How to Play Seven Card Stud
Make a Hand From Seven Cards - Sound Familiar?
Seven Card Stud - the fifth game in the rotation that will soon be featured as a weekly mixed cash game at Portomaso Casino, Malta - is a game that is dealt very differently from No Limit Texas Hold Em (NLHE), but there is one very clear similarity - players are fighting over a poker hand where they have to make a five card poker hand, using standard poker ranking, from a total of seven cards. That’s a similarity - here are some key differences between NLHE and Seven Card Stud:
Fixed Limit betting. If there is 100 euro in the pot, you can only bet 8 euros… and if someone already bet 8 euros, you can make it exactly 16 if you want to raise!
A hand starts with players all posting an ante, and then the player with the lowest card showing makes a small forced bet known as a bring-in. No blinds are posted in this game!
No community cards. All the cards you can play will be dealt directly to you. And some are open, for everyone to see… they come two face down (only you can see them) and one open, then bet… one more open, then bet again… one more open, then bet again… one more open, then bet again… and one more face down and a last bet.
Does all this make it complicated for players that are used to NLHE? Maybe, but at least there is that key element that you are looking for a hand of five cards from seven. In this game you have to also think about what the other players have, and there is a good amount of information available to help in that eventually you will be able to see four of their cards: but they have the same information about your hand of course!
There are some good learning materials out there to help you get started with Seven Card Stud, and here are some that can be found for free on the Internet:
Here is the Poker: All the Games episode about Seven Card Stud.
Daniel Negreanu has a guide on his YouTube channel that contains some good tips on how to play the game.
Cardplayer Lifestyle’s excellent website has a couple of good articles on the game:
Three reasons why you should learn to play Seven Card Stud
Three tips on how to play the game, aimed at new players
Seven Card Stud can seem intimidating to NLHE players, but it is a game that is well worth taking some time to learn and build some competence. Like many mixed games, it helps build generic poker skills like board reading and identifying opportunities for then value bets. It also builds the mental stamina that is so important at the poker table, particularly because it is important to keep track of the open cards that have been folded when navigating through the various streets of betting.