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Jan

11

2011

What’s Your Chance of Hitting the Jackpot at Caribbean Stud?

 What’s Your Chance of Hitting the Jackpot at Caribbean Stud?

Caribbean Stud Poker gives table players a chance to go for the gold in a way that’s usually reserved for the slots. A $1 side bet qualifies you for a progressive jackpot that can be a lifestyle-changer — the largest I know of exceeded $700,000.

A percentage of each wager is added to the jackpot until somebody wins it all with a royal flush. Smaller payouts are given for flushes or better. On a standard pay table, you’ll get $50 on a flush, $75 on a full house, $100 on four of a kind, either $5,000 or 10 percent of the jackpot on a straight flush or the full jackpot on a royal flush.

Individual casinos sometimes tinker with that. One casino on my regular rounds emphasized four of a kinds, paying $500 on quads instead of the standard $100. That tied in with a four-of-a-kind video poker promotion the casino was running. Tinkering with the smaller awards doesn’t change how much the casino is paying out overall, since smaller payoffs are deducted from the progressive jackpot.

Caribbean Stud is based on five-card stud poker, and just as in five-card stud, royals are dealt an average of once per 649,740 hands. Most of us will never see one. The most frequent payoffs on the progressive bet come on flushes, at once per 509 hands. That makes the progressive bet low on frequency of wins, but high on rewards when the wins come. If you go jackpot hunting at Caribbean Stud, just keep in mind that a lot of your expeditions will come up empty.

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