Seven Card Stud Poker - Overview

Seven Card Stud Poker is the most common version of stud poker games and used to be the most popular variety of poker, until Texas Hold Em claimed the pole position. Seven Card Stud is quite different from both Texas Hold Em Poker and Omaha Poker and requires you to be a little patient. It's an exciting game however and one that can bring you great rewards!

Unlike in Texas Hold Em or Omaha, Seven Card Stud has no community cards, the game is normally played with antes and a structured betting pattern, normally Fixed Limit.

A combination of Texas Hold Em's popularity and the online poker phenomenon has put Seven Card Stud Poker out of the limelight for quite a few years now, but as mixed poker games become more popular it is now coming back into fashion. If you have the patience, the strategy and the skill then there's a lot of money to be made online by playing Seven Card Stud Poker.

Seven Card Stud Poker is a stud game, which means that unlike flop based games where you all share the community cards, in stud games you play only your own cards and no cards are shared.

You start with two hidden hole cards and one card face up for all to see; there are then three more rounds of face up cards, with betting after each card, and a final hidden card, followed by a final betting round. Each player ends up with seven cards: four face up and three face down. The player holding the best hand using any five of their cards wins the pot. As with Texas Hold Em, aces play both high and low.

Seven Card Stud Poker has 5 rounds of betting with a maximum of 8 players able to take part in a hand. The objective of the game is simply to finish with the best Poker Hand and to win the Pot.

At the start of every Seven Card Stud Poker hand the button is placed in front of a player, and identifies who is the dealer for that hand. At the beginning of every game each player has to post an ante, which is an amount of cash determined either by the stakes at the cash table or by the level of the blinds in the tournament.

After these ante's or compulsory bets have been placed you are then dealt two cards face down and one one card face up, with the dealer starting dealing from his left.

The player with the lowest face-up card has to 'Bring in'. A 'Bring-in' is a forced bet, similar to the small and big blinds in Texas Hold Em Poker and Omaha Poker, and is a bet that cannot be avoided. If two or more players have the same ranking of low card, then the player with the lowest suit will have to 'Bring-in'. The suits are ranked as follows: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs, with Clubs being the lowest.

The first round of betting then takes place starting clockwise from the 'Bring-in'. You must decide if you are in or out of the hand, and you do this by either matching or raising the bet that stands when the action reaches you.

The possible actions available to you are to Fold, to Call or to Raise.

As the action moves around the table, if you wish to remain in the hand you will have to at least call the 'Bring-in', or if a previous player has raised the bet then that bet will have to be called to remain in the hand.

If there has been no raise when the betting round returns to the 'Bring-in', that player will still have the option to raise if they want to.

Once all bets have been matched, the next card is dealt.

The next card is dealt face up, this card is known as Fourth Street. Another round of betting then starts with the player with the highest face-up cards being the first to bet. This player is not forced to bet however, unlike the 'Bring-in' in the first round of betting, and can choose to check, fold or bet.

The betting on fourth street normally startsat the lower limit. If there's an face up pair on the table however, any player may choose to bet or raise at the higher limit. Once a bet has been made at the higher limit, any further raises must also be at the higher limit. For example, in a $1/$2 game, the betting in fourth street normally proceeds in increments of $1, but if you have a pair of 10's face up then you have the choice of betting either $1 or $2.

The betting then continues clockwise until all bets are matched with the possible actions available to you being, to Check, to Call, to Raise or to Fold. You must at least match the standing bet to continue and once all bets are matched the next card is dealt.

A fifth face up card is then dealt to each of the remaining players and a further round of betting ensues.

On fifth street, the betting starts at the higher limit, and remains at that limit through to the final round of betting.

Once again the player with the best face-up cards in terms of poker rankings will open the betting and once again, all players have the option to Check, to Call, to Raise or to Fold. When all of the bets have been matched, the next card is dealt.

The sixth and final face up card is then dealt to each of the remaining players and another round of betting ensues. Once again the player with the best face-up cards in terms of poker rankings will open the betting and once again, all players have the option to Check, to Call, to Raise or to Fold. When all of the bets have been matched, the final card is dealt.

The seventh and final card is then dealt face down to each of the remaining players and the last round of betting ensues. Once again the player with the best face-up cards in terms of poker rankings will open the betting and once again, all players have the option to Check, to Call, to Raise or to Fold. When all of the bets have been matched, it's time for the showdown.

If you reach the showdown you now have to reveal your cards, you have to make the best five card poker hand from the seven cards that are available to you (4 face up cards, 3 face down cards).

You don't need any particular combination of face up or face down cards, you just need 5 cards. If there are two tied hands, the winner will be decided by looking at the next highest card. If there's still nothing between the two tied hands then the hand is split and each tied player gets an equal share of the pot.

The button moves to the next player and the fun starts again.

Want to learn more about 7 Card Stud Poker? Click here for 7 Card Stud Poker Strategies and Tips.