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Review of Caribbean Beach Poker by Wazdan
It’s safe to say that there is plenty that is unique when it comes to online casino sites. One unique invention is that of casino poker. Poker had never been offered in casinos until the late 1990s when Casino Texas Hold’em poker was devised by Stephen Au-Yeung. It began to appear online and then in live casinos in Africa and Russia. It is still seldom found in real-world casinos, but most online casinos will have at least one version of casino poker, including versions found in live dealer casinos.
Casino poker, such as Caribbean Beach Poker, is not the same as poker that you will find at online poker sites such as Full Tilt Poker and Party Poker. At those sites, you are playing against your fellow poker players. Here, you are playing against the dealer. If you have never played casino poker before, then Caribbean Beach Poker is an excellent game with which to commence your casino poker career.
How to Play Caribbean Beach Poker
The first step here is to select your initial bet, which is known as the ante. To do this, just click on the chips at the edge of the table. They fill fly onto the spot marked ‘ANTE’. You can click on them to move them back too. Keep clicking until you’ve bet as much as you want, then click the ‘deal’ button.
You will be dealt five cards face up. The dealer will also be dealt five cards, but only one of those cards will be dealt face up. The aim of the game is to (a) obtain as high value a hand as possible and (b) beat the dealer.
Choose as many as your cards as you want to keep and click ‘change’. If you do not want to change any cards, click ‘hit’. You are only allowed to change your cards once. If you do change your cards you pay the size of your ante bet. If you don’t want to take any further part in the hand, then select ‘fold’. Your stake will vanish and the next hand will start.
Once you have changed your cards you can either select ‘fold’ if you feel you have little chance of beating the dealer, or you can select ‘hit’. If you want to see the dealer cards, then you will need to ‘raise’ your wager in line with double your original ‘Ante’ bet. So, if your original bet was $1 your raise would be $2 meaning your wager would now be $3.
If you hit then the dealer’s remaining cards are revealed, if you have the better hand, then you are a winner! You are paid out in accordance with the following rules:
If the player wins, and the dealer has a hand that is lower in value that AKxxx, then the player receives back the ante and raise bets, plus one additional ante. So, if you bet $1 and raised $2, you would receive back $4 (ante + raise + ante).
If the player wins, and the dealer has a hand that has at least the value of AKxxx, then the player has his ante and raise returned as well as the value of the player’s hand from the following paytable:
- 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 or High Card – 1:1
Going back to our example, say that the player had an ante of $1 and a raise of $2. The player ended up with QQQ76 and the dealer AKT64. The player’s three queens beat the dealer’s high card Ace. They will be paid $10 (ante + raise + ante (for winning) + 3 x raise (from the paytable)).
This payment system may take some time to get used to, but you will! Basically, if you win you have your full stake returned, plus an ante for the win. If the dealer had at least AKxxx then you also win your raise multiplied by the paytable factor.
Once you have been paid (or have lost) you are free to start the next round.
Game rules:
Game type: Draw poker
Min bet: 0.10
Max bet: 100.00
RTP: Not given
Graphics and Sounds
You are not going to be blown away by the graphics and sounds to this game. The table is a basic rendering, and the cards could be better as the values are actually hard to see unless you are in full-screen mode. The sounds are a crowd and tinkling piano both of which can be muted.
Final Thoughts
This a simple but pleasant game that serves well as an introduction to casino poker. As it is draw poker as opposed to Hold’em it is not hard to understand. A sterling effort from Wazdan, if nothing spectacular.