5 Card Stud

5 Card Stud
RTP94.8%
House Edge5.2%
VolatilityMedium
Provably FairYes ✓
Provably Fair Instant Card Game Table Game
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Game Mechanics & Rules

The player places an Ante and receives five cards face-up while the dealer receives five cards with one exposed. The player must then either fold (forfeiting the Ante) or raise by placing a Play bet of exactly 2x the Ante. The dealer qualifies with Ace-King or higher; a non-qualifying dealer results in the Ante paying 1:1 and the Play bet pushing. Progressive payouts apply to strong player hands when the dealer qualifies. Royal Flush pays the maximum fixed payout of 1000x the Ante.

  1. Place your Ante wager. All five cards are then dealt: your cards face-up, the dealer's four cards face-down and one card face-up.
  2. Examine your five-card hand and the visible dealer card. Decide whether to fold (lose your Ante) or raise by placing a Play bet equal to exactly 2x your Ante.
  3. If you fold, the hand ends immediately and your Ante is collected. There is no further action after folding.
  4. If you raise, the dealer's four concealed cards are revealed. The dealer qualifies with an Ace-King combination or any made hand (pair or higher).
  5. A non-qualifying dealer hand pays your Ante at 1:1 and returns your Play bet regardless of your hand strength. A qualifying dealer hand is compared against yours.
  6. If you win with a qualifying dealer, the Ante pays 1:1 and the Play bet pays according to the progressive pay table: One Pair 1:1, Two Pair 2:1, Three of a Kind 3:1, Straight 4:1, Flush 5:1, Full House 7:1, Four of a Kind 20:1, Straight Flush 50:1, Royal Flush 100:1. Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet that runs alongside the round; it does not reduce your main 5 Card Stud payouts.

Bets and Payouts

Player and dealer each get 5 cards. Dealer qualifies on Ace-King or better. Raise (2x Ante) or fold. Five optional side bets cover the combined 6-card hand, all-colour player surfaces, face-card density, and all-even hands. Millionaire Mode adds a $1 Royal Spades ticket; main-table payouts are unchanged when MM is on.

Main bet

BetPayoutDetails
Ante (dealer does not qualify) 1:1, Raise pushes Ante pays 1:1 regardless of player hand strength.
Ante win (dealer qualifies) 1:1 Ante pays 1:1 on win.
Raise win (by hand rank) 1:1 to 100:1 Pair 1:1, Two Pair 2:1, Trips 3:1, Straight 4:1, Flush 5:1, Full House 7:1, Quads 20:1, Straight Flush 50:1, Royal Flush 100:1.

Side bets

BetPayoutDetails
Combined Six 7:1 to 1000:1 Best 5-card poker hand made from your 5 cards plus the dealer's up card. Paytable: Royal Flush 1000:1, Straight Flush 200:1, Four of a Kind 100:1, Full House 20:1, Flush 15:1, Straight 10:1, Three of a Kind 7:1.
Colour Bonus 17:1 / 35:1 All 5 cards share the same colour. Pays more when they are also the same suit. Paytable: Flush (all 5 same suit) 35:1, Same Colour (all 5 red or all 5 black) 17:1.
Court Progressive 50:1 to 100% Jackpot Pays on your 5 cards alone. Royal Flush takes the full jackpot. Paytable: Royal Flush 100% Jackpot, Straight Flush 10% Jackpot, Four of a Kind 500:1, Full House 100:1, Flush 50:1.
Royal Edge 1:1 to 20,000:1 More face cards (J/Q/K) means a bigger win. Four of one face rank pays the jackpot. Paytable: Royal Quads (4 of one face rank) 20,000:1, All Face (any 5 J / Q / K) 1,500:1, Four Face (4 face cards) 20:1, Three Face (3 face cards) 1:1.
All Even 30:1 to 14,000:1 All 5 cards are even-rank (2/4/6/8/10/Q). Pays more when they share colour or suit. Paytable: Suited (all 5 same suit) 14,000:1, Coloured (all 5 red or all 5 black) 500:1, Mixed Colour (any 5 even) 30:1.

Millionaire Mode side bet

BetPayoutDetails
Royal Spades ($1) $1,000,000 max Each round the dealt cards are checked for the six top spades (9, 10, J, Q, K, A of spades). 6 hits $1,000,000, 5 hits $5,000, 4 hits $325, 3 hits $20, 2 hits $2, 0-1 hits no payout. Main payouts unchanged.

Controls and Settings

Shared settings plus 5 Card Stud keyboard shortcuts for raise/fold.

Settings

  • Sound toggles SFX.
  • Effects toggles celebrations.
  • Voices plays character voice-pack lines on real-money wins above the threshold.
  • Voice Pack live-loaded character selection.
  • Instant Bet skips deal animation.
  • Speed Slow / Normal / Fast.
  • Show Tips hover help.

Keyboard Shortcuts

KeyAction
SpaceDeal or raise (post-deal).
FFold.
QHalve bet.
EDouble bet.
MMute.
IToggle Instant Bet.
,./Slow / Normal / Fast speed.

Manual and Auto Modes

5 Card Stud supports Manual only. Each hand requires a raise/fold decision.

Manual

Set Ante, press Deal. Decide raise or fold based on your hand and the dealer up-card. Hand settles.

Replay and Shared Replay

Your own replays

Each completed hand joins your history as it settles. Click any row to replay with the original cards and decision.

Shared replays

Every hand has a shareable link. Anyone can watch without logging in.

What gets reproduced

Replays reproduce the hand from its provably fair proof. Balances are not re-applied.

Optimal Strategy & Analysis

Optimal 5 Card Stud strategy involves a more nuanced raise/fold decision than the single-threshold Trio Poker rule. The baseline rule is: always raise with a pair or better; always fold below Ace-King; raise with Ace-King if the dealer's upcard matches any of your cards, if you hold a Jack or higher as your fourth-best card and the dealer's upcard is lower than your fourth-best card, or if you hold a 10 or higher and the dealer's upcard matches one of your cards. These conditions are derived from EV analysis over all possible dealer hands given the partial information of the upcard.

No strategy can reduce this edge below the published figure. Pair Magic-equivalent structures in 5 Card Stud do not exist; all Ante and Play action is combined. The 2x Play bet creates a larger variance profile than even-money raise games - winning sessions are larger, but losing sessions are correspondingly more expensive.

Royal Flush pays 100:1 on the Play bet. At a $10 Ante and $20 Play bet, a Royal Flush yields $2,000 from the Play pay table alone, plus $10 from the Ante. The probability of a Royal Flush in a five-card hand from a 52-card deck is 4 / 2,598,960, approximately 1 in 650,000. Expected value of the Royal Flush component per hand is $2,000 × (1/650,000) × $30 / $30 ≈ $0.003 per $30 wagered.

Bankroll requirements for 5 Card Stud are higher than many table games due to the 2x raise commitment and medium-high volatility rating. A session bankroll of 80-120 Ante units is recommended to survive typical downswings without being forced out of position. Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet that runs alongside the round; it does not reduce your main 5 Card Stud payouts.

Provably Fair Verification

5 Card Stud hands are generated by applying the SHA-256 Fisher-Yates algorithm to a standard 52-card deck using the concatenation of server seed, client seed, and hand nonce. Cards are assigned in deal order: player cards 1-5, dealer cards 1-5, with the dealer's fifth card designated as the face-up upcard. The complete ten-card sequence is determined before any card is displayed. The server seed is committed as its SHA-256 hash prior to session start and revealed in full upon client seed rotation, enabling retroactive verification of every deal.

Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet that runs alongside the round; it does not reduce your main 5 Card Stud payouts.

The face-up dealer card is the fifth card in the deal sequence, not randomly selected from the five - this matters for verification. When reconstructing a hand, the ten-card sequence is: player[1..5], dealer[1..4] (face-down), dealer[5] (face-up). Verification tools that implement the deal order correctly will reproduce the exact visible and concealed cards for each historical hand.

Millionaire Mode Technical Details

Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet added to every round. Main-table payouts are NOT reduced. Main bets must total at least $1 USD for the side bet to attach.

Each round, the cards dealt for the side bet are checked. The Royal Spades are the six top spades - 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of spades. Every distinct Royal Spade among the dealt cards counts as one hit; a repeated rank does not count twice and the Joker never counts.

Paytable per $1 side bet: 6 hits = $1,000,000; 5 hits = $5,000; 4 hits = $325; 3 hits = $20; 2 hits = $2; 0 or 1 hits pay nothing.

The $1,000,000 prize is pre-funded and paid in a single transaction on six hits. Lower tiers pay alongside the round settlement. The Royal Spades result is independent of the main-game outcome.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What side bets does 5 Card Stud offer and what are their payouts?

Five side bets are available: Combined Six, Colour Bonus, Court Progressive, Royal Edge, All Even. Each is an independent wager placed before the round and settles on its own outcome, regardless of the main result.

What is 5 Card Stud and how does it work?

Players post an Ante, receive five face-up cards versus the dealer's four hidden and one revealed, then choose to fold or raise with a 2x Play bet. The dealer qualifies with Ace-King or better. Winning hands pay progressive amounts from 1:1 (One Pair) to 100:1 (Royal Flush) on the Play bet. Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet that runs alongside the round; it does not reduce your main 5 Card Stud payouts.

How does Millionaire Mode function in 5 Card Stud?

Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet per round. Main-table payouts are NOT reduced. Each round the dealt cards are checked; every distinct Royal Spade - 9, 10, J, Q, K, A of spades - is one hit (the Joker never counts). Paytable: 6 hits = $1,000,000, 5 = $5,000, 4 = $325, 3 = $20, 2 = $2, 0-1 = no payout. The jackpot is pre-funded.

How can I verify 5 Card Stud is provably fair?

5 Card Stud uses SHA-256 Fisher-Yates card generation. The server seed is committed as its hash before session start and revealed upon client seed rotation. Cards are assigned in deal order: player[1-5], dealer[1-4] concealed, dealer[5] face-up. Verification requires applying the published algorithm to the revealed server seed, client seed, and hand nonce. Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet that runs alongside the round; it does not reduce your main 5 Card Stud payouts.

Which cryptocurrencies are accepted for 5 Card Stud?

BTC, ETH, LTC, USDT (ERC-20/TRC-20) and BNB are all supported. Deposits credit your account in USD; every stake, payout and jackpot in 5 Card Stud is denominated in USD regardless of which crypto you sent. Withdrawals return on-chain to a wallet address you nominate at cash-out time, subject to standard network confirmation.

What is the mathematically optimal strategy for 5 Card Stud?

Optimal strategy: always raise with a pair or better; fold below Ace-King; raise Ace-King when the dealer upcard matches any held card, or when your fourth card outranks the dealer upcard (holding a Jack or higher), or when you hold a 10 or higher and the dealer upcard matches one of your cards. These thresholds are EV-derived from all possible dealer hand completions. No wagering system reduces the 5.22% structural house edge. Millionaire Mode is a paid $1 Royal Spades side bet that runs alongside the round; it does not reduce your main 5 Card Stud payouts.

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