7 Card Stud Poker
Basics
by
Bill Burton
7 Card Stud Poker is one of the most
popular games
in the cardroom.
Everyone
who has ever
played poker at home is familiar
with 7 card stud because most of the
crazy
home games such Baseball or follow the Ace are just variations
of
this
game with different wild cards.
In
the
card room the only thing wild are some of the players and the game is
played
with no wild cards. Because each player receives seven cards the number
of
players in a game is limited to seven or less.
7 Card Stud Poker: History
There are many theories about the history of Poker and the history of
7-Card Stud Poker. Likely, Poker came from the French card game Poque
while at the
same time, there is a Persian game called Nas, played with a five-suit
deck. Therefore, the game of Poker is probably a result of a
combination of both Poque and Nas. The concept of bluffing originated
from the English game brag, also known as Bragg that is very similar to
Poker but played using only three cards.
Poker was around in 1829 in New Orleans and played with a 20-card deck
consisting of all cards with values of 10 and higher=four tens, four
jacks, four queens, four kings and four aces. The aim of the game was
to bet on which five-card hand revealed the highest cards. This game
was then played on Mississippi riverboats, where scam artists used a
52-card version to con unsuspecting travelers and claim their “pokes,”
or gambling bankrolls.
Stud Poker arrived on the scene during the American Civil War and was
known as
stud or stud-horse so named by cowboys in the Mid-West. 5-Card Stud
began the ‘variant cycle’ officially in 1864 followed by 7-Card Stud in
the early 20th century. The game remained the most popular form of
professional and casino Poker until the 1980’s, when there was a new
game in town called Texas Hold ‘Em. We all know how the story ends
today with Holdem at the top of the heap with professional and casual
poker players alike.
The majority of Poker tournaments are based on 7-Card Stud or
variations of it. Binions Casino in Las Vegas was the founder of the
largest professional Poker
tournament, the World Series of Poker. The casino boasts a Poker Hall
of Fame to memorialize the greatest Poker players in history. Featured
are Wild Bill Hickok, who was shot and killed during a Poker game
holding a two-pair hand of aces over eights, known as a dead man’s hand
and Red Hodges, believed to be the greatest 7 Card Stud Poker player.
7-Card Stud is still an established game in Vegas, other land casinos
worldwide and at online casinos.
Rules of the Game:
7 Card Stud has five betting rounds instead of the four
found in Holdem and Omaha.
There
are also two betting variations you may encounter depending on the
limits you
want to play.
In the higher limits, the first two betting
rounds are one amount
and the limits double on the last three rounds.
For instance
in a $5/10 game the first two rounds are five
dollars and the last three are ten dollars.
In the lower
limit games the
betting levels are usually a spread amount. One of the most popular
spreads for
low limit games are $1-5. This means that a player can bet any amount
with in
that spread.
A player can bet any amount with $1 being the
minimum bet
and $5 being the maximum bet.
If
a
player wants to raise he must double the amount of the bet.
Antes
7 Card Stud is an ante game. That means that
each player
must put some money in the pot before the game begins. The amount of
the ante
depends on the limit of the game and also may vary from card room to
card room.
Some cardrooms offer low limit spread games with no antes.
The
Start
After the antes are put in the dealer scoops the
money into
the pot.
Each
player is dealt two cards
down and one card up beginning with the player to the immediate left of
the
dealer button.
The
two face down cards
are called your hole cards and the up card is referred to as your “door
card.”
Bringing It In
The
first betting round is called Third
Street because you have received
three cards to
begin the hand.
After
the cards are
dealt the first betting round begins.
In the first betting
round the player
with the lowest card showing is required to make a forced bet know as
the “Bring
in” bet. The size of this bet is slightly larger than the ante but less
than
the minimum bet. In a $1-5 game it is usually around 75 cents.
After the
bet is
made
the next player on the immediate left of the player making the bring in
bet has
the option of calling the bet, folding, or raising. During this first
round if
a player wishes to raise the amount of the raise is not double but
equal to the
amount of the minimum bet for that game.
In a $1-5 it must be at least one dollar
but
no more that
$5. In a $5/10
game the raise would be $5.
Fourth Street
After the betting is finished each player is dealt a second
card face up and the second betting round begins. From this point on
the action
starts with the player showing the highest hand of each of
the
remaining betting rounds.
The player with the highest hand
is not forced to
bet. He can check and the player to his left then has the option of
betting or
checking.
If there
is a bet and a player
acting after the bet must call, fold or raise. A raise would be double
the bet
in a spread game or the higher denomination in a fixed betting game.
Fifth Street
When
betting is complete, each active
player is then dealt a third card face up. In a limit game the betting
is now
higher bet, So in a $5/10 game all the bets are now in multiples of
$10.
The
player with the highest hand showing acts first and can bet of check.
The
betting proceeds clockwise.
Sixth
Street
A
fourth card is dealt face up to all active players and
there is another betting round with player showing the highest hand
acting
first.
Seventh
Street
The seventh card is dealt face down. Each active
player now
has four up cards and three hole cards face down.
There is a
final betting
round and all players show their hands after the betting is complete.
The
highest five card hand wins the pot.
If one player makes a
bet and all the
others fold, that player wins by default and is not required to show
his hand.
7
Card Stud Poker Strategy follows 7 Card Stud Basics
OR
How to
Play Poker 1
Program
OR
Learn
Poker Games 2 with 7 Game Types
Gambling
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