Before the advent of online casinos, the terms casino games related to just a few traditional games such as roulette and blackjack that we could play at our local casino. Most real casinos in Ireland did have a few slot machines and some organised a few poker tournaments for their members, but that was it really. Nowadays of course the online casinos provide us with a vast array of casino games to choose from and although most of them are versions of slots games those of us who prefer the traditional casino games have also benefitted. We can now play Craps, or Baccarat at most online casinos, and even games such as Backgammon are available at many online casinos, but the game of poker is probably the biggest beneficiary of the introduction of online casino gambling. The popularity of Poker has undergone a huge surge in popularity since the widespread availability of online Poker at the online casinos and specialist Poker sites. Serious poker players normally concentrate on the Texas Hold’em format of the game, but the online casinos also offer a variety of other casino games based on poker. One of these is Caribbean Stud, a very simple casino game based on poker but played against the house for fixed odds and therefore an excellent introduction to the rankings of poker hands without the need to risk much money. In fact Caribbean Stud can be played for very low stakes at most online casinos. The player chooses how much to stake on a hand and then places an ante bet, after which the player and the dealer are dealt five cards. The dealer’s hand however has just one card face up and the player must then decide whether to double their stake based on their own hand and the one dealer’s card they can see. The remaining cards are then revealed and a winning hand is paid out at even money. Some online casinos insist on an Ace or King high before paying out on a raised hand, so it’s wise to check the house rules.