Other Games – 7 Card Stud

Seven card Stud is the most popular non-communal card poker game. It is a popular poker game, both in brick and mortar casinos and online cardrooms.
Seven Stud is almost always played in the fixed limit betting form.

Rules

In seven card stud, the player who holds the best five card hand out of his seven total cards, wins. There are five rounds of betting; first, every player is dealt three cards, two down and one up. This is called “Third Street”. The player with the lowest bare card is forced to bring it in to create action, in a fixed amount, depending on the size of the game. After the bring in, the game continues clockwise from the low card. The players can choose to raise, call, or fold to this bring in bet. The next card is dealt face up to each of the remaining players. This is called “Fourth Street”. On fourth, and all of the following streets, the player with the highest hand showing starts the betting at each round, with the game going around clockwise from him.

On Fourth Street, the card is dealt face up and the player with the highest hand showing starts the betting. The fifth and sixth streets are similar. The final card; Seventh Street, is dealt face down to all remaining players. However, in the unlikely event that it is a full game of 8 people, the final card is dealt face up and is a communal card (if 8 people stayed through the Sixth Street, there would only be 4 cards remaining in the deck).

Since seven card stud is generally played in limit form, like 15-30 for example, the lower bet ($15) is used for third and fourth street play, and the big bet ($30) is used for Fifth Street and beyond. However, if there is a pair bared on the board on Fourth Street, the players have the option of betting the smaller or the larger amount.

Cards to Play

New 7 stud players need to learn that the main concept in this game is proper selection of starting hands. Instead of simply playing the premium hands, most new players tend to play far too many hands.

Here are examples of hands to start with. The best hand that you can start with is Trips (three of a kind). AAA is naturally the best, then KKK and down, through the deck, down to 222. If you start with trips, you can either raise on third street to try and eliminate a few players, or wait and jam the pot with the big bet on fifth street, hoping to win the big pot.

Big Pairs are: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and TT. With these big pairs, you should usually come in with a raise. However, you should often be careful with these hands. For example; if you have TT and both of your other tens, bare out on the table, your hand has lost a lot of its value. Also, if there is a lot of action in the game, you should consider mucking TT or even JJ; chances are some other player is holding QQ or better.

Middle Pairs are: 77, 88, and 99 but only under some conditions. You should only play these hands if all of your cards are live (i.e. no others are on the board) and you have a good kicker. This is because you normally can not win with only a middle pair, so you’ll probably need your hand to improve.

Flush Draws are: Three suited cards, but only under some conditions. First, the flush cards should be high and close together, In order to make a big flush or a straight. You also might make high pairs or trips. Play only when your flush cards are live. You want to avoid a situation where you will need to look around to see several of the cards you need to make your flush with. Fold your three flush drawing hands to multiple raises.

Examples of flush draws you want to play are:

(A  Q  J )
(K  Q  J )
(A  K  Q )
(Q  J  10 )
(A  J  9 )
(A  9  5 )
(Q  10  9 )
(Kh  Q  4 )

Straight Draws: playing straight draws is for a call, only if they are open-ended (i.e. no gaps) and most importantly, your improvement cards are all live. It is also preferable that your straight is a high one, so you also have the option to form high pairs or trips.

Straight draws you can play are:
(K Q J) (Q J 10) (J 10 9) (9 8 7)

On Fourth Street, if you are high, for example with an ace and it is paired, go ahead and bet at the pot. If someone else is high and bets into you, try to figure out if your hand is good to continue with.

Paying attention: is the key at seven card stud. New players usually just call along, hoping to hit a good hand. They don’t realize that most of their flush cards are out on the board and will keep drawing to a flush, or a straight, when someone has trips showing (therefore, very likely to have a full house). After every card is dealt, try to figure out if it can help you or not. Always beware when someone pairs a door card. Also, see if any cards you need came out in another player’s hand.

Here are some questions to ask yourself in order to try and figure out where you stand in the hand:
“What do the other players have?”
“What cards will help me?”
“Did that card help them?”
“What does it look like I have?”
“Can I beat what I am looking at?”
“Do I have any outs on them?”

The more you practice with asking yourself these types of questions, the better you will get at reading yours and your opponent’s hands and making the right decisions.

Practice Hands

Which of these two hands would you rather start with?

1. 8  J  / J 
2. J  J  / 8 

They look the same but are they? The two jacks are hidden in hand b., and if you catch another jack, no one will know it helped you. Therefore, hand b is much better.

Suppose on third street you have J  J  / J  and a player raised with an A . Two players called in front of you, one with the 10  and the other with a 9 . What is your play?

1. Call
2. Fold
3. Raise

You have a big hand, rolled up trips, a hand probably for the river, unless some other player catches board cards that beat you. At this moment,
You probably have the best hand.

You have two options, to either call or raise. If you will decide call, everyone will see the next card. If you will decide to raise, the high card ace may reraise so someone else will fold, which will increase your chances of winning. If all of the other players will call, it just makes a bigger pot where you’re probably be the one to win. The best thing is to raise C to either eliminating players, or building a big pot, so the best answer is C.

Suppose you have J  J  / 9 , a player with the 2  brings it in, then a player with the A  raises, another player showing the Q  reraises. It’s now up to you. What is your play?

1. Raise
2. Fold
3. Call

When the queen raises, it looks like they have two queens. The player with the ace up could also have a pair of aces. Your hand is good but you don’t want to be in the middle of two raisers, especially when you have nothing invested, so choose option B. to fold.

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