$39,661 and counting, yes that is where the Caribbean Stud progressive jackpot now stands.  Not long ago I discovered the simplicity of Caribbean Stud Poker and simplicity is an understatement.  Heres a list of rules:

1. Player makes an ante wager plus an optional $1 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 U.S. 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.

There are a couple of  main strategies involved in Caribbean Stud and they are as follows:

Always raise with a pair or higher, fold with less than ace/king, and raise on ace/king if any of the following three rules apply.

1. Raise if the dealer’s card is a 2 through queen and matches one of yours.
2. Raise if the dealer’s card is an ace or king and you have a queen or jack in your hand.
3. 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.

Now in order for you to have a chance of winning the progressive jackpot you will have to “drop a credit” which basically means you are paying a premium for a chance to win the jackpot, every hand you have the choice of dropping a credit at the beginning of the hand, now if for example, you opted not to drop the credit and lets say you flopped a flush, well that would only pay you 5X your bet, however if you had dropped the credit then that same flush would pay you 5X your bet and an extra $75.  Now imagine if you cought the whale itself, a natural royal flush it would pay 100X your bet, but if your average bet is only $2 then that only pays $200. If you had instead played a $1 bet and $1 to dropped credit then that once in a lifetime hand would have payed out the entire jackpot which since I started writing this blog has increased to $39,691. 

The jackpot increases as follows, for every dollar bet into the dropped credit, $0.71 is added to the progressive pot and the house keeps the other $0.29, now in the event that a player wins the progressive jackpot and then 5 minutes later another player hits the jackpot, the second player would only win $10,000 which is what most casinos start there progressives at. 

Now I have told you everything you need to know about how to enjoy and Caribbean stud poker as well as a few tips on how to win.  So go on and enjoy and as I am finishing writing this article the jackpot has  just hit $39,710.

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