Macau Odds

Caribbean Stud Poker is a very simple game and is quite popular in Macau.

Rules

1. Player makes an ante wager plus an optional HK$ 25 progressive side bet.
2. The players  and the dealer get five cards each. All cards are dealt face down, except one dealer card is exposed.
4. Players can examine their own cards but are not allowed to share information
5.  
6. Player must then fold or raise
8. If player folds he/she forfeits their cards, ante bet, and side bet (if made)
10. If player raises then he/she must make a raise wager exactly equal to twice the ante
12. The dealer will then turn over dealer’s other  four cards
13. The dealer must have an ace and a king or higher to qualify playing the hand. In other words, the lowest qualifying hand would be ace,king,4,3,2 and the highest non-qualifying hand would be ace,queen,jack,10,9. If the dealer does not qualify the player will win even money on his ante wager and the raise will push.
15. If the dealer qualifies and beats the player, both ante and raise will lose.
17. If the dealer qualifies and loses to the player, then the ante will pay even money and the raise according to the posted pay table. The Macau pay table is shown below.
19. If the player and dealer tie, both ante and raise will push.
21. The progressive side bet will be entirely based on the poker value of the player's hand, as shown in the side bet section of this page.

Strategy

Two rules of thumb will guide you correctly through 93.6% of hands in Caribbean Stud Poker. These two rules are:

1. Always raise with a pair or higher.
2. Always fold with a non-qualifying hand.

For hands with an ace and a king things get more complicated.

It goes as follows.

2. If dealer’s shown card matches any card in player’s hand. Go to step 2, if not go to step 4.
3.  
4. Is dealer's shown card an ace of king? If yes, go to step 3, if not, RAISE.
5.  
6. Does player have a jack or queen? If yes, RAISE, if not, FOLD.
8. Does player have a queen? If yes, go to step 5, if not FOLD.
10. Which is higher, player's fourth highest card, or dealer's up card? If player's card is higher, RAISE, if dealer's card is higher, FOLD.

Following the above should result in a smaller house edge of 5.225% for the house.

The above is not the optimal strategy for Caribbean stud poker, however the optimal strategy is only 0.001% lower at 5.224%. The optimal strategy in Caribbean Stud Poker is extremely complicated.

Side Bet

The side bet is a usually a flat HK$ 25. It pays based only on the player's hand, as follows. All wins are on a "for one" basis, in other words, the original bet is never returned.

The interesting thing about playing the jackpot meter is that you get better odds when the jackpot amount goes over HK$ 6,727,631.58. At this amount, the odds are exactly 50%. Anything higher, the odds will swing to you, the player’s favor.

Below is the estimated returns when you see the range of jackpot amounts.