Saturday, July 31, 2010

Some Advice On Playing 7-Card Stud Poker

By Thomas Kearns

A very old form of poker still popular today because of its standard, familiar structure is 7-card stud. It attracts a major following in both casinos and Friday night home poker parties. Depending on the region of play, the rules of stud may be altered slightly, but all will have the rule of a maximum of seven players per table due to the fact that a deck contains only 52 cards, also the dealer is allowed to burn 4 in the course of a game. There are less rounds for betting so it is not unusual to find house rules include an ante or pre-flop requisite bet to elicit more hand participation as well as add more complexity to the game.

Players who are unfamiliar with stud poker should definitely not charge right in as its strategy differs from other games, particularly the ever popular holdems. It would be wise for the uninitiated to observe very closely as many stud games as they can and play close attention to the rules, tactics and betting strategies before plunging in. This careful study will help in improving one's strategy when playing any number of poker's forms.

How Betting Goes Down in 7-Card Stud

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

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.

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 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.

About the Author:

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts with Thumbnails