How to play the 7th street
Introduction
In this article
- Bluffing is almost always useless
- Value bet only when someone can actually call you
- If nobody can call you, you should check/call
Everything has been decided by the 7th street - the seventh card is your last card. This means that you either have a hand or you don’t. There are no more possibilities for improving your hand and if you haven’t hit anything so far, the only option to win the pot is by bluffing.
Just as on any other street, you have to ask where you are in the hand, how strong your hand is and how strong your opponents’ hands are. Which direction did they head earlier? Did they head for the Lo or Hi end and which direction might their strong hand be, or how likely it is that the 7th street helped them?
You have an easy decision to make if you have nothing, but this usually doesn’t happen too often because you’d normally fold these hands by now. However, it might happen once in a while and a possible scenario is the following: you started on the third street with three Lo-cards that are both connected and suited. The 4th street brought another low card of the same suit, so you’d obviously stay in the hand with a straight-, flush- and Lo-draw. Normally you'd have to fold in these situations, unless you think you can bluff your opponents. This is rarely the case though. However, these easy folds are not that common. Usually you are faced with much tougher decisions.
When to value bet
There are only two reasons for a bet on the 7th street: you are either value betting or you are trying to bluff. We are going to mainly look at value bets. Bluffs on the 7th street are less likely to be successful in split-pot-games than in games like Hold'em, because the opponent is always going to find reasons to call.
In contrast to other poker variations, where the pot isn’t split between the Hi- and the Lo-hand, it only makes sense to value bet on the 7th street when you can assume that a player is going to call you with a weaker hand in both directions or when several players are going to call you with weaker hands from the same direction as yours.
If you can assume that the opponents aren’t going to call anyway, there is no point in betting - you should check to give your opponent the possibility to start bluffing. A value bet only makes sense if you can create a value with it for yourself, namely by increasing your profit.
In other poker variations you’ll often play against just one opponent in the end and you have to increasingly deal with this question. You will often play against several opponents in 7Stud8 and you’ll often have a Lo-hand with a less obvious Hi-hand which makes your opponents call.
You should rarely check on the 7th street if you have a hand. A possible scenario is the following: you are heads up on the 7th street and it's obvious for both players that you are going in different directions and that you are both entitled to half the pot. There is no point in betting in these situations, because it only costs you half of the additional rake.
However, if the rake is already capped, you should bet your safe Lo-hands against Hi-hands in order to balance your plays in which you have a hidden Hi-hand. This play doesn’t cost you anything since you are entitled to half the pot anyway.
It also makes sense to bet when you are playing against several other hands, which are going in the opposite direction but where it isn’t clear yet who has the strongest hand in one specific direction. Your opponents are often going to raise in situations like this, thinking that they have the best hand.
Many players overestimate their Lo-hands in 7Stud8 and call any raise on the 7th street, no matter how bad the hand actually is, because they are hoping that their hand is strong enough and that the other Lo-hands have been busted. You have to make use of this behaviour, so you either raise if one opponent bets or bet yourself against Hi-hands, hoping that someone raises so you can raise again.
It may also appear that your opponents have a Lo-hand but they actually only have two pair or something similar in reality - it therefore makes sense to bet against an obvious Lo-hand if you have a reasonable Hi-hand.
This is because the opponent could have a weak Hi-hand such as small pairs instead of a Lo-hand. He would probably call a bet with this hand but only check behind if you check.
Normally you are in good shape if you have two pair 8s or higher which you can bet against an opponent who seems to have a Lo-hand with a non-scary board. You would have to call a raise as well though, since he could be raising a definite Lo-hand without Hi-potential to get you out of the hand. This play doesn’t cost him anything.
When to check/call
Up until now we have talked about when to bet and when to raise. Sometimes the better choice is check/calling, though: you should call with weak hands when you are heads-up on the 7th street, if there is a chance that your opponent is betting a hand which is aiming for the other direction. For example, if you have a pair and it looks like your opponent has a low: your pair might be good enough for the Hi-pot in such situations and you should consider the small bet even more if the pot is very large already.
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Opponent |      |
You should check and call a bet in this case, because your opponent could bet a pure low after you checked so as to force Hi-hands out of the game in order to scoop. He can be pretty certain to have the best low with 6 or 7 high and if one bet has been placed on every street, the pot will be 7-8 large bets, so your Hi-hand only has to be successful 25-30% of the time.
However, if you are playing against more than one opponent on the 7th street, you could be faced with several raises; it will therefore be more expensive to see a showdown, so you have to be very careful in these situations: it might be better to give up the hand if you are relatively sure you are beaten already.
A different situation in which you should only call arises when you are holding a Lo-hand sitting in between two Hi-hands where one of which is going to fold to your raise. By calling, you could make the Hi-hand behind you call or even raise if the other opponent behind you thinks that he has the best hand or that he can be successful by bluffing. You would win more if you were to keep both hands in the pot in this situation. A raise would only cause one of the Hi-hands to fold, taking the opportunity to win further bets away from you.
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Opponent 1
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You |      |
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Opponent 1 bets, while Player 2 shows a board that can’t beat you in the low direction; here you should only call, even though you are guaranteed to get half of the pot.
When to bluff with busted draws
If you bet with a Lo-draw on earlier streets against an opponent who was drawing to a low as well, then you missed your draw and didn’t make a good Hi-hand, you can try to make your opponent fold by barrelling again. He might fold if he has a busted draw with a slightly higher Hi-hand.
You should make use of this option only rarely and in good spots because most opponents aren’t going to fold their pair when they think that you are on a Lo-draw. For example, if you completed with three Lo-cards and an open ace and you are now assuming that your opponent has a better ace high, you can take this move into consideration.
You should also consider that there are no scare cards in stud on the 7th street, since the last card is covered. This means: if an opponent called you on 6th street, even when you had a scary board, he is going to call you on 7th street as well.
Conclusion
You can see that playing on the 7th street is influenced by many factors, which this article could only touch on. If you are certain to win one half of the pot, you want to keep as many players in the pot as possible. The optimal situation would be if they raised each other.
However, if you have the chance to make a stronger hand fold, which is going in the same direction as you are, you should take advantage of it in order to secure half of the pot. You won’t be able to bluff successfully quite as often and the spots in which you want to bluff have to be chosen carefully. It only makes sense to bet or raise when that input increases your profit. If this isn’t possible, it would be better to check in order to give your opponent the chance to bluff.
