So You Want To Play 7-Card Stud

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.

If you play holdem exclusively, you will have to learn a new strategy to play 7-card stud. Any one new to the stud games should carefully observe games as they are played and learn well the rules and strategies of betting before even thinking of sitting at the table to play a round or two. Learning strategies of stud as well as other forms of poker will always add to the enjoyment (and profitability) of any form of the game.

A Description of Betting Rounds in 7-Card Stud Poker

To begin, three cards are dealt to each player with two of them face down and one face up. Betting occurs next starting in a clockwise direction with the highest scoring hand betting first ( the high hand here would be two aces, max). The cards are dealt face up in the following three rounds, with the River (last) card being dealt face down which segues to the best scoring 5-card hand showdown. Betting rounds are going on between each deal except in the Mississippi version where sometimes four rounds of betting occurs with the last two cards dealt at the same time.

The Workings of 7-Card Stud Strategy

All players must ante in most of the stud games while some go so far as to demand that the player with the lowest scoring hand in round one plays a "bring in" i.e., place a forced bet. Each player receives three cards, two up and the "bring in" player bets first. If there is a tie for the lowest hand, the suit becomes the tiebreaker. At this point the players can choose to bet, fold or raise to the limit the house allows.

Next up, another card is dealt followed by a betting round beginning with the holder of the best hand (by now it would be three aces). For all remaining rounds, it is the player with the highest scoring visible cards who may choose to either bet or check at the rounds onset. The final arrangement of the cards after all are dealt looks like this: two cards placed face down, two face up, and the last card in the arrangement is placed face down.

Similar to the games of holdem and Omaha poker, the player whose hand consists of the highest ranked cards or card combinations wins. There are no community cards in stud poker, which is unusual as is the fact that the hands have a few face-up cards. Beyond that difference, the card rankings are the same with the Royal Flush leading the way, followed by the straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, pair, with high cards at the low end of the ranking scale. Sound strategies will use the strength of your hand as the base, with the visible cards and betting schematics of your opponents as major components. Do not forget to get a sense of how rich the pot is.

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