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Although the name is often changed, Caribbean Stud Poker is just as popular online as it is in land casinos. Starnet, Boss Media, Cryptologic, and Real Time Gaming call the game Caribbean Poker and Microgaming calls is Cyberstud Poker but the basic rules are the same. The only variation is in the pay table.

Real Time Gaming, Starnet, and Boss Media all follow the conventional Mikohn Corporation pay table. Cryptologic sweetens the royal flush to 200 to 1. Microgaming makes several changes, paying only even money on a two pair but substantially more on all greater hands. The following table displays the pay table under each brand and the resulting house edge assuming optimal strategy.

Online Caribbean Stud Poker
Hand	Microgaming	Cryptologic	Boss Media, Starnet, Real Time Gaming
Royal flush	999 to 1	200 to 1	100 to 1
Straight flush	199 to 1	50 to 1	50 to 1
Four of a kind	99 to 1	20 to 1	20 to 1
Full house	14 to 1	7 to 1	7 to 1
Flush	9 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	1 to 1	2 to 1	2 to 1
Pair	1 to 1	1 to 1	1 to 1
Ace/king	1 to 1	1 to 1	1 to 1
House edge	5.01%	5.21%	5.22%

The table shows Microgaming to have the best online game of Caribbean Stud Poker, with a house edge of 5.01%. All brands pay even money on an ace/king, thus there are not strategy deviations beyond the conventional strategy. Casinos using Microgaming software include Royal Vegas and Colosseum Casino.

Starnet and Boss Media offer the optional one dollar side bet. Making only one observation each Starnet's meter was $12616 and Boss Media's meter was $7849. This results in a house edges of 49.05% and 61.47% respectively. Clearly not enough money is being fed into the meter per play. If you must play Caribbean Stud Poker I strongly urge you to avoid the side bet.

Proper strategy is to always raise on a pair or better, never on a non-qualifying hand, and on ace/king as follows:

• Raise if the dealer's card is a two through queen and matches one of yours.
• Raise if the dealer's card is an ace or king and you have a queen or jack in your hand.
• Raise if the dealer's rank does not match any of yours and you have a queen in your hand and the dealer's card is less than your fourth highest card.

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About the author: Michael Shackleford is the mathematician and webmaster at The Wizard of Odds, a gambling site focusing on cutting the house edge as much as possible on all casino games through optimal player strategy.