Caribbean Stud Poker Strategy
Caribbean Stud Poker is a kind of combination of poker and blackjack. The dealer has an up-card and the player always acts first. However, unlike regular poker, there is no way to bluff the dealer. The dealer's hand is always exposed whether you bet or not. The house edge in Caribbean Stud Poker is relatively high in the game itself, about 5%, but if the progressive jackpot is large enough, the house edge could be greatly reduced (provided you post the progressive side bet of course).
The most important decision in Caribbean Stud Poker is whether or not to fold a hand, and in most cases this is easy.
- Always raise with a pair or better, regardless of the dealers's up-card.
- Always fold unpaired hands without ace-king (the dealer's qualifying hand)
This means that you should play even the small pairs, even if they have little chance of winning if the dealer has a hand. This is profitable because the dealer will have a pair less than half of the time, and if he has ace-king, you will win both the bet and the ante.
It's when you have ace-king the choice between folding or raising becomes difficult. It's always good if the dealer's up-card matches one of the cards in your hand, as this slightly reduces the chance of the dealer having a pair. If this is the case, you should raise with ace-king, but if not you should fold unless you have at least A-K-Q-J-x.
The progressive jackpot side bet can certainly add to the excitement, but most of the times it's not very profitable. You want the jackpot to be quite large in order to play, but if it's large enough, you could even have a positive expectation from the side bet. This also depends on the house rules, but in order to reach break-even in most casinos the progressive jackpot should contain at least $150,000.
Caribbean Stud Strategy - Part 2
