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Seven-Card Stud Rules

Seven-Card Stud is a delightful game of min-bets, bring-ins and rolled-up pairs that has been enjoyed for ages by East Coast rounders and your grandpa.

All joking aside, Seven-Card Stud is, of course, a variant of Stud poker, and up until the recent explosion of Texas No-Limit Hold'em, it was the most popular poker variant in home games across North America.

Some of the best Seven-Card Stud players include Phil Ivey, David Sklansky, Ted Forrest and the late Chip Reese.

As you might have guessed, you are dealt seven cards in Seven-Card Stud. There are no community cards in this game, but because four of the seven cards are dealt faceup, there's a good chance you'll know at least something about your opponent's hand.

As in Hold'em, you are trying to make the best five-card poker hand.

The other big difference between Seven-Card Stud and No-Limit Hold'em is the absence of the button. Instead, the player's hands decide the order of action. On the first round of betting the player with the lowest card has to make a bring-in bet, and in the later rounds the player with the best hand showing has to act first.

Seven-Card Stud is exclusively a Limit game, although there are some rare casinos that spread Pot-Limit variants of the game. Part of the reason it's a Limit game is the fact there are five rounds of betting compared to the four of Hold'em.

As in all Limit games, it's harder to be aggressive because you simply can't scare most players away with a min-bet.

Seven-Card Stud requires a lot of patience, as starting cards are imperative to success. It also requires a knack for memorization because it's important to remember other players' folded up cards.

Game Structure

1. All players receive two cards dealt facedown (hole cards) and one card dealt face up (up card). The cards are dealt one at a time.

2. The player with the lowest up card has to make a bring-in bet. For example:

In this example there are three players showing a four in their start hand to essentially tie as the low card on the table.

To break that tie, the bring-inn bet in the start hand of a Stud game is one of the few times the rank of the suits will matter.

The suits are ranked in alphabetical order from lowest to highest: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades. So, the 4 is the lowest hand to start this Stud game.

3. The betting continues clockwise with the player to the left of the bring-in.

4. A fourth card is dealt face up. The action begins with the player with the best up cards and continues clockwise.

5. A fifth card is dealt face up. The action begins with the player with the best up cards and continues clockwise.

6. A sixth card is dealt face up. The action begins with the player with the best up cards and continues clockwise.

7. A seventh card is dealt facedown. The action begins by the player with the best up cards and continues clockwise.

8. All players make their best possible five-card poker hand.

Seven-Card Stud Hand Example

Start Hand	4th	5th	6th	7th

Given that hand, the best five-card poker hand the player can make is a king-high straight:

Final Hand

Ranking of hands

• Straight flush (best straight flush: A-K-Q-J-T, all same suit)

• Four-of-a-kind (the best four-of-a-kind hand: A-A-A-A-K)

• Full house (the best full house hand: A-A-A-K-K)

• Flush (the best flush hand: any Ace-high flush)

• Straight (the best straight hand: A-K-Q-J-T)

• Three-of-a-kind (the best three-of-a-kind hand: A-A-A-K-Q)

• Two-pair (the best two-pair hand: A-A-K-K-Q)

• One-pair (the best one-pair hand: A-A-K-Q-J)

• No-pair (the best high hand: A-K-Q-J-9)

You can find Real and Play Money games at PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Last updated 02/03/09

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