Caribbean Stud Poker

Caribbean Stud Poker is increasingly gaining in popularity, especially in online casinos. One of the main reasons is that it is an easier game to learn and you play the house.

Originating in the Caribbean and based loosely on five card stud poker rules, this game offers a viable alternative to traditional table games with an opportunity to place a side bet and hit a big jackpot as well. Some of these jackpots are progressive and you can win millions of dollars if you break those machines or tables.

Caribbean Stud Poker is not a traditional poker game in the sense that you play against the other players and the best player wins the pot, no. Caribbean stud belongs to the family of games including Pai Gow poker, Let it Ride and Three Card poker for example, where your opponent is the dealer and your goal is to form a better poker hand than the dealer’s hand. However, basic knowledge of traditional poker hand ranking is required.

The Rules of Playing Caribbean Stud Poker:

1) The game begins with the players placing an ante bet at the same amount as the table minimum on the ante circle on the table.

2) At the same time, you should decide whether to place an additional side bet for the progressive jackpot.

3) The dealer then deals each player five face down cards plus four face down cards and one up to himself.

4) After looking at your cards, you should decide whether to fold or to call. If you decide to call, you should place an additional bet double the amount of your former ante bet.

5) After all the players have made their decisions, the dealer shows his hand. In order to qualify in a Caribbean stud poker game, the dealer must have an ace and a king or better. If he does not qualify, you will be paid back your ante bet but the call bet is a push.

6) If the dealers hand qualifies, he compares hands against each of the players individually. If his hand is better than yours is, you lose both your ante and your call bets.

7) If your hand is better than the dealer’s hand, you would be paid even money for your ante while for your call you would be paid according to a pay-table. The pay-table can vary from one casino to another. Generally, US casinos pay out 50:1 on a straight flush; 20:1 on four of a kind; 7:1 on full house; 5:1 on a flush; 4:1 on a straight; 3:1 on three of a kind; 2:1 on two pairs and even money on one pair or less. In case your hand and the dealers hand are even, both ante and raise will push.

One of the reasons that Caribbean stud poker is so popular is the option of placing a one dollar side bet and winning a large progressive jackpot prize. In order to qualify for the bonus payout you should have a flush or better. For a flush, you would be paid a 50 dollars bonus and in order to win the jackpot that usually resets from 10,000 dollars, you must have a royal flush. Like, your chances to hit a royal flush are estimated to be about 650,000 to 1!

Actors and Poker

Actors and poker seems to click on quite a few counts. We all know of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s love for the game, and we also know of others like Jennifer Tilly and Don Cheadle who enjoy the sport. There are scores of other better known and lesser known actors who have brought not only glamour to the game, but some style and panache too, not to mention great PR value, increasing the popularity and the reach of the game, bringing it within the reach of the common man, their audience.

Actors have the hardest job when it comes to bringing reality to a part without putting an audience to sleep. Great acting and how you bridge the gap between dull reality and exciting drama is a good actor’s forte and mix it with a tense score and the scene will probably have more impact than if he or she punched a guy out into next Sunday. The shows they act in or the films must be based in reality and yet must still be entertaining. This is a very hard line to walk. Imagine then, them bringing this to the poker table. That ability to act, that ability to get into a skin, in all probability that ability to dupe the opponent into believing their bluff – could this be done in keeping in perspective reality? And vice versa: are the better poker players great actors, at least there on the felt? Uncanny and intriguing, really.

I have had the fortune of playing with a couple of big Asian stars on the felt myself and it was a great experience. I have seen their very best right there on the felt, at the point where they were bluffing, or the point when they were trying really hard to get into the skin of their character for that day: a pretty decent poker player! :)

Display of emotion of a particular character, getting under the skin of the role that you are playing, are considered cornerstones of good acting. In order to pull off this kind of reality the actor must imagine how he would truly feel if confronted with that particular situation. Many actors, for instance, when playing a scene like beating up someone think of things that truly do get them angry. Just like when an actor needs to cry he or she thinks of something that makes them very sad. This is a common practice among the more versatile actors. Bring this to a poker table, and you’ll see what I mean. I have been witness to a top Asian star (name undisclosed for reasons of privacy) who actually enacted different roles right there at the table over a three hour long high stakes game. She feigned anger at a top pocket pair and created a scene when a better straight beat her. There was just too much drama at the table, and I must admit it was thoroughly entertaining; just like her movies :)

The ability to display those emotions in a realistic, yet entertaining way, is what makes a great actor and a great performance, the kind that we don't soon forget. There are some actors who behave their “normal” self when they play and there are those others whose histrionics match their on-screen performances, too. Take your pick: we all love them, and we love them for playing the game we love!

The European Poker Tour Robbery

Boris Becker wouldn’t have imagined in his wildest dreams that he would be a participant in a tourney where masked and armed men would commit a robbery! Imagine the audacity of these six masked men packing guns and entering the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin at 2.15 pm, where the European Poker Tour was taking place, snatching a portion of the prize money, and getting away with it! The amount? 8 hundred thousand Euros – approximately 1 million USD...see this caught on camera!