So You Want To Play 7-Card Stud
- Filed under: Poker
- Date: Aug 4,2010
The game of 7-card stud poker goes back to the very beginning of traditional poker history and is today still a very popular game in casinos and at casual home poker parties as well. Its large following is attracted by its standard structure, familiar to all poker players. Seven card stud rules change slightly from place to place but all are played with a maximum of seven players – this is because of the seven cards dealt to each player and the 52 card make up of a standard deck of cards – and, too, during the course of a game, the dealer will burn four cards. There are less betting rounds than in other forms of poker causing many a house to instigate a rule to call a pre-flop compulsory bet, or ante, to promote both participation in hands and a more complex and challenging game.
Those players who play only holdem games will find themselves at sea in stud poker because of the dissimilarity of strategy required to it play well. No player should think then, that they can approach a 7-card stud table without first observing many games and learning thoroughly its rules, tactics and betting strategies. This careful attention to stud games cannot help but allow a player to gain the insight required for any number of strategies.
A Description of Betting Rounds in 7-Card Stud Poker
To begin the game, each player is dealt three cards with two of them faced down and one up. Betting begins in a clockwise direction with the player holding the highest hand betting first (two aces would be the topmost hand at this point). The following three rounds, or streets as they are sometimes termed, will be dealt face up with the last (River) card dealt face down which takes us to the highest hand 5-card showdown. Betting rounds are taking place between each deal, with the exception of Mississippi stud which can be played with just four betting rounds and the last two cards are dealt as one.
Some 7-Card Stud Strategy
There is usually a mandatory ante that marks the start of most stud games and it is not unusual for some games to demand that the player with the lowest scoring visible hand “bring in” (place a forced bet). The game continues with each player being dealt three cards, two up and the bring in hand holder must bet first. In case of a tie, the suit is the tiebreaker. At this point in the game, a player has the right to bet, fold or raise to the level of the house limits.
Another deal commences with each player being dealt one card, followed by another round of bets starting with the player of the highest hand (three aces tops). In all ensuing rounds, the one who has the best visible cards can opt to bet or check to start the round. After all the cards have been dealt, the cards should be ordered in the players hands with two down cards, four up cards and finally, one down card.
Similar to Holdem and Omaha poker traditional play, the player with the highest ranking 5-card hand is the winner. Stud is a little unusual in that it does not have a community card pile and the cards in each hand are not all hidden. As is the rule in traditional games, a Royal Flush is at the top of the card combination ranking with the usual assortments ranked in the order of highest to lowest: straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, pair with high cards bringing up the rear. An appropriate betting strategy uses as its foundation hand strength, close attention to opponents betting patterns and face up cards and a fine sense of the size of the pot.
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