The objective of Caribbean Stud Poker is to beat the dealer’s five-card poker hand. The game is dealt from a single standard 52-card deck. Before the deal, all players must make a required Ante wager and have the option to place a $1 side bet on the progressive jackpot. After bets are placed the dealer deals five cards to each player and five cards to herself. Only one of the dealer’s cards is exposed to the players. There is no redraw on the initial 5-card hand.

A DEALER’S INITIAL HAND

After the deal, the player must decide whether to fold or continue playing. If he folds his initial Ante bet is lost. If he decides to play out the hand, he must make an additional Call bet equal to double the amount of his Ante. After all players have decided to fold or play out the hand, the dealer exposes all five of her cards. At this point one of three things can happen:

A. DEALER DOES NOT QUALIFY
If the dealer does not have a poker hand of Ace/King or better, she does not qualify. All players who decided to play out the hand are paid even on their Ante bets, even if their hand is lower than the dealer’s. All Call bets are returned to the players.

B. DEALER QUALIFIES, PLAYER LOSES
The dealer qualifies with a Poker hand of Ace/King or better that is higher than the player’s hand. In this case the player loses both his Ante bet and his Call bet.

C. DEALER QUALIFIES, PLAYER WINS
The dealer qualifies with a poker hand of Ace/King or better that is lower than the player’s hand. In this case the player wins even money on his Ante bet and his Call bet is paid according to a hand chart [top right].

A player’s progressive jackpot bet is separate from their Ante and Call bets; it is only dependent upon the player’s hand — it is paid off even if the dealer fails to qualify or wins the hand. This payoff varies from casino to casino [schedule at right]. The jackpot grows as players place jackpot bets, and unless it reaches an incredible total, this is a sucker bet [bottom right].