Seven-Card Stud Poker Rules

Before Texas Hold'em exploded in popularity, Seven-card Stud was one of the most popular poker variations in the United States.

The game can be played with two to eight players. The biggest difference between seven-card stud and Texas Hold'em or Omaha is that seven-card stud, or simply known as Stud, does not involve a flop and, almost always, does not involve community cards at all.

Here we go over the poker rules for Seven Card Stud.

Game Play

As seen in the image above, each player is dealt the first two cards face down and then a third facing up to begin a hand of Stud. This phase is often called "Third treet" — where the street indicates the number of cards a player has. Subsequently, there will be Fourth street, Fifth Street, Sixth Street, and Seventh Street to top off.

The two face-down cards are called the "hole cards" and the face-up card is called the "door card." Based on these three cards, one would decide whether or not to continue with the hand. As in any poker variation, starting-hand selection is extremely important, and seven-card stud is no different in that regard.

Each player is dealt seven cards, three of which are dealt face down and four of which are dealt face up. From these seven cards, the player has to create his best five-card combination. The hand rankings are identical to those in Texas Hold 'em or Omaha; a royal flush is the best possible hand, and the worst hand is the high card hand (no pair).

Antes, bring-in and betting

While the blinds are the forced bets in Texas Hold'em and Omaha poker, antes are the forced bets placed by every player before receiving any cards. For example, let's consider a $10/$20 seven-card stud game with an ante of $1 and a bring-in of $5.

Each player wanting to be dealt in to receive a hand would have to post the $1 ante, creating a pot worth competing for. The first three cards are then dealt to each player before it is determined that one player must post the bring-in. In seven-card stud, the player with the lowest-ranking door card would have to post the $5 bring-in at minimum, but this person does have the option to "complete" the bet by posting $10 (the small limit of the game).

From there, the betting continues clockwise around the table, with each player having the option to call, raise, or fold. If the first player who brought in only posts the bring-in, other players may have the option of completing the bet to $10 as the first raise. Once the betting is complete, every player left in the hand is dealt a fourth card, called fourth street.

Games that involve a button that dictates where the action starts differ from seven-card stud. In seven-card stud, the first player to act fro fourth street is the player displaying the highest-ranking hand at the time (note that this does NOT include hole cards — just the visible portion of the hand).

Before proceeding past third street, though, it is important to have solid hand selection. An example of good starting hands in seven-card stud would include the following:

Seven-card stud is most often played as a limit game. Sticking with the same example of our $10/$20 seven-card stud game, the limits of betting on third and fourth street would be the smaller limit, or $10 in this case (called the "small bet"). On fifth, sixth, and seventh street, the limits increase to $20, also known as the "big bet".

If a player pairs his door card on fourth street, the opening player now has the option to bet double the small limit, or the big bet, straight away. For example, if a player begins with an ace and picks up another ace on fourth street, that player may open with a bet of $20 instead of $10.

This unique betting rule only takes place in the high version of seven-card stud, not the split-pot version.

Conclusion

In seven-card stud, it is very important to pay close attention to the cards of your opponents. If you, for example, have a straight draw with K♣Q♦J♥10♠, but you already see three aces on the table, then you are only drawing to one ace and the remaining nines in the deck. If a player folded the case ace and you are unaware he or she did so, you could be incorrectly estimating your odds in the hand.