An In-Depth look at Caribbean Stud Strategy

Published: September 25, 2014

In Caribbean Stud, you essentially have the option to either raise or fold. This is your only strategic decision. Along these lines, you have certain pieces of information that you can use to make that decision. The information you have are the five cards in your own hand and one of the dealer's cards.

In this particular game, your hand is almost always going to be sufficient to decide how to play the hand. It's only the very borderline hands that require you to look at the dealer's card. Along these lines, most hands play themselves with a basic understanding of strategy which is as follows. If you have a pair or better, you always raise. Along these lines, if you have worse than AK-high, then you always fold. All of the AK-high hands are borderline, and you'll have to get more in-depth to figure out whether you should raise or fold.

The first case you need to know, and the main case in terms of instructional ideas in casino poker, is when the dealer is showing a queen or lower that pairs up with a card in your hand. In this case, you should always raise because the chance of the dealer making a pair has been decreased in a very real way. If the dealer has a queen or lower and it doesn't match one of the cards in your hand, then you're only going to raise if you also have a queen in your hand and the dealer's up card is higher that one or zero of your cards.

The final potential situation is when you have AK-high and the dealer is showing an ace or a king. In this type of situation, you should raise if you have a queen or a jack in your hand. It's that simple. If you play according to these guidelines, you'll be playing very close to the perfect mathematical strategy. The exact details of the perfect strategy are too complicated to be remembered by a human being, but these in-depth recommendations will help you to get very close without having to remember dozens of different types of situations.