Live Caribbean Stud Poker is a five-card stud game you play against the dealer, not other players: post an Ante, see your five cards and one dealer card, then fold or raise twice the Ante. The dealer needs ace-king or better to qualify. With the standard US pay table and perfect strategy the house edge is 5.224% of the Ante (Wizard of Odds), while Evolution’s live version pays more on big hands and publishes a 96.30% return, a 3.70% edge per Ante.
Updated October 2026. This page replaces our old Evolution review: every rule and payout below is checked against Evolution’s published game rules and the Wizard of Odds analysis, the figures match our live dealer poker hub, and the casino list that sat here has gone because none of the US-facing sites we review runs a live Caribbean Stud table.
About Live Caribbean Stud Poker
Caribbean Stud is the oldest of the house-banked poker games you will find in a live casino lobby. Its origin is disputed. Poker author David Sklansky has said he devised a version called Casino Poker in 1982, in which the dealer showed two cards and there was no jackpot. A modified version was later introduced and patented at the King International Casino in Aruba, and the progressive jackpot became its trademark as it spread to cruise ships and casinos worldwide.
Evolution’s live table keeps the classic structure and adds two optional side bets: the 5+1 Bonus, which uses your five cards plus the dealer’s up card, and a networked Progressive Jackpot bet. A single 52-card deck is used and the cards are shuffled after every round. Any number of players can join the same table at once, each playing their own hand against the dealer’s single hand, so you never wait for a seat.
Live Caribbean Stud Poker Rules
A round follows the same five steps every time:
- Ante. Place your Ante before the betting timer runs out. Side bets become available once the Ante is accepted.
- Deal. You get five cards face up. The dealer takes five cards, one face up and four face down.
- Decide. Fold and lose the Ante, or Call (raise) with a bet equal to twice the Ante. If the decision timer expires, Evolution’s software folds your hand automatically.
- Reveal. The dealer turns over the four hidden cards.
- Settle. Bets are paid against the qualifying rule and the pay table.
The dealer qualifies with ace-king or better. In Wizard of Odds’ words, the lowest qualifying hand is A-K-4-3-2 and the highest non-qualifying hand is A-Q-J-10-9. Everything else follows from that rule:
| Result | Ante | Raise (Call) |
|---|---|---|
| You fold | Lost | Not placed |
| Dealer does not qualify | Wins 1 to 1 | Push (returned) |
| Dealer qualifies and beats you | Lost | Lost |
| Dealer qualifies and you win | Wins 1 to 1 | Paid by the pay table below |
| Exact tie | Push | Push |
Hands rank as in standard poker, with the ace high or low in a straight (A-K-Q-J-10 or 5-4-3-2-A). Our poker hand rankings guide explains how kickers break ties between two pairs, flushes and high-card hands.
Caribbean Stud Payouts: Evolution vs the Standard US Table
Pay tables are the single biggest difference between versions of this game. Evolution’s live table pays more for four of a kind down to a straight than the standard table that Wizard of Odds analyses for US land casinos. Software versions vary again: Bovada’s RNG Caribbean Stud pays 200 to 1 for a royal flush, the same table Wizard of Odds lists for Cryptologic casinos.
| Hand | Evolution live (Raise) | Standard US table (Raise) | Bovada RNG (Raise) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royal flush | 100 to 1 | 100 to 1 | 200 to 1 |
| Straight flush | 50 to 1 | 50 to 1 | 50 to 1 |
| Four of a kind | 25 to 1 | 20 to 1 | 20 to 1 |
| Full house | 10 to 1 | 7 to 1 | 7 to 1 |
| Flush | 7 to 1 | 5 to 1 | 5 to 1 |
| Straight | 5 to 1 | 4 to 1 | 4 to 1 |
| Three of a kind | 3 to 1 | 3 to 1 | 3 to 1 |
| Two pair | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 |
| One pair or less | 1 to 1 | 1 to 1 | 1 to 1 |
| House edge per Ante | 3.70% (RTP 96.30%) | 5.224% | 5.21% |
The Ante always pays even money when you win. The Evolution figures come from its game rules, which state an optimal return of 96.30% and 98.19% on total wager. The standard and Bovada edges come from Wizard of Odds’ return tables (5.224% and 5.2075%). MyBookie lists a 94.78% RTP for its software Caribbean Poker, which matches a house edge of about 5.22%.
Worked example: one $10 hand
Say you post a $10 Ante and raise $20, so $30 is in play:
- Dealer does not qualify: you win $10 on the Ante and get the $20 raise back. Net +$10, even if you hold a full house.
- Dealer qualifies, you win with two pair: +$10 Ante and +$40 on the raise. Net +$50.
- Dealer qualifies, you win with a full house: +$10 Ante plus $200 at Evolution’s 10 to 1, or $140 at the standard 7 to 1. Net +$210 or +$150.
- Dealer qualifies and wins: both bets lose. Net -$30.
- You fold: net -$10.
The first line is why Caribbean Stud frustrates players: big hands only collect the bonus payout when the dealer qualifies.
Odds and House Edge
Wizard of Odds ran every possible combination (19,933,230,517,200 of them) for the standard US table with optimal play. The result shows how often each outcome happens per hand dealt:
| Outcome | Probability |
|---|---|
| You fold | 47.77% |
| You raise, dealer does not qualify | 22.74% |
| You raise, dealer qualifies, you win | 15.81% |
| You raise, dealer qualifies and wins | 13.68% |
| Push | 0.0016% |
An optimal player raises 52.23% of the time, so the average total bet per hand is 2.045 Antes. That is why Wizard of Odds also quotes the element of risk, the expected loss divided by the average amount bet: 2.555% for the standard game, against 5.224% when measured only per Ante. Evolution’s matching figure is 1.81% (100% minus its 98.19% return on total wager). The standard deviation is 2.24 Antes per hand, so short sessions swing a lot.
Compared with the other live poker games, Caribbean Stud is still the priciest main bet. Ultimate Texas Hold’em costs 2.185% of the Ante, Casino Hold’em 2.16% and Three Card Poker’s Ante and Play 3.37%, all per Wizard of Odds. Our Ultimate Texas Hold’em guide, Casino Hold’em tutorial and Three Card Poker guide cover those games.
Caribbean Stud Strategy
Perfect strategy for this game is complicated, but two rules cover most hands and a third handles the tricky ace-king hands:
- Always raise with a pair or better.
- Always fold with less than ace-king.
- With ace-king and no pair, raise if any of these Wizard of Odds rules applies: the dealer’s up card is a 2 through queen and matches one of your cards; the dealer shows an ace or king and you hold a queen or jack; or the dealer’s card matches none of yours, you hold a queen, and the dealer’s card is lower than your fourth-highest card.
For example, you hold A-K-9-6-3 and the dealer shows a 6. The up card is between 2 and queen and matches your 6, which makes a dealer pair less likely, so you raise. Hold A-K-8-5-2 against a dealer 10 instead and none of the three rules applies, so you fold.
The cost of simpler shortcuts, from Wizard of Odds:
| Strategy | House edge per Ante |
|---|---|
| Perfect strategy | 5.224% |
| Wizard’s three-rule strategy | 5.225% |
| Raise on any pair or better only | 5.470% |
| Raise on any ace-king or better | 5.682% |
| Raise on every hand | 16.607% |
Wizard of Odds notes that the same strategy applies to the alternative pay tables it analyses, so the rules above work at Evolution’s table too. Never raise blind: that one habit triples the house edge.
Side Bets: 5+1 Bonus and Progressive Jackpot
5+1 Bonus
The 5+1 Bonus pays on the best five-card hand made from your five cards plus the dealer’s face-up card, and it is settled whether you fold or call. It needs three of a kind or better:
| Hand (best 5 of 6 cards) | 5+1 Bonus pays |
|---|---|
| Royal flush | 1,000 to 1 |
| Straight flush | 200 to 1 |
| Four of a kind | 100 to 1 |
| Full house | 20 to 1 |
| Flush | 15 to 1 |
| Straight | 10 to 1 |
| Three of a kind | 7 to 1 |
Evolution puts the return at 91.44%, and Wizard of Odds calculates the same pay table at an 8.56% house edge; the bet loses 92.72% of the time. At $5 a hand for 100 hands, expect to lose about $42.80 on the side bet alone.
Progressive Jackpot
Evolution’s Jackpot bet feeds a progressive pool shared across participating casinos. A royal flush in your own five cards wins the jackpot (players who hit it in the same round share it), and fixed prizes pay from three of a kind (3 units) up to a straight flush (2,500 units). Your fold or call decision does not affect it. Evolution states a 81.84% return on this bet, an 18.16% house edge. Land-based progressives are worse on average: Wizard of Odds puts the typical $1 Caribbean Stud progressive at a 26.46% house edge, the figure on our poker hub.
What a Session Costs
Expected loss is stake times hands times house edge. For 100 hands at a $10 Ante:
| Bet | House edge | Expected loss, 100 hands |
|---|---|---|
| Evolution live, perfect strategy | 3.70% per Ante | $37.00 |
| Standard US table, perfect strategy | 5.224% per Ante | $52.24 |
| Standard table, raise every hand | 16.607% per Ante | $166.07 |
| 5+1 Bonus at $5 | 8.56% | $42.80 |
A $5 5+1 Bonus can cost more than the $10 main game at Evolution’s table. Treat side bets as entertainment, and keep a bankroll of at least 30 times your full $30 stake per hand, because raised hands lose three Antes at a time. Our RTP explainer shows how these percentages convert to money.
Where US Players Can Play Caribbean Stud
We checked the live lobbies of the four offshore casinos we review for US players on 6 October 2026. None of Bovada, Ignition, MyBookie or BetOnline runs a live Caribbean Stud table, so this page carries no casino list. Their live poker sections offer games such as Tri Card Poker and 6+ Poker instead. The software (RNG) version is easier to find:
| Casino | Live Caribbean Stud? | Software version (Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Bovada | No | Caribbean Stud Poker, $1 to $500, Royal 200 to 1, jackpot shared with Caribbean Hold’em and Caribbean Draw |
| Ignition | No | Caribbean Stud Poker in its table games |
| MyBookie | No | Caribbean Poker, $1 to $100, listed RTP 94.78% |
| BetOnline | No | Caribbean Stud Poker, $1 to $250 per hand (help centre table limits) |
All four are offshore operators with no US state licence. Each excludes some states, and if something goes wrong there is no state regulator to complain to and your funds are not protected.
Evolution, which makes the live game, supplies only state-licensed US casinos and runs studios in regulated states including New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Eight states have legalised online casinos; seven markets are live (NJ, PA, MI, WV, CT, DE, RI); Maine legalised a tribal-only market (LD 1164: became law without the governor’s signature in January 2026, effective 29 Jul 2026) that has not launched (Oct 2026). US live lobbies focus on blackjack, roulette and baccarat, and we could not confirm a named state-licensed casino carrying live Caribbean Stud in October 2026, so check the live poker section of a licensed casino in your state before you deposit. Outside those states, legal options are land-based casinos.
Gambling should stay entertainment. If it stops being fun, call the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), free and confidential, or read our responsible gambling page.
Caribbean Stud Poker FAQ
What is the house edge in Caribbean Stud Poker?
With the standard US pay table and perfect strategy, the house edge is 5.224% of the Ante, or 2.555% of the total amount bet (Wizard of Odds). Evolution’s live version pays more on four of a kind down to a straight and states a 96.30% return per Ante, a 3.70% edge.
When should you raise in Caribbean Stud?
Always raise with a pair or better and always fold with less than ace-king. With ace-king, raise only when one of Wizard of Odds’ three rules applies, for example when the dealer’s up card is a 2 through queen and matches one of your cards.
What happens if the dealer does not qualify?
If the dealer has less than ace-king, your Ante wins even money and your raise is returned, whatever hand you hold. Bonus payouts on the raise only apply when the dealer qualifies.
Is the Caribbean Stud 5+1 Bonus worth it?
Only as entertainment. Evolution states a 91.44% return on the 5+1 Bonus, an 8.56% house edge, against 3.70% per Ante on the main game. The bet pays from three of a kind up to 1,000 to 1 for a royal flush.
Can I play live Caribbean Stud Poker in the US?
Evolution’s live game is supplied only to state-licensed casinos, and availability depends on the operator, so check the live lobby of a licensed casino in your state. None of the offshore sites Bovada, Ignition, MyBookie or BetOnline had a live table on 6 October 2026, though all four offer a software version.
Is Caribbean Stud the same as Casino Hold’em?
No. In Caribbean Stud you get five private cards and make one decision. Casino Hold’em deals you two cards plus five shared community cards, the dealer qualifies with a pair of 4s or better, and the house edge is lower at 2.16% of the Ante (Wizard of Odds). Software games called Caribbean Hold’em follow the same hold’em format.
Sources
- Wizard of Odds: Caribbean Stud Poker (US pay table, 5.224% house edge, 2.555% element of risk, strategy, 5+1 Bonus 8.56%, progressive 26.46%)
- Evolution Live Caribbean Stud Poker game rules (pay tables, 5+1 Bonus, Jackpot, RTP 96.30% / 98.19% / 91.44% / 81.84%), LeoVegas help centre copy
- Bovada: Caribbean Stud Poker (RNG rules, $1-$500, pay table, shared progressive)
- MyBookie: Caribbean Poker (RTP 94.78%, $1-$100)
- Ignition Casino: table games (Caribbean Stud Poker)
- BetOnline help centre: casino table limits (Caribbean Stud Poker $1-$250)
- Wikipedia: Caribbean stud poker (history, Sklansky 1982 'Casino Poker', King International Casino, Aruba)
- Evolution Michigan (Southfield studio, US studios)
- Gambling Insider: Maine tribal online casinos, LD 1164
- NCPG: National Problem Gambling Helpline (1-800-MY-RESET)
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