Caribbean Poker strategy isn’t the easiest of games strategies to get your head around and there are several different pay-tables in existence; We are going to deal here with the US pay-table, and we’re going to start our approach to Caribbean Poker strategy from a beginners perspective and then move into slightly more complicated strategy. Unlike games such as Blackjack, Caribbean Poker is more complicated and thus it can not carry a strategy like the basic strategy associated with Blackjack that comes in a nice easy to read table. However, the strategies below are certainly learnable, and if need be read this article a couple of times just to make sure you’ve got all the info.

If you have read our Caribbean Poker rules section, you will also know that some casinos refer to this game as Cyberstud poker instead. The game is the same but just a different name.

Beginners Caribbean Poker Strategy

If you know nothing else about Caribbean poker strategy, there are 2 rules of thumb that you could and should always follow. No matter what your experience is, drum these 2 into your head and you’ll already see an improvement in your game. The first rule to remember is that if you have a pair you should stay in the game; a pair or higher warrants a raise! Second, we know that the dealer must have an ace and a king to play. If you don’t have what the dealer needs to play within your hand then you should fold; if you can’t compete even with the dealer’s basic hand there’s no point in taking the chance that he also won’t have it!

Advanced Caribbean Poker Strategy

When we get into advanced Caribbean Poker strategy we are talking about the optimal response to various situations, and this is exactly what we’ll be discussing here. These responses all carry elements of risk with them, but they are generally considered to be the optimal responses, and they are based on what you can glean from the dealer’s up-card, as well as from what you have in your hand. Thus, if the dealer’s up-card is a 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, or Jack and you have the same card in your hand, you should play your hand. If you have an ace or a king in your hand and the dealer’s up-card is one of the other picture cards, you should play the hand. If the dealer’s up-card is of the same rank as any of your cards this is worth playing.

These are some of the best strategies, and they are of course not mutually exclusive, these are different strategies to be utilized for different hands where relevant. Just so that you know there are also other types of strategy for example raising on every hand that has more than an ace and a king, or indeed rising on everything. Some argue that these payout over enough time, and the truth is that betting on anything including and above an ace/king doesn’t have much worse odds than the more detailed strategies; betting on everything however has terrible odds, with a house edge or around 16%, therefore if you want a general rule only you could adopt the strategy of betting on any hand with an ace and a king or better, but never adopt the bet on everything strategy.

Blackjack Card Counting

Another important strategy to move on to, once you have learned thoroughly the basic blackjack strategy, is card counting. Card counting has a very important place in blackjack as it allows you to predict when you have an edge over the house. Simply put, you list out the rate of occurrence of high cards versus the low cards in a hand.

Ideally, if you are counting cards, you would want to have more high cards compared to the low cards in the card deck, as that gives you a very good chance of ending up with a 21 or at least somewhere quite close to it. Not only that, but it also means the dealer is not safe from going bust.

Card counting is not easy; it requires practice and also a skill, not to mention a very sharp eye and some basic knowledge of math. Card counting can be traced back to the year 1962 when Dr. Edward O. Thorp brought out Beat the Dealer, a massively popular book that listed out all the things involved in card counting. However, Thorp was not the pioneer of card counting, though he certainly was one of the first to write about this system.

Others who had earlier used such a system before Thorp wrote about it included Joe Bernstein and Jesse Marcum. A rudimentary card-counting system came into being as early as 1957, five years before Thorp’s book, thanks to the efforts of four people – Herbert Maisel, James McDermott, Wilbert Canteny, and Roger Baldwin. Together called The Four Horsemen, these men used just ordinary technology, in the form of mechanical calculators, to create the system.

As mentioned earlier, you do not have to be a mathematical genius to figure out card counting and how it works. The counter attributes a specific value to each card as it appears in the game, ranging from +1 to -1 with the zero thrown in between. The +1 value is for cards valued between 2 and 6, the 0 value is for cards between 7 and 9, and the -1 is for the 10 and the picture cards, i.e. 10 through A.

There are different kinds of card counting systems in use today. Some of the most prominent and effectively used are:

• KO Count
• Hi-Opt I Count
• Hi-Opt II Count
• Hi-Lo Count

You must understand that card counting is not easy; it never is, and it will take you a while to get used to the technique you need to adopt for a specific game.

Blackjack Tournament Strategy

The strategy you would adopt while playing in a blackjack tournament is very different from the ones that you regularly employ. This difference arises out of the fact that the way you play tournament blackjack is different from how you play the regular online blackjack game.

The major difference that you see between tournament blackjack strategy and the other strategies you use in games is that you play against the other players in a tournament, not against the casino. Besides, there is a difference in the overlay as well.

The tournament blackjack strategy is designed to enable you to play strongly and build a strong foundation so you can press for a win. It teaches you to up your game and take chances if you are trailing the others.

Another system, which constitutes an effective blackjack strategy, is the Contrarian Strategy, a strategy that brought very good results for Ken Smith. Per this strategy, you need to bet the opposite of what your opponent throws at you.

So with the knowledge of the rules of Blackjack and perfect Blackjack strategy played right, can cut the house odds considerably.

Baccarat Betting System

If you so wish, you can follow the advice of some and engage in a betting system for baccarat, and this game lends itself well to it as it has such good odds. If you chose to use a betting system you must remember that this isn’t going to help you win hands, but it will help you win money in the long run. The recommended betting system to use with baccarat is the martingale system. When using the martingale system you should always start with small denominations, make sure you have plenty of funds, and be confident that the table max is high enough for you to keep doubling until you win. This system should only be used with even money bets, i.e. the player bet and sometimes the bank bet depending on the casino.

The martingale system is a betting system that can be used for several games with even-money bets and goes based on doubling till you win. Thus you start with the lowest bet possible, and each round you bet on the same outcome except you bet double the amount that you bet on the last round. This continues until you win at which point you go back to betting the smallest denomination. So long as you don’t run out of funds, this system more or less guarantees a recoup of all wagered monies plus the value of the original bet. However, it is recommended to try it in free-play first, as it is designed for short-term wins not for ongoing success and thus best to make up your mind based on experience.

Baccarat Money Management

So, apart from knowledge of the game that will help you to help yourself, and a baccarat strategy that should reward your play, there is one other vital element that could constitute a baccarat strategy, and that’s money management. This is not a concept that is unique to the game of baccarat but it is essential for successful play and continued fun. The idea of money management is that you learn skills that will help your funds to go further, and thus you will be able to play longer and ultimately thrive at the game. So, the first thing to know about baccarat money management is that you should only bring to the table what you’re prepared to lose. This sounds very pessimistic, but you must always remember that baccarat is completely a game of chance; you take measures like those listed above that will help you do better but you have no control over the game itself, thus there may be days that you will lose, and this is why you must only ever be playing with money you can afford to lose.

On the same subject, it is good to know when to walk away from the table. If you are losing hand after hand it is often better to walk away and come back a bit later than to just get angrier and angrier over your losses. In terms of making your funds last, it’s a good idea to know exactly how much you have and to set yourself limits for how much you are allowed to play on each round, or during each hour, this way, you can end up playing for however long you determine you want to. To help your money go further, you should also pay attention, and be sensible when it comes to choosing the table you are playing at, especially regarding the table minimums and maximums. There is nothing like a high-stakes table to part you and your funds quickly.