Updated: December 22, 2023
Both free versions of the Poker game: Oasis Poker and Caribbean Stud, are regularly mixed up. Some people call Oasis even a ‘variation of Stud’ or ‘alternative Stud.’ They resemble each other by the number of the cards – 5. They differ with each other by permission to exchange one, several, or all cards at once. This contrast makes Oasis Poker more flexible and player-friendly.
Best casinos to play Oasis Poker
In this article, you can find the rules and specifications of the game, plus our recommendations for optimal gameplay. On this page, you can play Oasis Poker by NetEnt for free without registration.
Payouts of free Oasis Poker
This extremely low House edge game is popular at online casinos supported by NetEnt, VueTec, and Gale Wind software. The rules are the same everywhere, but the fee for the exchange cards can vary. Another difference can be in the paytable, which doesn’t impact the game itself.
- The highest-paid and the rarest at the same time combination is the Royal Flush.
- In most casinos, it is paid as 100:1.
- At NetEnt casino, for a Royal Flush, you also get 100:1; for a straight flush 50:1, for 4OAK, you get a 20:1 payout. Different payouts are given for different winning combinations. (table below)
Rules of the Oasis Poker game
- Before the start of each game, the player places his basic bet.
- The basic wager – is the Ante – a bet of whether the player will have a better hand than the dealer.
- Each player receives 5 cards – face down.
- The dealer also draws 5 cards with only 1 card face up.
- At this point, the player must decide to discard one or more of his cards.
- The decision is not for free, and the fee is increasing with each card.
- For one exchanged card, you must pay 1x the Ante bet,
- For two – 2x the Ante;
- For three cards, it is 3x the Ante bet;
- For four – 2x Ante;
- While for all five cards, you will automatically call.
- After the player made his discard selection and got replacement cards, the gameplay matched Caribbean Stud Poker.
- The player looks at his hand and needs to decide to play or fold.
- If the player folds- he loses the Ante.
- If he chooses to continue playing, he needs to place one more bet – Raise bet, which is equal to 2x Ante.
- So, the total bet following a Raise is 3x the basic bet size.
- Once all the players have done one of the two: folded or raised, the dealer discloses his hand and judges if he qualifies.
- The dealer must have at least Ace + King high to qualify.
Situation 1- the dealer doesn’t qualify – All players still in hand automatically win their Ante bet, and their Raise bet is returned.
Situation 2 – the dealer does qualify – He begins to compare his hand against the hand of each player, realizing who wins.
If the player wins- he gets paid:
- A) 1:1 on his Ante bet; plus
- B) On his Raise bet – the player is paid depending on how good is the hand he holds (payout table).
If the dealer wins- he collects both bets- the Ante + the Raise bet.
House Edge of the game and wagering
- Following regular game rules, the house edge (outlined per basic bet) of Oasis Poker is 1.04%.
- The average bet size is 2.18x the Ante – i.e. the house edge per basic bet wagered is 0.47%.
- This value (0.47%) is an approximate index used for roughly loss calculations while completing the wagering requirements.
Note that the house edge of Oasis Poker is well under the edge of Caribbean Stud due to the discards. But before any attempt to wager or place bonus bets, we recommend playing Oasis Poker in the DEMO mode at the beginning of our page and seeing how it goes.
Strategic elements when exchanging cards
To discard one card, you need a good draw hand, i.e. draw cards that will give you a big hand such as a royal flush, straight flush, and four of a kind.
The rules to follow are:
- When you have a pair, change one card – switching a card with 4 to a flush with no pair and 4 to an outside straight with no pair. To get a new card, you need to discard the one that doesn’t fit in hand—for example, A-K-9-7-2. If the 2 holds another suit – you need to change it.
- When you have 4 cards to a straight flush or royal flush, even in this situation, you can (and should) be ready to sacrifice a pair, for example, Q-J-10-9-9. Any card in the suit will give you a flush or a straight flush, so you should break the pair.
- Chasing a rare combination is very important. For a straight flush, for example, you are paid 50:1. Therefore, the chances of getting such a situation must be used to the maximum.
- As you can see, you have control over all of these steps, i.e. they depend on your decisions and not on the dealer’s cards. But there are exceptions. In some cases, you should give up a low pair with 4 cards to a flush or switch 4 to an inside straight with no pair (depending on the inside straight and dealer’s face-up card).