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Caribbean Poker
Caribbean Poker is not really a poker game, since the players do not bet against each other. The game was created in the 1980s in the Caribbean Islands and was designed for tourists. In it individual players play against the bank. The player antes and the player and the bank get five cards each. After the player views his hand and the bank's first card, the player must either make a call bet (increasing the player’s stake by an amount equal to twice the original ante) or surrender, in which case the bank takes your ante.
If you do not surrender, what follows next is called a showdown. If the bank does not have Ace, King or better, the player’s bet is returned, plus an amount equal to the ante.
If the bank does have Ace, King or better, the player wins if his hand beats the bank's. The bank pays out even money on the ante and fixed odds on the call bets as follows:
Evens for a pair or high card
2-1 for two pairs
3-1 for three of a kind
4-1 for a straight
5-1 for a flush
7-1 for a full house
20-1 for a four of a kind
50-1 for a straight flush
100-1 for a royal flush
If the bank has Aces, King or better, the hand qualifies and is compared to the surviving players’ hands. If a player’s hand is weaker than the bank's the dealer bags the player’s ante and call bet. 43.7% of the time the dealer’s hand will fail to qualify, and the player wins the ante, if he stayed in. Players should not stay in if they have a hand worse than Ace-King. Caribbean Stud Poker has a strong House Percentage of about 5.2%. This is why casinos like it.
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