Seven Card Stud Strategy

Like Hold'em, seven-card stud favors high cards. It is not unusual for two players to go to a showdown with two pairs each. In such a case, the player with the highest of the four pairs wins the pot.

Because high cards are rewarded, players should be aggressive only if they have high cards in the hole. Staying in the game is rarely justifiable with low pairs or "draw hands." A draw hand is one that is almost a straight or a flush, but needs to be filled out by a specific card on a later street. Folding is pretty much required if any card combination on the board (i.e., the visible cards of the other players) can beat whatever is in the player's hand.

If a player has a promising high hand (one that could be a winner just as it is), it is usually recommended to play fast and aggressively to scare off other hopefuls who, if they stay in the game, might receive a winning card. A draw hand almost always requires slow and passive play, hoping to keep the pot from getting too expensive while the player awaits the right card to turn up.

For the sake of simplicity, it is recommended to focus on the initial deal (three cards) plus Fourth Street. A starting hand that is either strong out of the box or develops strength quickly on Fourth Street should win more often than not.

A weak hand can not be relied upon to improve. Many players "invest" in a pot, hoping for a turnaround. This only keeps them in a game when logic tells them to fold. There is no prize for coming in second. It is always beneficial to have a "split pair," meaning that one of the cards in the pair is hidden from the other players, or a "concealed pair," where both cards are hidden.

Some initial hands are clearly playable, and some are clearly unplayable. Good stud poker players fold as soon as it's clear that the hand is weak. This can frequently be right at the outset.

The most playable hands are, naturally, high three of a kind (called a "set" when the pair is in the hole and the third is on the board). Low sets (from 9 downward) should be slow played at least until the Sixth Street.

High pairs are also playable if other players don't show symptoms of holding even higher pairs. A low pair is playable if the third card (called a "kicker") is high, as it will serve as a tiebreaker if someone else has the same pair, or it could develop a pair of its own.

Concealed low pairs can be played slowly to see if a third shows up in the Fourth Street or Fifth Street cards. If someone else shows a card you were looking for, fold. Similar principles apply to a hand with a high flush or part of a high straight.

Many new players spend so much energy on their own hands that they forget to analyze the competition. Since winning doesn't mean getting a high hand, but just getting a hand that's higher than anyone else's, it is important to watch the cards on the board for other players. Those cards may show one that you need (hurting your chances of "closing" on a higher hand), and they may show more strength than you have.

For example, if an opponent's door card is matched on Fourth Street or Fifth Street, and the opponent is betting and raising, the odds are pretty good that he or she is playing with two pair or a set. By watching how players bet, you can surmise what sort of cards are in the hole or what that player is hoping for.

Watch the betting. If a lot of checking is happening at the end, it means that several players may have draw hands and are hoping for a flush or a straight on the last card. Slow play up to the river round may mean that the pot is puny, with pretty good odds that one of these players will eventually close on a big hand.

Two standard principles of strategy apply to stud as much as to other poker games:

• (1) study the opposition for "tells" and other indications of what their cards are; and
• (2) bluff, and otherwise withhold information from your opponents about your cards.

Often, when a bluff is not successful, it may be to your advantage to be sure the other players are aware that it was a bluff so that later, when you signal a strong hand, they might not flee so quickly, imagining that it might be another bluff.