Premise of the Game
Caribbean poker is a card game the objective of which is to get a higher hand than the casino dealer does.
The deck has 52 cards from Twos to Aces in each suit. The highest card is an Ace, the lowest is a Two. The deck is shuffled before dealing.
How to Play in One Box
The player competes with the dealer. There are six boxes on the table. Each box has two fields for bets. One of them is called ANTE (pre-bet), the other is called BET (the bet itself).
Before dealing the player makes a pre-bet by putting one or more chips on ANTE field. For this the player needs to click on a corresponding chip and a box in which he would like to place the bet or choose a chip and drag it to the box. Antes must be between 1 and 100. After this the player presses Deal.
The dealer draws five cards for himself and the player. The cards are alternately dealt face-down except the last dealer’s card.
The player looks at the cards and evaluates his hand. Eventually the player will have to compare his hand to the dealer’s. A higher hand wins. The dealer’s opened card is the only information available to the player.
Poker Hands
Every hand is evaluated against one of the eleven combinations. The weakest combination ('No Hand') is called empty, the rest are considered valuable. A combination is defined by the value of its cards as well as by their suits. The order in which the cards are received does not matter. The below combinations are ranged according to their rank. For your convenience here are descriptions of the combinations:
- Royal Flush – the highest poker hand: 5 highest cards in one suit (Ace-King-Queen-Jack-10).
- Straight Flush – straight in one suit.
- Four of a Kind – 4 cards of the same rank, for example, 4 Jacks or 4 Fives (plus one extra card).
- Full or Full House – 3 cards of the same rank and 2 of another, for example, 6-6-6-King-King.
- Flush – 5 cards in one suit.
- Straight – 5 successive cards, for example, 9-8-7-6-5. Suits do not matter. An ace can be both the highest card (Ace-King-Queen-Jack-10) and the lowest card in a combination (5-4-3-2-Ace). Ace within the combination does not make up a Straight (e.g. 3-2-Ace-King-Queen).
- Three of a Kind – 3 cards of the same rank, for example, 9-9-9-Queen-4.
- Two Pairs – two cards of one rank and two of another, for example, Ace-Ace-5-5-10.
- One Pair – two cards of one rank, for example, 8-8-King-4-2.
- Ace-King – an ace and a king in any suit, for example, Ace-King-8-7-3.
- No Hand – cards do not make any of the above combinations, for example, Jack-10-7-5-2.
The higher the combination is, the higher the hand is. If two hands have the same combinations, they are valued as in a regular poker by the rank of the cards.
A few examples:
- Ace-King A-K-J-3-2 is higher than A-K-10-9-8 (Jack is higher than a 10);
- Pair 5-5-4-3-2 is higher than 4-4-Ace-King-Queen (only values of paired cards are compared);
- Pair 5-5-Queen-3-2 is higher than 5-5-Jack-10-9 (Queen is higher than Jack);
- Two pairs Ace-Ace-2-2-3 is higher than King-King-Queen-Queen-Ace (the values of the higher pair cards are compared);
- Straight King-Queen-Jack-10 is the highest, 5-4-3-2-Ace is the lowest;
- Full 3-3-3-2-2 is higher than 2-2-2-Ace-Ace (the value of Three of a Kind is higher than Pair).
There are no priorities among the suits. That is why two pairs of the same rank are of the same value. For example, Hearts Flush Royal counts the same as Clubs Flush Royal.
After looking at his hand, a player decides which of the three possible actions to take:
Decision 1. Fold immediately. The player presses Fold and ANTE is lost. The game is over.
Decision 2. Continue playing with the cards he has.
If this is the case, then the player presses Play, which automatically makes the bet twice his ANTE. Sometimes the described procedure is called 'Raising the Ante'.
Decision 3. Change all five cards in order to try to get a better combination. In order to change cards you need to click on them, then press Change. The change of a card costs one Ante. The dealer draws new cards. After changing the player looks at his cards again and if the change has been successful, he makes Decision 2. If not, then the player can only make Decision 1 that is to stop the game. There are no more alternatives left.
There is also one restriction: change will be limited to one card or impossible at all if there is not enough money in the player’s account to make a bet afterwards.
After the player’s decision the dealer opens his cards. If there is a card combination in the dealer’s hand, then his cards are compared to those of the player’s. If the player’s hand is lower, he loses his wager. When equal hands occur, the player keeps his bets. The most interesting things start to happen when the dealer loses.
ANTE bet will pay 1:1. But then the BET itself pays depending on your poker hand. Please, see the payoff table:
| Hand | Pays |
| Royal Flush | 100:1 |
| Straight Flush | 50:1 |
| Four of a Kind | 20:1 |
| Full House | 7:1 |
| Flush | 5:1 |
| Straight | 4:1 |
| Three of a Kind | 3:1 |
| Two Pairs | 2:1 |
| One Pair | 1:1 |
| Ace-King | 1:1 |
If ANTE is 10 (which means the BET is 20), the player’s total winnings with Full House are 150. For Royal Flush the player gets 2010.
The above is when the dealer has a poker combination. If this is not the case, then the player’s cards do not matter and it is said that 'The dealer does not qualify'. In either case, the player wins, even if he has 'No hand'. His winnings will equal his ANTE.
Game in Multiple Boxes
All the above rules are for one-box game. Now let us see what is different in a multiple boxes game:
The player can buy up to 3 boxes. With this the player can choose any 6 boxes on the poker table. The third box always plays closed, that is the player puts on it ANTE and his main BET. Bets in boxes do not correlate. You can put 1 in the first box and a 100 in the second one.
Once bets are made, the dealer draws 5 cards for himself and for each bought box, face down. Then the dealer opens his last card.
The player analyses the cards in the first box and takes one of the three decisions. Only after that he can view cards in the second box.
In the first and the second boxes, the player can make one change per box. He can change five cards in one change. In the third box, he can neither change nor fold. The third box always plays. Just like in the one-box poker, a change costs an ante.
The player cannot change cards if afterwards he will not have enough money to make a bet in the box. If after playing he is unable to make a bet in the second box, he can only do one thing that is to fold.
When the player makes a decision about the box whether to play or fold, the cards of the next box are revealed and this box plays. If the next box is the third one or if the current box is the last one bought, then it is the dealer's turn to play. The dealer opens his cards and compares them with those of the player's.
Each box pays independently of the rest.
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