A fairly recent variation of standard Five-Card Stud, Caribbean Stud Poker has a bit of a mysterious history — although it’s easier to figure out because it doesn’t go back several hundred years like Poker’s does.
Poker, of course, may go back as far as a 16th century Persian game,
but it developed into its current form in America after arriving from Europe as the French game “pogue” (“pochen” in German).
The evolution of poker
By the time Poker had developed into a form that we would recognize today, it had migrated down from Canada with the French Acadians (“Cajuns”) to New Orleans, probably around 1830.
It spread quickly throughout the region, the country and the world, spawning any number of variations. One recent variation that is named for its area of provenance is Caribbean Stud Poker.
It is impossible to know precisely who invented
Caribbean Stud Poker, the so-called “tropical Stud,” but it originated on Aruba, a famous resort island off the coast of Venezuela.
Based on the general rules of Five-Card Stud, Caribbean Stud Poker has one major difference, namely, in that players bet against the house instead of other players.
Poker in Aruba goes way back
With a fair degree of certainty it can be reported that the game was first played at Aruba’s Holiday Inn Hotel & Table in 1988, taking its name from a region known for its idyllic beaches and inviting waters.
The hotel has since changed its name to the Excelsior Table, and is still hugely popular with tourists; for the locals, the famous establishment is the center of their island home’s
gaming industry,
a fabulously lucrative local trade. An internationally known gaming resort, Aruba and the Excelsior even played host to the 2005 World Poker Tour.
Following its introduction and quick acceptance, Caribbean Stud Poker spread to the islands of the Caribbean, and was also offered on cruise ship casinos that plied the seas of that region.
Its reputation as a fast, fun and focused version of Stud Poker continued to grow until the inevitable occurred — it arrived in Las Vegas in the early 1990s.
Progressive payout feature
The marketing mavens of Nevada’s casinos didn’t consider the game exciting or potentially profitable enough, to the house or the player, so a progressive payout feature was added as a bonus.
With the addition of this incentive, the popularity of the game increased quickly throughout both North America and Europe.
Just about every table in the world now offers Caribbean Stud Poker and, of course, even the housebound gambler has a chance to play now, since the game has also been warmly welcomed by the internet’s “virtual” casinos.
