Est.: Aug. 28, 2007
Updated: Jan. 22, 2008

Caribbean Stud Poker in Macau

Last update: August 22, 2007

Caribbean Stud Poker is surprisingly popular in Macau. I would estimate it captures about 5% of the table games, not counting the private VIP casinos. I would be very confident in saying there are many more Caribbean tables in Macau than there are in Las Vegas.

Rules

1. Player makes an ante wager plus an optional HK$ 25 progressive side bet.
2. Each player and the dealer get five cards each. All cards are dealt face down, except one dealer card is exposed. The player may examine his own cards but sharing of information is not allowed.
3. Player must fold or raise.
4. If player folds he forfeits his cards, ante bet, and side bet (if made)
5. If player raises then he must make a raise wager exactly equal to twice the ante
6. The dealer will turn over his other four cards
7. The dealer must have an ace and a king or higher to qualify. In other words, the lowest qualifying hand would be ace,king,4,3,2 and the highest non-qualifying hand would be ace,queen,jack,10,9. If the dealer does not qualify the player will win even money on his ante wager and the raise will push.
8. If the dealer qualifies and beats the player, both ante and raise will lose.
9. If the dealer qualifies and loses to the player, then the ante will pay even money and the raise according to the posted pay table. The Macau pay table is shown below.
10. If the player and dealer tie, both ante and raise will push.
11. The progressive side bet will be entrirely based on the poker value of the player's hand, as shown in the side bet section of this page.

Strategy

Two rules of thumb will guide you correctly through 93.6% of hands in Caribbean Stud Poker. These two rules are:

1. Always raise with a pair or higher.
2. Always fold with a non-qualifying hand.

For hands with an ace and a king things get more complicated. I recommend my very own "Wizard Way" for Caribbean Stud Poker. It goes as follows.

1. Does dealer's up card match any card in player's hand? If yes, go to step 2, if no go to step 4
2. Is dealer's up card an ace of king? If yes, go to step 3, if not, RAISE.
3. Does player have a jack or queen? If yes, RAISE, if not, FOLD.
4. Does player have a queen? If yes, go to step 5, if not FOLD.
5. Which is higher, player's fourth highest card, or dealer's up card? If player's card is higher, RAISE, if dealer's card is higher, FOLD.

Following my "Wizard Way" will result in a house edge of 5.225%. The optimal strategy is only 0.001% lower, at 5.224%. The optimal strategy in Caribbean Stud Poker is extremely complicated. For informational purposes, I present the optimal strategy, on when to raise on ace/king, in my companion site, Wizard of Odds.

Side Bet

The side bet is a flat HK$ 25. It pays based only on the player's hand, as follows. All wins are on a "for one" basis, in other words, the original bet is never returned.

The expected return of the side bet will vary according to the amount in the jackpot meter. The following return table shows the odds for a HK$ 2.8 million jackpot, which I use because that is what the Wynn boasted paying on a recent jackpot, as shown in the following picture. The lower right cell shows a return of 65.04%, or a house edge of 34.96%.

At a jackpot amount of HK$ 6,727,631.58 the odds are exactly fair. Any meter above that and the odds swing to the player's favor.

The following table shows the expected return for a range of jackpot amounts.

For more information on Caribbean Stud Poker, please visit my companion site, Wizard of Odds.