Playing Seven Card Stud

S. Stoynova (editor)

Seven Card Stud is among the most widely played poker variations in the world and has retained its huge popularity ever since it was first introduced around the time of the American Civil War. This variation differs from Texas Hold’em in that players here are dealt seven cards individually. Three of those are hole or face-down cards, while the remaining four are exposed and facing up.

Since there are four exposed cards, players are enabled to gather more information and make better-informed decisions throughout the course of a hand. The goal is to form the highest-ranking five-card hand you possibly can. The ranking of the hands coincides with those in Texas Hold’em.

The game consists of five betting rounds and usually utilizes a limit betting structure as the bets are placed in set, predetermined increments which are listed at the table. Below, we introduce you to the basic rules of play in Seven Card Stud.

Overview of Seven Card Stud Rules and Gaming Glossary

Preceding Texas Hold’em, Seven Card Stud is a classic poker game that can still be found at many land-based poker rooms as well as across most online casinos. If you are already familiar with the hand rankings in Texas Hold’em you will have no issue decoding the hierarchy in Seven Card Stud, as hands are ranked following the exact same order as in Hold’em. Just in case, we have provided the ranking of hands in this classic poker game, with the first row representing the hand with the highest value and the rest of the hands being listed in descending order:

• Royal Flush
• Straight Flush
• Four of a Kind
• Full House
• Straight
• Flush
• Three of a Kind
• Two Pair
• Pair
• High Card

In Seven Card Stud, each player is individually dealt seven cards but only the five comprising the best poker hand will be used to determine the winner. Typically, a specific betting structure is used during this classic poker game, with bets being made in fixed increments. For example, you may be participating in a $5-$10 limit game, where the bets placed on the first and second betting rounds will be in increments of $5, while the bets made during the consecutive betting rounds (after Fourth Street) will be placed in increments of $10. An Ante bet is also made before the beginning of the game.

If you play at a land-based casino, you may notice that a single Seven Card Stud Poker table does not cater to more than 7-8 players at a time. The reason for that being the high number of cards used in each betting round, with every player receiving a total of seven cards throughout the course of the game. Since players are not dealt their individual seven cards at once, Seven Card Stud Poker is played in a few consecutive betting rounds. The showdown of all players’ seven cards takes place after the final Seventh Street betting round. Below, we have provided a detailed introduction to a single gaming round of Seven Card Stud Poker, giving readers to opportunity to fully grasp the concept of the card game.

• At the start of the game, before players are dealt any cards, they are required to contribute to the pot with a small amount, referred to as the Ante. In other words, this is a forced bet you need to pay in order to be dealt the hand. Typically, the Ante may be around 10%-20% of the smaller bet unit. For example, in a $5-$10 limit game of Seven Card Stud Poker, the Ante may be around $0.50 to $1.

• Once everyone at the table pays their Ante, each player receives a total of three cards, two of which are facing down (hole cards) while the third one is dealt facing up (door card). Note that these three cards are dealt one at a time to each player at the table. This round is called the Third Street and the player, located immediately to the left of the dealer is the first to receive a card.
• The person holding the lowest-ranking face-up (door) card is appointed the position of a Bring-in and is required to make another forced bet to start the action. The Bring-In bet might be half the amount of the small bet limit of a full small bet. In the case of a $5-$10 game, that would make for a bet of either $2.50 or $5.

• If two players show exposed cards of the same rank, the suits are used to break the tie. These are ranked in alphabetical order, with the clubs being the lowest and the spades being the highest.
• The remaining players can then choose from several betting options, namely calling the Bring-in, folding their hand, or raising the amount by one small bet. In each betting round, players can make up to three raises.

• When everyone has acted clockwise in turn, each participant in the game is dealt yet another face-up card which marks the start of the next round of betting, or the Fourth Street. This time, the first player to act is the one that shows the highest ranking value on the Fourth Street. The options for this person are to either check (defer their right to bet but still remain in hand) or bet the lower amount, allowed at the table. During the Third and Fourth Streets players are required to utilize the small betting increment. That said, if a player is showing a pair during the Fourth Street betting round, they may choose to place big bet units, for example, $10 in a $5-$10 limit game.

• The Fourth Street is followed by a round of betting, with all players in hand taking turns in a clockwise manner. Then, the Fifth Street begins with everyone receiving yet another, third face-up card. Similarly to the previous betting round, the person in possession of the highest-value hand is expected to act first. From this round onwards, the bigger betting increments are utilized. As a general rule of thumb, the big bet increment is twice the size of the small one that was used during the first two rounds of the game.

• The Sixth Street is the final, fourth exposed card players are dealt in a game of Seven Card Stud. Once again, the person in possession of the face-up cards of the highest value is entitled to start the action. Another round of betting follows.

• Everyone at the table is dealt their last, seventh card facing down. The last card is called either the Seventh Street, or the River as is the case in Texas Hold’em. The player with the highest-ranking exposed cards again gets to act first, followed by the others, who proceed in a clockwise direction.

• The Seventh Street is followed by what is known as the Showdown, where all participants reveal their face-down or hole cards. Usually, it is the player, who has bet or raised last that flips over their hole card first. The others expose their cards in a clockwise direction.

• The winner is the player who has succeeded in forming the highest-ranking hand that consists of precisely five cards. The remaining two cards are called kickers and are not relevant to the hands in Seven Card Stud. Should any ties occur, the winning players typically split or chop the pot into equal amounts.

Since Seven Card Stud usually can involve anywhere between two and eight players, occasionally it happens so that the 52-card deck is exhausted before all participants have been dealt their seventh card. This happens on rare occasions only, but it is possible nevertheless. If the number of remaining cards is insufficient, only one community card will be dealt facing up in the center of the table for all players to share on the Seventh Street.

Odds of Drawing Five-Card Poker Hands in Seven Card Stud Poker

While the rules of Seven Card Stud Poker may seem easy to memorize, understanding the flow of the game, and mastering the gameplay to give yourself a better chance at winning may take some time. To be well aware of your chances of getting a high-rank poker hand by the time it is the showdown round, you need to pay attention to the cards dealt to other players on the table. To see your odds of getting a winning hand in this poker variation, we would like to compare the odds of getting poker hands in five-card and in seven-card dealings.

The odds of receiving every poker hand in a five-card draw are the following:

• Royal Flush – 649,739 to 1
• Straight Flush – 72,192 to 1
• Four of a Kind – 4,165 to 1
• Full House – 694 to 1
• Flush – 509 to 1
• Straight – 255 to 1
• Three of a Kind – 46 to 1
• Two Pair – 20 to 1
• One Pair – 1.4 to 1
• High Card – 0.99 to 1

One thing we can conclude from the odds above is that the higher the probability of being dealt a certain hand in a five-card draw, the lower the ranking of the hand will be.

Let us introduce two additional cards to the draw and see how this will change the odds of getting each poker hand:

• Royal Flush – 30,940 to 1
• Straight Flush – 3,590 to 1
• Four of a Kind – 594 to 1
• Full House – 37.5 to 1
• Flush – 32 to 1
• Straight – 21 to 1
• Three of a Kind – 20 to 1
• Two Pair – 3.2 to 1
• One Pair – 1.3 to 1
• High Card – 4.7 to 1

As you can see, having two more cards added to the draw significantly improves the odds of getting any of the poker hands. In fact, in a seven-card draw, players are more likely to get hands with one or two pairs than drawing a hand with nothing else but a high card.

Variations of Seven Card Stud Poker

Like most card games, Seven Card Stud Poker can also be played in several different formats, adding little twists to the gameplay. Below, we have listed the most popular variations of the classic poker game you may stumble upon online or at any venue hosting poker tables.

Hi-Lo Seven Card Stud (Eight or Better)

This is a rather entertaining variant of Seven Card Stud Poker, allowing two of the players on the table to split the prize pot, with each one winning a portion of the prize for different qualifying hands. One of the players enjoying half of the money pool is the obvious winner with the highest-ranking hand at the showdown round. The other player who will qualify for the remaining half of the prize is the one holding a five-card hand with no pairs and no cards higher than an eight. This is also the condition giving this variation its alternative name of Eight or Better.

In this variation of Seven Card Stud Poker, Flushes, and Straights do not disqualify a low hand, meaning the best possible low-ranking hand one can get in this game is A-2-3-4-5. In the case of no player holding a low-paying hand, a single player will collect the entire prize pot, provided they hold the highest-paying five-card hand.

Razz

While similar to the Hi-Lo variation of Seven Card Stud Poker, Razz is an alternative to the original game, granting the full prize pool only to the player holding the lowest-paying hand at the final showdown round. In this poker variation, there is no condition for holding a five-card hand with no cards higher than an eight, which means that you simply need to have the worst hand at the table to win. In Razz, just like in Hi-Lo Seven Card Stud Poker, you will notice that Straights and Flushes will not disqualify a low-paying hand as the only condition is to have a lower-valued hand than the ones of your opponents.

HORSE

This is a rather entertaining variation of poker, combining several games in one. While it has nothing to do with the animal, HORSE is simply an acronym for each poker variation incorporated in this card game:

H – Hold’em
O – Omaha
R – Razz
S – Seven Card Stud
E – Eight or Better

Each variation of poker is played for at least one full turn on the table until players move to the next poker game. It is also common to see HORSE poker games that have excluded the Razz variant from the line-up. Either way, this mix of poker variants can be extremely fun, especially during longer gaming sessions.

Tips for Successful Seven Card Stud Poker Sessions

One great thing about the game of poker is that players have the chance to somewhat influence the outcome by paying close attention to the gameplay and making optimal decisions on each betting round. Seven Card Stud Poker makes no exception as players who wish to be successful will need to keep track of quite a lot of information. As the entire course of a full rotation on the table involves handling a lot of cards by all participants in the game, you will need to focus on following both your hand and the cards of your opponents.

As already mentioned, keeping track of cards dealt to other players on the table is a key factor that can make your Seven Card Stud Poker sessions more successful. You can utilize this type of information to determine how many of the cards that could have helped you form a winning hand have already been dealt to the rest of the participants in the game. Another case where you can benefit from keeping a proper count of the cards that have been dealt to others is when you believe you are holding a good hand but another player is revealing stronger cards, with the odds of you losing the game getting high.

While any player on the table can see the door cards of all participants in the game, it is important to have a strong memory of other players’ hands as once a player folds, their cards are mucked and are no longer visible. If you have gone the extra mile to remember which cards have been mucked, you will have a significant edge over players who have not paid attention to the whole gameplay.

Another useful information that can help you improve your Seven Card Stud Poker play includes differentiating good starting cards from bad ones. Excluding the first round when the ‘bring-in’ is determined by indicating the player with the lowest-valued door card, holding a pair on the next betting round indicates a strong hand for a potentially fruitful outcome at the end of the game. Of course, revealing Three of a Kind is even better, often forcing some opponents to fold, further increasing your chances for a win.

A rolled-up hand, i.e. two hole cards matching the door card, is considered the strongest hand in Seven Card Stud Poker. The next best thing is being dealt high pairs (A-A, K-K, Q-Q, or J-J), high-suited connectors (e.g. suited 10, J, Q), and medium-high pairs (8-8, 9-9, 10-10).

One key factor we would like to highlight about Seven Card Stud Poker is that it is almost always played as a limited game. That means there is a fixed low and high bet increment limit for the first two and the following betting rounds in the game. This is something to bear in mind while playing since it can significantly impact the way you play.

While big bet games like Hold’em and Omaha may cost you a significant sum by the final betting round, in a limited bet Seven Card Stud Poker, even if you end up losing your hand, it is not necessary to suffer substantial losses. As a whole, the success in this poker variation is determined by the number of smaller bets you have won or managed to save when opponents were revealing stronger hands. Playing a limited bet game means that you need to be extra carefull when determining which hands to play until the end and which ones to fold in order to avoid losing multiple bets in the course of your entire poker session.

One last tip we have for Seven Card Stud Poker players is learning the suit ranking. While the suit of cards has no significant meaning in poker variants like Omaha or Hold’em, in Seven Cards Stud Poker, suits have an important role in the case of players revealing the same door card. As we have already explained, to determine the bring-in, the game requires the player with the lowest-valued door card to place the first bet. If two or more players show the same door card, the one holding the card with the lowest-ranked suit will be the bring-in during the Third Street.