Caribbean Stud Poker

Ante, five cards down against the dealer’s one showing, then a single choice: double your stake or fold. Every decision is priced against all 163,185 dealer hands — exactly.

Five cards, one bet

• 163,185dealer hands counted
• exactodds

Manual

One raise.

After the deal the only move is a bet of exactly twice the ante, or a fold that surrenders it.

One card shows.

You see all five of your own and one of the dealer’s; the other four stay down until the decision is made.

Dealer needs Ace-King

or better to have a game. Miss, and the ante pays 1:1 while the bet is returned untouched.

The ladder pays the bet only.

The ante is always even money; the bet is paid by the hand ladder, Ace-King at 1:1 up to the royal at 100:1 — and only against a dealer with a game.

A tie returns everything.

Equal hands push: ante and bet come back, nothing is paid.

The game

An ante, five cards each; you see all of yours and one of the dealer’s. Then the only decision in the game: fold and surrender the ante, or raise exactly twice the ante and see the dealer’s other four.

The dealer needs Ace-King or better to have a game. Miss, and the ante pays 1:1 while the bet comes back untouched — the raise risks nothing against a dealer who never shows up. Against a made game the showdown pays the ante 1:1 and the bet by the ladder; a tie returns everything.

The payout ladder

Only the bet is paid by the ladder — the ante pays even money however big the hand. By hand:

The numbers

Of the 2,598,960 five-card hands, 1,135,260 sit below Ace-King — the dealer misses 43.7% of all deals, and on the textbook line you fold the same share of yours.

That textbook line — bet Ace-King or better, fold below — gives the house about 5.2% of the ante per hand, a sampled figure. Every decision on this screen is priced better than that: with your five and the upcard known, only 163,185 dealer hands remain, and the ledger counts each one. Those numbers are exact.

Tactics

Always bet a pair or better. Even a low pair against an ace showing loses far less doubled than folded.

Fold everything below Ace-King. Such a hand cannot beat even the weakest qualifying dealer, so the raise wins nothing a fold does not.

The close calls are the Ace-King hands, where the kicker and the dealer’s upcard decide — an upcard you hold yourself helps, because the dealer pairs that rank less often. The ledger already counts every one of them exactly; trust the row.

Enter