Caribbean Stud poker, while popular on cruises, is not a favourite of professional gamblers since its not at all profitable.
Even if you were to play with an optimum strategy, you would only reduce the casino's edge to just over 5.2%.
The basic strategy for the game of Caribbean Poker is pretty simple:
Raise your bet on A-K-J-8-3 or better - Fold otherwise.
A-K-J-8-3 is called the "beacon hand" and it's the lowest break-even hand in the game. While this won't
make you a long-term winner, it will help slow your losses. It's the paying hands, a pair or better, that
will net you the good wins. The problem is that the dealer must qualify in order for you to get the real
payoffs and this only 54% of the time. This means that 46% of the time you'll only get paid for your Ante
bet at 1-1 no matter how good your cards are.
Français