•CARIBBEAN DRAW POKER
Introduction
Caribbean Draw Poker is a variation of traditional poker with large payouts for high ranking hands. The game is available with Microgaming and RealTime Gaming softwares. The low house edge per wager makes it a useful alternative, when blackjack and full pay video poker are not available.
Rules and Play
After placing a bet, the player and dealer are dealt a 5-card poker hand. Only 1 of the dealer's 5 cards is visible. The player then must choose to either fold and lose the hand or raise. The raise bet must be 2x the ante bet size, so the total bet following a raise is 3x the initial bet size. If the player raises, then he may discard up to 2 cards from his hand and take replacements from the deck.
The dealer may also discard up to 2 cards from his hand. The dealer's discard selections are done according to a simple preset strategy, which is usually keep 5-card pat hands; discard one with two pair, 4 to a flush, or 4 to a straight; discard two with 3 of a kind; and discard the two lowest remaining cards with one pair or a high card.
After the discards are complete, the hands are compared. There are several possible payouts.
-If the dealer has a pair of eights or better, the dealer "qualifies." If the dealer does not qualify (regardless of whether the player wins or loses the hand), then winnings on the ante bet are paid and the raise bet is returned.
-If the player loses the hand and the dealer qualifies, then the player loses the full bet.
-If the player wins the hand and the dealer qualifies, then the player wins the ante bet, and the raise bet pays according to a listed paytable. Microgaming and most RTG casinos use the standard paytable listed below. Some RTG casinos choose to use the improved paytable.
| Hand | Standard Paytable | Improved RTG Paytable |
| Royal Flush | 100 to 1 | 200 to 1 |
| Straight Flush | 50 to 1 | 50 to 1 |
| 4 of a Kind | 20 to 1 | 20 to 1 |
| Full House | 7 to 1 | 7 to 1 |
| Flush | 5 to 1 | 5 to 1 |
| Straight | 3 to 1 | 4 to 1 |
| 3 of a Kind | 2 to 1 | 3 to 1 |
| 2 Pair | 1 to 1 | 2 to 1 |
| Pair | 1 to 1 | 1 to 1 |
Optional Bonus Bet
Caribbean Draw Poker offers an optional bonus bet, which often involves a progressive jackpot. Like most side bets, the house edge of the bonus bet is significantly larger than the house edge of the main game. A summary is below:
| Hand | Hand Odds | RTG | Microgaming |
| Royal Flush | 1 in 650,000 | Jackpot | Jackpot |
| Straight Flush | 1 in 72,000 | 10% of JP | 2,500 |
| 4 of a Kind | 1 in 4200 | 500 | 500 |
| Full House | 1 in 695 | 100 | 50 |
| Flush | 1 in 510 | 75 | 30 |
| Straight | 1 in 255 | -- | 15 |
| 3 of a Kind | 1 in 47 | -- | 5 |
| Two Pair | 1 in 21 | -- | 4 |
| Typical House Edge | 35-50% | * | |
| Jackpot Range | 30-80k | * | |
| Break Even Point | 200k | * |
Strategy
The fold/raise portion of strategy for Caribbean Draw is quite simple -- always raise. The EV of poor hands always exceeds the EV of folding (-1) because the dealer fails to qualify on approximately half of hands. The discard strategy is more complicated and summarized in the strategy table below. Select the lowest numbered choice that you can form with your initial hand, then discard the remaining cards when possible. With pairs, you cannot discard all 3 of the remaining cards, so instead discard the two lowest ranked cards. "High card" means ranked 8 or higher, and "4 to an outside straight" means 4 sequential cards without gaps, such as 5/6/7/8. This strategy table is based on the standard paytable. I will add a second table for the modified RTG paytable in the future.
1. Royal Flush / Straight
Flush / 4 of a Kind / Full House / Flush
2. Suited KQJT
3. Straight / 3 of a Kind / Two Pair
4. 4 to Straight Flush
5. Pair QQ-AA
6. 4 to Flush with 2+ high cards
7. Pair JJ
8. 4 to Flush with 0-1 high cards
9. Pair 99-TT
10. 4 to Outside Straight with 2+ high cards
11. 3 to Royal Flush
12. Pair 88
13. 4 to Outside Straight with 0-1 high cards
14. Low Pair (22-77)*
15. 3 to Straight Flush*
16. 3 to Flush with 2 highest cards of hand*
17. 4 to Inside Straight with highest card of hand*
18. 3 high cards*
19. 3 to Flush without both 2 highest cards of hand*
20. 4 to Inside Straight without highest card of hand*
21. Discard 2 lowest cards of hand*
*There are many exceptions to these rules, which are generally close calls. The upcard of the dealer hand also may influence decisions. For example, 3 to a royal flush with the dealer upcard being one of the missing cards in the royal should be treated as 3 to a flush (or 3 to straight flush, if possible). Similarly the dealer's upcard reduces the chance of getting a pair of that rank and may result in discarding a higher ranked card matching the dealer upcard over lower ranked ones. One can manually compare discard options in unique situations like these by multiplying the expected value by the chance of drawing rank/suits and making adjustments as necessary. In short, this table should be treated as a set of loose guidelines that can be adjusted with unique hands rather than inflexible rules.
House Edge & Variance
The analyst Howard Stern found Caribbean Draw to have a house edge of 2.4%. House edge is defined in terms of the initial ante bet. A more relevant quantity for estimating loss over a wagering requirement is house edge per wager. Bet size is always 3 (always raise) in Caribbean Draw, making the house edge per wager 0.8%.
I crudely estimate the standard deviation per initial bet of Caribbean Draw to be 2.9. When defined in terms of unit wagered, the standard deviation becomes 1.7. The latter value is more appropriate for estimating range of return while completing a wagering requirement. In the future, I will determine more precise values.
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