returned.

If the dealer qualifies and you win the showdown, you get even money on your ante and you are paid your "call" pays out according to the following chart:

Note: The Dealer has to qualify in order to get paid on your winning call bet. It's not uncommon to see great hands like a straight flush or four of a kind only get paid even money on the Ante because the dealer didn't qualify. (Did that sound bitter?)