Seven Card Stud | Online Poker Beginner

Introduction to Seven Card Stud

Seven card stud is a very challenging variant of online poker. It for many is a more entertaining form of poker and has lots of history in the United States. This is because it is commonly attributed to the United States military. It is still today the third most popular game played online and there are several different Stud poker variations; 7 Card Stud, 5 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi Lo and Razz poker.

The Basics to 7 Card Stud

Let’s go over the basics to 7 Card Stud. It is normally played with 4 to 8 players and a 52 card deck. It is a very different variant of poker to games like Texas Holdem and Omaha. Blinds don’t exist in Seven Card Stud, instead you have an ante. The amount of the ante will depend on what stakes you have chosen. It is usually around 10-20% of the minimum bet size. The ante is there to make sure each hand has something to play for and unavoidable – each player must pay it. The button is used but only to determine which player is dealt to first the player with the lowest card starts the first round of betting. On the fourth round the first player to act is the player displaying the highest-ranking hand.

I will use a $10-$20 Limit to explain, and the ante’s at $1 and bring in at £5, It is normally played with a Limit as explained. Three hole cards are dealt to each player; two face down and one face up (door street).

Just like in Hold’em you can look at your two cards (holecards) at any point. The player with the lowest card starts the betting. If there is a tie for the lowest card, the tie is decided by suit. Clubs is the strongest, followed by diamonds, hearts and then spades as the weakest. A great way of remembering this is the alphabet C(lubs),D(iamonds),H(earts),S(pades). Seven-card stud is most often played as a limit game and for will be throughout this example.

Each player must post $1 (ante) and the player who has the lowest card must bring-in the $5. They could also choose to raise which would be a total of $10, for this example they just bring-in the $5. You go clockwise round the table, with each player having the option to fold, call or raise. Other players have the option of completing the bet to $10 as the first raise. Once the betting has finished, everyone left in the hand is dealt a fourth card, commonly known to as the fourth street.

The limits remain to be the smaller limit throughout the third and fourth round of betting, so $10 in this case. The only exception to this rule is when a player pairs his card on the fourth street. The opening player will then have the option to raise $20 instead of $10. On the fifth, sixth and seventh street, the limits increase to $20.

7 Card Stud Stages

Everyone who wants to take play in the round must pay an Ante (starting amount) to the pot. Three cards dealt to each player; 2 face down, 1 face up. Round 1 of betting takes place. The player with the lowest showing card starts.

Another card is given face up to the remaining players. This time action starts on the player with the highest hand. You can normally only raise 3 times in the round and is finished when all players have put the same amount into the pot.

The players still in the game receive another open card. All players will now have 2 closed and 3 open cards. The player with the highest open hand starts the betting again.

Players still in the game get another open card. The online poker player with the highest open hand starts and can Fold, Call, Raise, Check or Bet.

The active players still in the game receive a final card and this time it is CLOSED (Only the player gets to see their own hand). The player with the best hand acts first again.

Each player reveals shows 3 closed cards. The online player who can show the best 5 card poker hand when his individual 3 closed card are combined with the 4 open cards.