Caribbean Stud Poker Tips

There are a couple of basic strategies that people use that I would like to take you through. All of the strategy on this page deals with whether to raise your hand and put two times the ante or fold your hand and accept the ante as a loss. After I go through the normal strategies, I will tell you the strategy that I use.

Basic Caribbean Stud Strategy

1. You raise if you have Ace,King,Jack,8,3 or better, otherwise you fold. This is the standard best practice for deciding whether to bet your hand.
    
2.  You raise if the card that the dealer is showing matches any of the cards in your hand. Another standard practice for determining whether to fold you hand or not. It doesn't matter whether your hand would qualify or not.
   
   The rationalization behind this method is that if you share a card with the dealer, there is a greater likelihood that the dealer does not have a pair and won't qualify.
    
3. You raise if you have a pair or better, otherwise you fold. This isn't a bad method to use, it just doesn't use any complex strategy. Overall it pays out just slightly less then the two above.
    
4. You raise if you have Ace/King or better, otherwise you fold. Another easy strategy to follow, this will payout slightly less overall then playing only with a pair or better.
    
5. Don't fold at all or bluff a lot.
   
   This is a very bad strategy as you will be losing 3 times as much on any garbage hand you should fold with. The dealer has about a 53% chance of qualifying for a hand.
   
   So if you bet four times in a row at the same amount with nothing in your hand and lets say you win 2 and lose 2. Because you had nothing, the only time you will win is when the dealer doesn't qualify. This means you only win on your ante bet two times.
   
   The two bets that you lost were a combined total of 6 ante bets meaning that you are down 4 ante bets. In a perfect world this would be equivalent to folding all four hands. But if you combine some of the strategies above, you might know the right time to fold and when to go with nothing.

Favorite Caribbean Stud Strategy

Now this is sort of a combination of some of the basic strategies augmented for optimal play, yet still easy enough to remember.

1. You should always raise with a pair or better
2. You should always fold when you hand won't qualify
3. You should only play Ace/King in the following situations:
       When the dealer is showing an Ace or a King and you have a high third card
       When the dealer's up card matches one of your other three cards
       When the dealer's up card does not match any of yours and you have a Queen or Jack

Now sometimes you can definitely try going without a qualifying hand, but this is a per hand and sort of a get a feeling for the situation kind of call. Here are some things to remember about this:

• Never ever call if the dealer is showing a Ace or King
• The only time you should think about calling is when the up card matches one of yours