7 Card Stud

Seven Card Stud Poker is probably the most popular of the stud games. It can result in high pots, and affords you the opportunity to evaluate the other player's possible hands. There are no community cards, and each player has four of his seven cards exposed to the other players. There are five rounds of betting in Seven Card Stud, as opposed to the four rounds in Hold'em and Omaha.

How to play 7 Card Stud

In Seven Card StudPoker, before any cards are dealt, all players must ante. This is a small bet, usually a fraction of the lower limit on the table. The size of the ante depends on the limits of the table you are playing, $0.50/$1.00 tables have no ante.

Each player is dealt three cards, one at a time, two face down (hole cards) and one face up (up card/door card). The player showing the lowest upcard must bring-in the first round of betting. The lowest card is determined by value, in the event of a tie, then it is the lowest suit. This is the only time that suits are used in poker. In order of lowest suit, it is clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, (alphabetical order).

The bring-in bet is a small bet slightly larger than the ante, and is also determined by the limit of the table you are playing, usually half the lower limit. A normal round of betting follows with each player having the option to fold, call or raise to a full bet. Each raise is limited to the lower limit.

E.g. In a $10/$20 game, the ante is usually $1, the bring-in $5, and a full bet or complete bet is $10.

In each round there is a maximum of 1 bet and 3 raises. The limit for Seven Card Stud bets is the lower limit for the first two rounds and the higher limit for the remaining rounds. The exception is if a player shows a pair on the second round he can go straight to the higher limit.