Nobody
really knows how or where poker began; some say that
its origins lie in a 16th century Persian card game,
whilst others believe that it originated in Europe
at the turn of the 19th century. One thing we can be
sure of is that poker was brought to North America
by French explorers, and that it was originally
played in Louisiana. Many accounts name New Orleans
of 1830 as the place and time where modern-day poker
was first played. After being initially established,
the game quickly spread from Louisiana and soon
became a favorite in the West.
While we don't know who specifically invented
Caribbean Stud Poker, the tropical version of the
game, we do know that it originated on the island of
Aruba. This popular tourist destination is just off
the coast of Venezuela, and boasts a population of
only 100,000. Caribbean Stud Poker is based on the
rules of five-card stud poker, with the major
difference being that players bet against the house,
rather than other players.
Caribbean Stud Poker was initially played in the
Holiday Inn Hotel & Casino in 1988, where the
turquoise ocean and beaches of white sand provided a
fitting motive for its exotic name. Now known as the
Excelsior Casino, this location is still widely
popular with tourists and forms the basis of a
thriving community. It has recently been the focus
of attention once more, with the World Poker Tour
being held there in September 2005.
In the late 1980s, Caribbean Stud Poker spread
throughout the islands of the Caribbean, and it was
also offered in casinos on cruise ships in the area.
Over the next few years it received an ever-growing
reputation until, inevitably, it arrived in Las
Vegas in 1992.
The gambling gurus in Nevada realized that the game
wasn't quite rewarding enough to the player, so they
added a progressive jackpot as a sweetener. Their
plan worked, and the popularity of the game
skyrocketed throughout North America and Europe.
Nowadays, it's hard to find a casino in the world
that doesn't offer Caribbean Stud Poker, and with
the arrival of Internet gambling, everybody has a
chance to play.
Caribbean Stud Poker is one of
the variations of poker. As the name suggests it
comes from the Caribbean islands. It is very popular
and can be found at the majority of the casinos and
cruise ships in the Caribbean islands. The game has
a lot of similarities with standard table poker. As
far as the strategy is concerned, one of the best
rules to play by is to raise on Ace-King-Jack-8-3 or
better, and give up otherwise. Such situation is
called the beacon hand and it is the lowest break
even hand in the game. You must realize one thing
about playing Caribbean poker at the online casino-
that the dealer has to qualify in order for you to
make the payoff. Unfortunately though, in Caribbean
Poker this does not take place frequently. The great
advantage of playing Caribbean poker is that it
offers a huge payoff. And that is why people do
their best to take their chances and play in spite
of the slim odds of winning.
Caribbean Poker consists of two phases of betting.
In the first phase, you bet in, before the cards are
dealt by the dealer. After the dealer deals cards to
you and himself, and reveals one of his cards, you
either place a "call" bet or give up.
Payoff becomes interesting, when the dealer
qualifies and you receive even money for your ante
and your "call" pays out as follows:
As far as the odds go for Caribbean poker, the house
has a 5.2 per cent edge over you and most of the
time the dealer will only qualify 56 per cent of the
time. This means that 46 per cent of the time you
will only get paid for your ante bet. Due to this
Caribbean poker is a very tough game to win at the
online casino.
Removing the
difficult elements of betting, raising, bluffing and
playing against the entire table of players,
Caribbean Stud Poker attracts many players who do
not want to work on their individual poker skills.
Caribbean Stud Poker allows you to play against the
dealer only. Progressive jackpots for Royal Flush
and Straight Flush hands have become extremely
popular.
|
Hand |
Payoff |
Probability |
|
Royal Flush |
100 to 1 |
0.0000015 |
|
Straight flush |
50 to 1 |
0.0000139 |
|
Four of a kind |
20 to 1 |
0.0002401 |
|
Full house |
7 to 1 |
0.0014406 |
|
Flush |
5 to 1 |
0.0019654 |
|
Straight |
4 to 1 |
0.0039246 |
|
Three of a
kind |
3 to 1 |
0.0211285 |
|
Two pair |
2 to 1 |
0.0475390 |
|
Pair |
1 to 1 |
0.4225690 |
|
Ace/King |
1 to 1 |
0.0643642 |
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Hand Probability
It can really help your game if you know how
often certain hands come up. Sure, anything can
happen at the card table, but the following list
will give you more of an advantage than if you
didn't know any of the hand probabilities. I
have rounded the numbers so we don't need to be
mathematicians to understand the data.
A hand with nothing - once every 2 hands
One Pair - once every 2 hands
Two Pair - once every 21 hands
Three of a Kind - once every 47 hands
Straight - once every 256 hands
Flush - once every 526 hands
Full House - once every 694 hands
Four of a Kind - once every 4,167 hands
Straight Flush - once every 72,202 hands
Royal Flush - once every 649,351 hands
Looking at the data, we can easily see that our
hands, and the dealer's hands, will likely be
one pair or nothing at all. If you hand has
nothing at all, you are playing according to the
highest card. If that card is not so high, it's
best to fold right away. Should your hand be at
least one pair, you really have to play. The
downside of the data is that the dealer is going
to have a lot of non-qualifying hands, which
means those nice hands will largely only get
paid a flat ante fee.
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The best Caribbean Stud
Poker players recommend to vary one's ante
bets and progressive side bets according to
the overall jackpot accumulation. For
instance, in order for the odds to be in the
player's greatest advantage, the casinos
progressive jackpot needs to be at least
$263,228. Players are advised to only place
the side jackpot bet when the progressive
minimum is at this sum. Players are also
advised to place the minimum wager amount
when placing their ante bet. The reason
being is that when the jackpot gets to be
$263,228 or more, the table limits are often
increased and players are required to bet
twice the amount of the ante to be eligible
for the progressive jackpot.
Make the Progressive Side
Bet When the Jackpot is Right
Before the jackpot rises
to $263,228, the required side bet for
jackpot winnings eligibility is $1, which
according to the payout odds offered by the
casino, is not even worth making. In other
words, the $1 side bet can be the worst bet
a player makes when the jackpot is not high
enough. For example, in order to receive
jackpot winnings - which are dependent on
the jackpot itself - a player must hit a
Flush, Full House, Four of a Kind, Straight
Flush or Royal Flush (max jackpot). The odds
are 508:1 for hitting a Flush, 693:1 for
hitting a Full House, 4,164:1 for hitting a
Four of a Kind, 64,973:1 for hitting a
Straight Flush and 649,740:1 for hitting a
Royal Flush. Unless the jackpot is at least
$263,228, the payouts are simply not worth
the odds of winning.
So why this seemingly
random jackpot number of $263,228 you ask?
Well, mathematical formulations show that
when the jackpot payout is $50 for Flushes,
$75 for Full Houses and $100 for Four of a
Kinds, the payout return for each $1 jackpot
side bet is approximately $.23 cents for
every $10,000 in the total jackpot, while a
jackpot payoff ratio of $100/250/500 on the
$1 side jackpot bet is approximately $.68
cents for every $10,000 in jackpot
accumulation. Percentages show the most
advantageous return on the jackpot side bet
when the jackpot itself has acquired at
least $263,228 and is awarding greater
payouts for the aforementioned hands. In
this case, just be prepared to put up plenty
of money if you are going for the jackpot.
That being said, a good
strategy to go by is to, first of all, bet
on a pair or better. This will always yield
an expected profit and should be played out
against the dealer's hand every time.
Statistics show that the dealer's hand,
which needs at least an Ace King to qualify,
will not do so 43.7% of the time. Therefore,
if a player is holding an Ace/King in their
hand, depending on what other cards make up
the rest of the hand, the player should
consider playing their bet even without a
pair. One instance is when the dealer's
up-card is the same value of a card the
player is holding. This reduces the chances
of the dealer holding a pair even more.
Overall, computer
simulations of five-hundred hands advise to
bet when holding the following hands in
correspondence to the dealer's up-card:
-Ace/King/Queen/Jack or
better, including pairs, no matter what the
dealer is showing;
-Ace/King/Queen and two
cards of any value only when one of the
cards matches the dealer's up-card, or, if
the player also holds a four flush of the
same suit of the dealer's up card, and one
of the players two other cards is an 8 or
better;
-Ace/King/Jack only when
the the player has another card matching the
dealer's up-card;
-Ace/King and three cards
of any value so long as one of the three
cards matches the dealer's up-card.
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