Modern casinos have developed dozens of different poker formats, but few have gained as much popularity as the Caribbean Stud Poker. The game is played with a standard poker deck of 52 cards with no additional jokers and uses the standard poker hand rankings to determine winners. Unlike popular poker games like Texas Hold’em, Caribbean Stud Poker is played against the house and not against other players.

In Caribbean Stud Poker, the goal of the game is to beat the dealer’s hand. The game is played with the player and the dealer dealt out a five card hand. The player gets to see one of the dealer’s cards before deciding whether he will keep playing and place a bet equal to the value of his ante, or fold his hand.

There are two ways to beat the dealer in Caribbean Stud Poker. First of all, if the dealer’s hand is weaker than Ace King High, than the dealer does not qualify and the player wins double ante bet and gets his other bet back. If the dealer’s hand does qualify and the player has a stronger hand, than the player wins on both bets.

Payouts for the bets differ based on what the player’s hand strength is. For example, the player will win even money on one pair hands, but up to 100:1 for a royal flush, making big hands even more valuable. However, for these payouts to kick in, the dealer must also qualify for the hand.

Progressive Jackpot in Caribbean Stud Poker

To make the game even more interesting, Caribbean Stud Poker also features a progressive jackpot feature. This feature adds another field to the table, where players can place a single betting unit in order to enter the game.

Once the bet is activated, players will be awarded different additional payouts for the high value hands. A player who makes a flush will get paid 50:1 on the jackpot bet, while getting a royal flush will award the player with the entire value of the progressive jackpot, often in the tens of thousands of dollars, making the game extremely lucrative and very fun to play.