Caribbean Stud is a five card stud poker game played on a blackjack type table with a standard 52 card deck. The cards are normally dealt from a multi-deck "shoe" or by an automatic shuffling machine that deals in groups of five card hands. Players try to beat the dealer with the best poker hand.

Each seat at the Caribbean Stud table has a player's layout and chip slot like the drawing at the right. The slot fixture has small lights that light up when a chip that has been placed in the slot is allowed to fall through for collection by the dealer. Always watch the lights to make sure your jackpot bet is indicated, before the hand is dealt. Sometimes they don't work properly and that could cost you a lot of money.

Caribbean Stud Poker begins when you place an 'Ante' bet, which allows you to receive your five-card hand, face up. The dealer also receives a five-card hand, but only one of the dealer's cards is face up - the other four will appear face down. The player must decide, by looking at his or her own hand and comparing it with the dealer's single face-up card, whether he or she has a better hand than the dealer's. If you think your hand is worse than the dealer's, you can fold by clicking on the 'Fold' or 'Surrender' button on your screen. Folding loses your ante bet. If you're feeling confident, you can bet on your hand by clicking the 'Challenge' button. These will automatically double your Ante bet. When you choose to challenge the dealer, the dealer's remaining four cards will be turned face up, and it's time to compare the results!

One important rule, however: in order to qualify for the challenge, the dealer's hand MUST contain an ace and a king. If it doesn't, the challenge is nullified and the player receives a 1 to 1 payoff on the original ante bet. If the dealer's hand does qualify, however, the hands are compared and you will either win or lose your challenge. In the event that both hands are equal, it's a push, and you get your money back.

As the name would suggest, this game originated in the Caribbean Islands and on the cruise ships that travel the surrounding waters. Since the game does not offer the best advantages and percentages for the player, when the game was introduced to American casinos, a progressive jackpot bonus was added to excite and attract more participants. Although this bonus does not greatly increase the appeal for most players, it definitely added to its initial popularity and perhaps even accounts for its lingering demand in this day and age of casinos, both on- and off-line. The game, evidently, maintains a wide following throughout the world, possibly in part to its glamorous and exotic title.

The precursor to Caribbean Stud Poker in most historical viewpoints was a 16th century European three-card game called Primera (Spain) or Primero (Great Britain). Betting was introduced and the valued hands were 3 of a Kind, Pairs, and 3 of the same suit, or "Flux" (later modified to "Flush"). By the 18th century both betting AND bluffing were incorporated to form the basis of the game as we know it today. Popular versions, at the time, were known as Brag (Great Britain), Pochen (Germany), and Poque (France). The importance of bluffing (betting with a poor hand) is demonstrated by the fact that pochen, in German, means "to bluff."

Most gaming scholars believe the game hit North America in the 18th century when it was brought to Louisiana by French colonists, hence the mutation of the French name for the game (Poque) to the English (Poker). The game was wildly successful and made its way up the Mississippi and further westward as the country grew and people began to settle through the land. By the mid-1800s, it had been adapted to the 52-card deck and was beginning to be documented in the diaries and journals of pilgrims, explorers, and a host of other types. It started as a strictly male game, but eventually became popular with women as well. The game is so closely linked to the expansion of the West that it interminably appears in a number of Western films and books. Poker was reintroduced to Europe when the US ambassador to Great Britain, Robert C. Schenck, proposed it to the members of Queen Victoria's court in the early 1870s. An authoritative book on the rules was written by Schenck shortly after.

Poker's golden period of fame, unsurprisingly, coincides with the proliferation of legal gambling in the casinos in the state of Nevada. However, in 1910 it was made a felony to run a betting game in that state. Stud poker, like the Caribbean variety, was illegal because there was no element of skill involved, just pure chance (unlike the more strategic draw poker). The State of Nevada ultimately decided, as we all now know, to reverse its policy and in 1931 casino gambling became legalized once again and Caribbean Stud Poker returned as a popular fixture at most land-based casino in the US.

Chip Reese

If you ask any Las Vegas professional poker player to name the toughest high limit cash game player most will immediately say, "Chip Reese." He can often be found playing in Doyle's Game with the likes of Lyle Berman, Bobby Baldwin and Doyle. Players at this level may win or lose seven figures in a session. Chip has not played many tournaments but in recent months we have seen him on the televised WPT series. Fans of professional tournament poker look forward to seeing this master of the game during these rare appearances. Chip turned pro in 1975 after a stop in Vegas when he was on the way to Stanford School of Law. He won about sixty thousand in a tournament and never made it to Stanford because the monetary incentive for law is not nearly as great as for poker.

Below is a list of some common terms that other Caribbean Card Stud players will throw around without hesitation. If you want to be respected at the table, you better know what they are saying and know how to throw a few words of your own in. Most of these terms are more than specifically Caribbean Card Stud meanings but you'll no doubt hear them often when playing Caribbean Card Stud!

Ace-King - A five card hand whereas the total value is less than a pair but contains an Ace and a King.

Ante Bet - This is where the mandatory initial bet is placed prior to the dealing of the hand.

Ante Box - The area in front of the raise bet box where the player's ante bet is placed.

Bonus Payout - The amount paid to a player when the dealer qualifies and the player has placed a raise bet. This is not the progressive jackpot payout.

Fold - When a player chooses to surrender their hand instead of making a raise bet to continue.

Progressive Bet - This bet is made prior to the dealing of the hand and indicates that the player wishes to participate in the progressive jackpot bet. The bet is $1 and is placed above the ante bet wager spot.

Progressive Jackpot - The total amount of money currently available on the jackpot meter. This amount varies from casino to casino and day-to-day.

Progressive Payout Schedule - The amount the casino will pay to qualifying hands for players that have placed the progressive bet.

Progressive Slot - The slotted area of the playing table where a player places their $1 progressive jackpot bet.

Push - A hand whereas the dealer and the player tie. Neither the player nor the dealer wins when this occurs.

Upcard - The one card the dealer places face up for the entire table to see once the cards have been dealt.