Caribbean Hold Em Poker

Caribbean Hold’em Poker – also known as Casino Hold’em Poker – is a game that shares some similarities with Caribbean Stud. The goal of both games is to make a better hand than the dealer, with big hands paying out a special bonus.

However, Caribbean Hold’em revolves around the extremely popular Texas Hold’em form of poker, bringing some of the excitement of the popular poker room game into the world of casino table games. The game is licensed by Games Marketing Ltd.

Rules and Hand Play

Each hand begins with the player making an ante bet. Both the player and the dealer are dealt a two-card hand, face down. The player may examine his own cards. The dealer will also deal ‘the flop’ and three community cards that both the player and the dealer can use.

At this point the player must make a decision as they may either fold or call. If the player folds, he must surrender his hand and loses the ante bet. If the player chooses to call they must make a second bet, twice the size of the ante bet.

The dealer now deals out two more community cards, which are known as the turn and the river in poker terms. After these cards are dealt the dealer then reveals his hand. Each player must make their best five-card poker hand using any combination of their cards and the community cards.

The dealer needs a pair of fours or better to qualify. If the dealer does not qualify, any player still in the hand wins their ante bet (see pay-outs below) and all call bets push.

If the dealer does qualify, then the dealer’s hand is compared to the player’s hand. If the dealer’s hand is better, then the player loses both the ante and call bets. If the player wins after the dealer qualifies then the call bet wins even money and the ante bet wins, according to the posted pay table. In the rare case of a tie, both bets push.

There are several different pay tables available for this game. However, the following is the most common, especially at online casinos. Winning ante bets typically pay-out as follows:

Pay Chart

Pay-Outs

Side bets are also common in Caribbean Poker. Many tables feature a progressive side bet that works similarly to that of the Caribbean Stud Poker progressive game. In fact, the game is identical as only the player’s first five cards – their two-card hand and the flop – are considered when paying the progressive side bet.

Pay-outs are typically similar to the following:

Another common side bet is the AA+ bet, in which the following pay-outs are again given, based on the strength of a player’s hand and the flop (in other words, before the turn and river are dealt):

The Quick Strategy

It is rarely correct to fold. In fact, according to analysis, a player should only fold 18 per cent of the time. This means folding only on very bad hands, like those where you hold low cards compared to the board and don’t have realistic flush or straight draws.

Using the most common pay table listed above, the house edge with optimal play is about 2.16 per cent. While it’s hard to quantify exactly what the optimal strategy is, you should be able to come very close to this figure simply by raising about the right percentage of hands.

Just like with the progressive side bet in Caribbean Stud Poker, the Caribbean Hold`em progressive jackpot is usually a bad bet for the player. However, if the jackpot gets quite large – usually somewhere over $200,000 – then the bet actually has a player advantage, and should be taken at every opportunity!

The AA+ side bet is also one you might want to avoid, as the house edge is over 6 per cent.