Oasis Poker Presentation

 Introduction

Oasis Poker is a variation of Caribbean Stud Poker that permits discards for a fee.

The game's low house edge makes it a useful option when blackjack and multi-hand video poker are not available.

Standard Rules and Play

After placing a bet, the player and dealer are dealt a 5-card poker hand. Only 1 of the dealer's 5 cards is visible. At this point, the player can choose to discard one or more of his cards. For each discard, the player is charged a fee that is equal to the size of the ante bet. After making a discard selection and getting replacement cards, play is identical to Caribbean Stud Poker. The player must choose to either fold and lose the hand or raise. The raise bet must be 2x the ante bet size, so the total bet following a raise is 3x the initial bet size. If the player raises, then there are several possible payouts.

-If the dealer has an Ace and King or better (for example A,K,7,6,5), the dealer "qualifies." If the dealer does not qualify (regardless of whether the player wins or loses the hand), then winnings on the ante bet are paid and the raise bet is returned.

-If the player loses the hand and the dealer qualifies, then the player loses the full bet.

-If the player wins the hand and the dealer qualifies, then the player wins the ante bet, and the raise bet pays according to a specific paytable. Net Entertainment uses the standard paytable, which is listed below.

Hand	Standard Payout
Royal Flush	100 to 1
Straight Flush	50 to 1
4 of a Kind	20 to 1
Full House	7 to 1
Flush	5 to 1
Straight	4 to 1
3 of a Kind	3 to 1
2 Pair	2 to 1
Pair	1 to 1
Ace & King	1 to 1

Strategy

Unlike video poker, the player should rarely discard due the high cost of a replacement card. The key situations in which the player should discard are:
1. Four to a straight flush & royal flush, without pat straight or flush
2. Four to a flush, without pair*
3. Four to an outside straight (2 ways to form straight, such as 4567), without pair*
*The discard strategy can be improved slightly by also discarding on...
-Four to a flush with a 22 to 66 pair when the dealer's upcard is a greater rank than the pair
-Four to an outside straight with a 22 to 33 pair when the dealer's upcard is a greater rank than all cards in the straight
-Four to an inside straight without pair when the high card of the straight is 10 or greater, and the dealer's upcard is lesser rank than all cards in the straight
After the discards, strategy for raise and fold decisions is approximately the same as Caribbean Stud Poker. The simple strategy of raising with a Ace/King/Jack/8/3 or better results in a house edge ~0.1% from optimal. Wizard of Odds offers the following strategy to further improve results to ~0.001% from optimal.

Always raise with a pair or higher, fold with less than ace/king, and raise on ace/king if any of the following three rules apply:
1. Raise if the dealer's card is a 2 through queen and matches one of yours.
2. Raise if the dealer's card is an ace or king and you have a queen or jack in your hand.
3. Raise if the dealer's rank does not match any of yours and you have a queen in your hand and the dealer's card is less than your fourth highest card.

House Edge

Under standard rules, the house edge (defined per initial bet) of Oasis Poker is 1.04%. The average bet size is 2.18x the initial Ante bet, making the house edge per unit wagered 0.47%.

The standard deviation per initial bet of Oasis Poker is 2.50. The standard deviation per wager is 1.69. The latter values is more appropriate for estimating range of return while completing a wagering requirement. Comparing the standard deviation per wager to other low house edge (per wager) games... oasis poker has a higher variance than blackjack.