Carribbean Stud Strategy

If you know how to play poker, you can play Caribbean Stud. When you start playing Caribbean Stud, you will have to make an ante bet. This ante bet creates most of the house edge because you will have to make this bet before you are allowed to see your cards.

You're usually given the option of paying a dollar to become entitled to win a progressive jackpot. The progressive jackpot is where most of the house edge comes from. If the progressive jackpot is going to be a good bet, it has to be around $400,000 and it rarely ever gets that high.

A lot of players figure that it's just a dollar and fear that they may hit a royal flush and not have played the progressive jackpot. To keep the maths simple, you could play Caribbean stud all day every day for twenty years and still be a huge underdog to catch the royal flush.

If you can resist the temptation to play for the progressive jackpot, then you can consider yourself halfway home in your Caribbean Stud Strategies. All you have to do to play perfectly is to not get involved in a hand unless your starting hand is A, K, J, 8, 3 or better.

This means that you should only play if your hand if it is any pair - or better - or if your hand is A, K, J, 9, 2. Do not play if your hand is A, K, J, 7, 6 or A, Q, J, 10, 9.

If you decide to play, you have to place a bet twice the size of the original ante and if you have a hand like 5, 5, 5, 3, 3, you can easily stick your money out there because you now have a full house and will be paid a multiple of your bet.

Another problem with Caribbean Stud and a reason why a lot of players prefer Let It Ride. If the dealer doesn’t make a hand that is at least A, K or better, you won't win anything except for your ante bet.

The nice multiple that you were expecting for your full house won’t get paid if the dealer has something like K, Q, 6, 5, 3. You will just win your ante bet and get the rest of your money returned to you. You will always win the ante if the dealer doesn’t qualify and you stayed in the hand by making a double ante bet, a lot of poor Caribbean Stud players will make the double ante bet with awful hands, hoping they’ll collect because the dealer will fail to qualify.

This is not a good way to play Caribbean Stud because you will have to risk double your original bet to try and win the ante. It is much safer to give up the ante bet when you don't have the minimum set out above and wait for a better hand. Unlike proper poker where folding usually means that you have to wait for several minutes before your next hand, you will get another hand almost instantly in Caribbean Stud. Fold the weak hands and play the strong hands and you'll increase your chances of winning at Caribbean Stud.