Caribbean Stud Poker is a game based on five card stud poker, but you play against the dealer – not against other players. You make a bet and get a five card hand. If you want to stay in the game, you have to make an additional bet that is twice the size of the original bet. If you decide not to stay in the game, your hand is removed and you lose your original bet.

In many casinos, an optional Progressive Jackpot sidebet is available when you play Caribbean Stud Poker. If you elect to do the side bet, you have a chance of winning money from a progressive jackpot that is fed by these sidebets.

Playing Caribbean Stud Poker

Caribbean Stud Poker is played with a standard 52 card deck, without any jokers. No cards are wild.

1. All players place their original bet (the ante).
2. The dealer deals five cards to each player and five cards to her self. All cards are dealt face down, but the dealer will turn one of her own cards face up to show everyone.
3. Each player pick up their own hand and look at it. Players are not allowed to share information with each other about their hands.
4. Each player must now decide to keep playing or give up. There is no exhange of cards in Caribbean Stud Poker; your starting hand can not be improved upon.If you give up, you lose your bet and is no longer in the round. If you want to keep playing, you must make a second bet and this bet must be exactly twice the size of your first bet.
5. The dealer will reveal her hand. Her hand can either be good enough to qualify or not good enough to qaulify. In most casinos, she need to have at least ace + king to qualify.

Dealer doesn’t qualify

If the dealer’s hand is not good enough to qualify, all player hands that are still in the game will get paid 1:1 on their first bet and nothing on their second bet.

Example: Your first bet was $50 and your second bet was $100. You get paid $50 on your first bet, and now have $200 in front of you.

Dealer’s hand does qualify

If the dealer’s hand is good enough to qualify, each player hand that is still in the game will be compared to the dealer’s hand. If your hand is worth less than the dealer’s you lose both your first and your second bet. If you hand is better than the dealer’s, you get paid 1:1 on your first bet, and how much you get paid on your second bet will depend on how high your hand is ranked. Below, you can see a commonly used payout schedule for seconds bets:

Example: The dealer has a pair, while you have three of a kind. Your first bet is $50 and your second bet is $100. You get paid 1:1 on your first bet ($50) and 3:1 on your second bet ($300). You now have $100 + $400 = $500 in front of you.

The progressive jackpot

When you play Caribbean Stud Poker, you can elect to make a sidebet that will feed the progressive jackpot. If you make this sidebet and then get a good enough hand, you will get paid from the progressive jackpot in addition to any regular win.

In most casinos, you will get paid from the progressive jackpot even if the dealer doesn’t qualify, but you are responsible for notifying the dealer since she won’t automatically check player hands during a round where she doesn’t qualify.

How big is the sidebet?

The sidebet is usually small, even on tables where the minimum ante (first bet) is pretty large. $1 or €1 are common sidebet sizes.

How big the jackpot?

In most casinos, the jackpot never goes down to zero. If the whole jackpot is paid out to a player, it restarts again with some money in it provided by the casino, to make sure that there is always something to win for players making the sidebet.

The jackpot will then grow a bit each time a player makes the sidebet. It is popular to connect many Caribbean Stud Poker tables to the same jackpot, since this can make it grow much quicker and rapidly become really big.

What can I win?

Always check the paytable for the specific table you wish to play at.

This is one example of a commonly used paytable: