Caribbean Stud Poker
The name of Caribbean Stud Poker has been changed many times but the online game remains as popular as it is at brick-and-mortar casinos. While Boss Media, Real Time, Starnet and Cryptologic use the name Caribbean Stud Poker, it is known as Cyberstud Poker to MicroGaming. The rules are essentially the same but there's a difference in the pay table.
Starnet, Real Time Gaming and Boss Media employ the orthodox Mikohn Corporation pay table. Cryptologic improves the royal flush payout to 200 to 1. MicroGaming on the other hand pays only even money for two pairs but considerably more on stronger hands. The table below illustrates the odds paid by each of these systems and the consequent house edge in the case of optimal strategy.
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Online
Caribbean Stud Poker
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| Hand |
MicroGaming |
Cryptologic |
Boss Media,
Starnet,
Real Time Gaming |
| Royal flush |
999 to 1 |
200 to 1 |
100 to 1 |
| Straight flush |
199 to 1 |
50 to 1 |
50 to 1 |
| Four of a kind |
99 to 1 |
20 to 1 |
20 to 1 |
| Full house |
14 to 1 |
7 to 1 |
7 to 1 |
| Flush |
9 to 1 |
5 to 1 |
5 to 1 |
| Straight |
5 to 1 |
4 to 1 |
4 to 1 |
| Three of a kind |
3 to 1 |
3 to 1 |
3 to 1 |
| Two pair |
1 to 1 |
2 to 1 |
2 to 1 |
| Pair |
1 to 1 |
1 to 1 |
1 to 1 |
| Ace/king |
1 to 1 |
1 to 1 |
1 to 1 |
| House edge |
5.01% |
5.21% |
5.22% |
From this table, the best online Caribbean Stud
Poker is the MicroGaming version. It gives the casino an advantage of 5.01%. You can win even money on an ace/king with any of the brands, so you needn't depart from the conventional strategy. You'll find MicroGaming software at Roxy
Palace and Golden
Tiger Casino.
With Boss Media and Starnet you have the option of placing a $1 side bet. On a single monitoring, the Boss media meter showed $7,849 and the meter was $12,616 with Starnet. This generated respective house edges 61.47% and 49.05%. It's apparent that insufficient money is going into the meter on each play. I earnestly suggest you give the side bet a miss in Caribbean Stud Poker.
The correct strategy is to raise on every pair or better, never on a
hand that doesn't qualify, and in the following way on ace/king:
Raise if the dealer has any card of value two through queen and the card matches one that you're holding. Also raise if the dealer holds a king or ace and you're holding a jack or queen. And raise if the dealer's top card is not a match with any you have, provided you're holding a queen and the dealer's ranking card is lower than your fourth best card.
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