How To Manage Your Money Playing Caribbean Stud

by Bodog Casino | Feb 2 2009

It’s not easy raking it in playing Caribbean Stud Poker.

The game itself is fairly simple: You and the dealer are given five cards apiece, with the dealer only exposing one card. From that you have to make a choice: raise or fold. Raise and you must wager exactly twice the ante. You fold you lose your cards, ante bet, and side bet (if you make one).

What makes the game a bit difficult is that the house edge for the game is fairly high, weighing in at 5.224 percent. But despite that we feel if you play your cards right money can be made and money can be saved.

How, pray-tell can you manage your money while playing Caribbean Stud? We’ll give some tips.

Use those Optimal Strategies

If you haven’t realized by now, knowing the optimal strategies of the casino games you play helps you win money consistently. Caribbean Stud is no different. Optimal strategy for Stud Poker is known to be very complicated, so we’ll simplify the best we can.

• Always raise with a pair or higher.
• Always fold with less than the dealer's qualifying hand (ace/king).

Things get tricky if you get an ace/king. We suggest players should:

• Raise if the dealer's card is a 2 through queen and matches one of yours.
• Raise if the dealer's card is an ace or king and you have a queen or jack in your hand.
• Raise if the dealer's rank does not match any of yours and you have a queen in your hand and the dealer's card is less than your fourth highest card.

Is the Progressive is Worth your Dollar?

If you know a bit about Caribbean Stud Poker you know it has a progressive jackpot. Though we suggest betting that extra progressive dollar before every hand, to ensure you’re not wasting your money for nothing make sure the jackpot is worth your time.

The chance of hitting a Royal Flush in Stud poker is approximately 649,351 to 1. It’s not worth your buck if there’s only 10 grand in there.

Some Standard Practices

Although using optimal strategy and making side bets at the right time will definitely help you manage your money in Caribbean Stud, you still need to use some common betting tips that will keep you from letting your losses get out of hand:

• Bring in a set amount to spend…
  You need to bring in a set amount of cash you want to spend, not make, in order to keep your wallet from going over the edge. At least when you have an expected amount to lose it doesn’t hurt (as much) when you’ve lost it all. Keeping you from being as needy to go back into your online account and take out more cash. 
• Quit while you’re ahead…
  When should you take your winnings and cash out? The ideal situation would be when you’ve doubled your money. We can understand the desire to keep playing if a big payout allowed you to triple or quadruple your money in one hand, but be ready to cash out immediately if the losses starting mounting up. 
• Don’t change your bets…
  Jumping from $1 to $5 might not seem like a huge leap but it certainly is. Three losses in a row at $1 equals $3, three at $5 equals $15; that’s five times worse! Don’t move up your set dollar amount when playing; it’ll help you conquer bad beats.

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