7
Card Strategy
by
Bill
Burton
7
Card Strategy is
impossible to
cover completely in a short
lesson.
What I hope to do here is to make you aware of the
types of
situations you should be thinking about during the game with a few
simple
7 card strategy suggestions to start you on the right course.
7 Card
Strategy--Starting
Hands:
As with any other poker
game, the most important 7 card strategy decision
you will make is deciding to play after you see your starting cards.
In
7 card
stud your starting three cards make up 42% of your final hand. The
first thing
you need to do after looking at your three cards is to look around the
table at
the up card of all the other players.
Texas
Hold’em and Omaha use community cards so it is fairly easy to judge the
relative strength
of your
starting hand. This is not the case with 7 card stud because each
player
receives 7 unique cards.
Another player may be dealt a card that you need to make
your hand a winner.
If a card that you will need to improve
your hand is
showing, or the other players are showing superior cards then you might
as well
fold and save your self money.
The same three starting cards can be powerful in one hand
and be completely unplayable in another hand. If you hold three suited
cards
but look around the board and see five cards of the same suit in your
opponent’s hands then your chances of making a flush are greatly
diminished.
This is also true for a possible straight or even if you hold
three big cards
but see some of the same cards as your opponent’s up cards. So look at
your
starting three cards and then look around the table before making the
decision
to play.
There are certain guidelines of sound starting
hands that you should
use as a base in choosing your starting hand.
The best starting hand you can have is three aces. Actually
any time you have three of a kind you have a powerful hand. When you
have a
pair in the hole and it is matched by your door card (up card) this is
known as
being “rolled-up.”
The odds of this happening are 424 to 1
so you won’t see it
too often. Besides three of a kind here are the other types of starting
hands I
would consider playing.
Three cards to a straight flush.
A big hidden pair.
A big open pair. This is one card down matched by one up.
Three high cards to a flush.
Three cards in sequence
Hidden middle or low pair with no matching card showing by
others.
Three cards to a straight of flush.
Your goal is to start with the strongest starting hand or
one that has the potential of being the best hand at the showdown.
These
guidelines may seem a little tight but a winning player is very
selective about
the hands they play. Again these are only guidelines that will be used
as a
starting point.
If you see cards you need scattered around
the table you won’t
even be able to continue with many of them.
If you have a big pair in your starting three cards you will
want to play very aggressively by raising if there is a bet in front t
of you.
Your goal is to narrow the field to increase the chance that your big
pair will
hold up as the best hand. You want to make it very expensive for those
players
to continue with a drawing hand. Big pairs are best against
a small field of
players.
7 Card
Strategy--Continuing
With
Your Hand:
When you are dealt your second up card you are
hoping to
improve your hand by catching a card you need or by your opponent not
improving
their hand to beat the strong hand that you hold.
As a
general rule of thumb
you want your hand to improve with every new card you are dealt. If you
have a
big pair and there is betting and raise, you have to consider that your
opponent may have made three of a kind or two pair. In a limit game
many
players will automatically call a bet because it is still the lower
limits.
This is not playing winning poker.
Unless
your hand improves or you still have a good drawing hand you
should bet out now.
Again you will need to look at the cards
that your
opponents have and determine if they hold a card you need.
Stud takes a lot of concentration but with a little practice
you can be a winning player. Following these tips at
Learn
Poker Games
should improve your game immediately.
7
Card Strategy is followed by Stud Poker: 7 More Versions
OR
How to Play
Poker 1 Program
OR
Learn
Poker Games 2 with 7 Game Types
Gambling
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