Seven Card Stud

Introduction

Seven Card Stud is usually played as a fixed limit variant without community cards and with 2 to 9 players. Each of these begins with two down and one open card; two hole cards and a doorcard. Over the course of the rounds, each active player is dealt 3 further open cards and one final downcard, from which they must make a combination of 5 to compete in the showdown. The player with the best poker hand wins the round and the pot.

Gameplay (Fixed Limit)

1. First Betting Round

Before the cards are dealt, every player pays an ante, a forced bet. Then two cards are dealt face down to each player, the holecards, and one is dealt face up to each player, the doorcard. The player with the lowest doorcard must pay the opening bet, called the bring-in. Usually it is half a small bet or sometimes a whole small bet. If two players have the same door card, then the suit decides who pays the bring in this ascending order: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades.

After the bring-in is paid, the first round of wagers is made, beginning with the player who paid the bring-in, and players may raise, call, or fold.

2. Middle betting rounds (4th street, or turn, to 6th street)

Each active player gets an open card per street and a round of betting ensues, beginning with the player whose open cards show the best combination.

5. Final betting round (7th Street, River)

The active players each recieve a card face down and the final wagers are placed, again beginning with the player whose open cards are the best. If there are no longer enough cards in the deck, then a common card is dealt instead of each player recieving one. Every active player may use such a card.

Showdown

The active players make the best combination of five cards from their 7. The player with the best 5 cards wins the round.

Gameplay in a betting round

In general, a player may make 5 actions when it is his turn to bet.

If nobody has bet, then a player may check to the next player without betting. If there are new bets on the table, then a player must either match them (call), raise them, or fold. A raise can only be made if the limit on raises has not been exceeded. This amount depends on the house rules, but usually 4 raises are allowed per round.

The player with the lowest doorcard begins the first betting round. In following betting rounds, the player with the best hand in his open cards begins. The action moves clockwise around the table until all players have either folded or matched all bets on the table. The exception to this is when a player has bet all his chips. He is then considered all-in, and no longer participates in the betting. He will participate in the showdown, though, and is dealt all further cards to which he is entitled.

Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo

Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo is a variant where the players with the best and worst hands split thepot. A lo hand is one that consists only of cards less than 8. This variant is also called Seven Card Stud eight or better, or for short, 7stud8b.

The values of the cards for a lo hand are: A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. The ace is low in this case. Straights and flushes are ignored for the purposes of counting a lo hand. Hence, the best lo hand is 5432A. Pairs, three of a kinds, and quads disqualify a hand for being lo, so that e.g. 544AA would not be a lo hand.

The best lo hand is the one with the lowest high card, not as some beginners often think. For example, the hand 76543 beats the hand 8542A.

If there is no qualified lo hand, then the player with the best hi hand wins the whole pot. In principle, one can imagine that the pot is divided into a lo half and a hi half. If two or more players have equivalent hands, they split the half of the pot designated for their type of hand. So if there are two equivalent lo hands, then they would each get 1/4 of the whole pot, or 1/2 of the lo half of the pot. The hi hand in that case would get 1/2 of the pot.


Related Topics:

Poker hands, Ante, Razz