Is the Caribbean Stud Poker trainer free?

Yes. The trainer is free, runs in your browser with play money, and needs no signup. It is built for practice only.

When should you raise in Caribbean Stud Poker?

Always raise with a pair or better, and fold anything worse than Ace-King. On an Ace-King high hand, raise if the dealer's up card is a 2 through Queen and matches one of your cards, or if the dealer shows an Ace or King and you hold a Queen or Jack, or if the dealer's up card does not match one of yours, you hold a Queen, and the dealer's card is lower than your fourth-highest card.

What is the house edge in Caribbean Stud Poker?

With optimal strategy the house edge is 5.22 percent of the ante. Because you raise about 52 percent of the time and put out roughly twice your ante on average, the element of risk measured against total money wagered is about 2.56 percent.

Should you make the progressive jackpot side bet?

Usually no. The dollar progressive side bet pays on a flush or better and carries an average house edge around 26 percent, far worse than the main game. It is only mathematically worth it when the meter is very high.

Caribbean Stud Poker Trainer | Free Ace-King Strategy Practice

Place your ante Pick a chip size, tap the ante circle, then deal.

Dealer

Your Hand

Ante

--2× ante

Raise

Jackpot$1 optional

Chip size (tap the ante circle to add)

$1,000

Bankroll

Decision Accuracy

Hands

Net

Auto-deal next hand

Recent Hands

Played hands show up here with your cards, your decision, and the result.

Caribbean Stud is one decision made once: after you see your five cards and the dealer's single up card, you either raise for exactly twice the ante or fold and lose the ante. Perfect strategy is a huge chart almost nobody memorizes, but this near-optimal version costs only 0.001 percent and reduces to three short rules. It is the same logic the trainer grades you against.

The whole strategy

RaiseAny pair or better. Always, no matter the dealer's up card, down to a pair of deuces.
FoldAnything worse than Ace-King high. A Queen-high hand or a lone Ace or King without the other is a fold every time.
A-KAce-King high is the only real decision. Raise it if any one of the three rules below is true, otherwise fold.

Ace-King: raise if any apply

Rule 1The dealer's up card is a 2 through Queen and matches the rank of one of your cards.
Rule 2The dealer's up card is an Ace or King and you hold a Queen or a Jack.
Rule 3The dealer's up card matches none of your cards, you hold a Queen, and the up card is lower than your fourth-highest card.

The idea behind all three: raise when your kickers are strong or when one of your cards blocks the dealer from pairing the up card.

Raise pay table (to one, U.S. standard)

Royal flush	100
Straight flush	50
Four of a kind	20
Full house	7
Flush	5
Straight	4
Three of a kind	3
Two pair	2
Pair or high card	1

House edge 5.22% of the ante Element of risk 2.56% Ante pays even money; the raise pays the ladder

How the hand settles

QualifyThe dealer needs Ace-King high or better to qualify. Lowest qualifier is A-K-4-3-2; highest non-qualifier is A-Q-J-10-9.
No qualIf the dealer does not qualify, the ante pays 1 to 1 and the raise pushes, win or lose.
WinDealer qualifies and you win: ante pays 1 to 1, raise pays the ladder above.
LoseDealer qualifies and beats you: ante and raise both lose. A tie pushes both.

Why this strategy, in numbers

Strategy	House edge
Perfect optimal chart	5.224%
These three rules	5.225%
Raise A-K-J-8-3 or better	5.316%
Raise any pair (never A-K)	5.470%
Raise any Ace-King or better	5.682%
Raise every hand (play blind)	16.607%

The three-rule strategy gives up just 0.001 percent versus the perfect chart, and playing blind is more than three times as expensive.

Common mistakes

Folding small pairs. A pair of deuces is a raise. You are hoping the dealer misses Ace-King, and you still win both bets when the dealer shows up with Ace-King.
Raising Queen-high hoping to get lucky. Anything below Ace-King is a mathematical fold. Raising it just donates the extra bet.
Raising every Ace-King. Most Ace-King hands are folds. Only raise when one of the three rules is met.
Chasing the jackpot. The dollar progressive side bet pays on a flush or better but carries about a 26 percent house edge on a typical meter. Fun, not smart.

Strategy, pay table, and house-edge figures from Michael Shackleford, Wizard of Odds — Caribbean Stud Poker. The trainer's engine reproduces his published 5.22 percent house edge and 2.24 standard deviation in a full Monte Carlo test.

About this Caribbean Stud Poker trainer

Caribbean Stud Poker is a five-card table game played one on one against the dealer, not against other players. You ante, receive five cards, and see one of the dealer's cards face up. Then you make the only choice the game offers: raise for twice your ante, or fold and give up the ante. The dealer must hold Ace-King high or better to qualify. This free Caribbean Stud Poker trainer drills that raise-or-fold decision until the correct play is automatic.

When to raise and when to fold

The optimal rule sounds simple and mostly is: raise every pair or better, fold everything worse than Ace-King, and treat Ace-King as the one hand that needs thought. On an Ace-King hand you raise only when the dealer's up card pairs one of your cards, or the dealer shows an Ace or King while you hold a Queen or Jack, or the up card is low and beneath your fourth-highest card while you hold a Queen. Every other Ace-King hand is a fold. The trainer grades your decision against this exact logic and names the rule that applied, so the borderline cases stop feeling like guesses.

Why decisions are graded, not results

A correct raise can still lose the hand, and a bad raise can win once. That is why the trainer scores the decision against optimal strategy rather than the outcome. Your accuracy figure tracks how often you make the right call, which is the only thing you control at the table. The bankroll and net numbers show how the math plays out across a session at the game's 5.22 percent house edge, where you raise a little more than half your hands and put out roughly twice the ante on average, for an element of risk near 2.56 percent.

Practice only

This is a free practice tool with play money that keeps nothing between sessions. No signup, no wager, no real gambling, and nothing to download. Learn the Ace-King rule cold here before you ever sit at a real table, and remember that even flawless play does not turn Caribbean Stud into a winning game over the long run.

Keep practicing

More free trainers for casino games that reward the same disciplined, decision-by-decision play: the Three Card Poker trainer, the Let It Ride trainer, and the Pai Gow Poker trainer.