One of the most remarkable effects of the introduction of online casinos in Ireland has been the surge in popularity of some of the more traditional casino games, most notably the game of poker. Very few of our real casinos offered us the chance to play poker on a regular basis, and apart from professional poker tournaments the game had become restricted to a few diehard poker enthusiasts playing poker amongst themselves. The online casinos have turned that around and the casino game of poker is thriving. Even the poker tournaments around the world are attracting far more applicants for places, with experienced amateurs now wanting to take on the professionals. Serious poker players inevitably tend to concentrate on the Texas Hold’em format of poker, but the advantage of playing poker at most of our online casinos is that they offer a variety of alternative poker games to suit players with different levels of experience and perhaps more importantly smaller budgets. One of these alternative versions of poker is Caribbean Stud, a very simple casino game played against the house and an ideal introduction to the rankings of a poker hand for absolute beginners. Most of the major online casinos now offer Caribbean Stud in their range of casino games, and it can be played for very low stakes on most sites. The player chooses how much they want to gamble on a hand and places what is called an ante bet, after which five cards are dealt to both the player and the dealer. The players hand has all five cards face up, whereas four of the dealer’s cards are face down at this stage. The player then has a choice as to whether to double their stake or leave it alone based on their own cards and the one dealer’s card they can see. The dealer’s cards are then revealed and a winning hand is simply paid at even money. Some online casinos do insist on the dealer having at least Ace or King high before paying out on a raised bet, but other than that playing Caribbean Stud at an online casino couldn’t be easier so why not have a go.