How To Play Seven Card Stud?
The seven-card stud is a poker game that is popular in various countries. This is a type of casino game in which the objective is to win the best hand out of all the players in the group.
In the game, the players are provided seven cards to begin with; thus, the name of the game “seven-card stud.” Once the players get the cards, they try to make the best five hands out of the seven cards. They do this while betting against each other’s various hands in play.
Deck
In the seven-card stud, the game starts with a standard deck of 52 cards, including 2’s low and aces high. The players get seven cards initially in the game.
Hands Ranking
- High card – When nobody has any pairs, the highest card of the game wins.
- One pair
- Three of the same kind
- Flush – Five cards of a similar suit
- Two pair
- Straight – Five cards in a sequence that are different and not a part of the same suit.
- Full House – Three similar cards, including a pair of cards.
- Four cards of a similar kind
- Royal Flush – 10 throughs aces of a similar suit
- Straight Flush – Five cards in a sequence that are of a similar suit.
Set Up Of 7 Card Stud
To start the game, the players have to choose a dealer first. For this, they have to follow a procedure:
- Shuffle the deck of cards
- Now put the deck in the middle of players
- Each player now draws cards when the turn comes.
- The player to the left of the player who shuffled cards draws first.
- The player who draws an ace first in the game becomes the dealer.
- Once the dealer has been decided, the game commences.
Seven Card Stud Gameplay
The gameplay of this game is not much different from stud players. Some steps are:
- To start the game, every player needs to place a bet in the pot for the initial phase.
- The bet depends on the type of game. For example: In casual games, the bets are generally one or two dollars, whereas, in professional casino games, there is no limit.
- After the initial betting, the play proceeds to a different round:
- One
- Fourth Street
- Fifth Street
- Sixth Street
- River.
Round One of Stud Poker
- In this phase, the dealer of the game passes two cards to each player. These two cards are passed facing down. The two cards in the game are known by the name of “Holes.”
- After passing these two cards, the dealer passes a single card to every player that is facing up. This card in the game is known by the name of “Door.”
- Once every player gets the “door” card, there is a round of betting in the game. This round of betting is called “bring-in.”
- The bring round begins with the player who has the lowest door card. It proceeds in a clockwise manner, and the player left to lowest card one is the next to bet.
- The ties of the lowest value card broke by suits in alphabetical order. For example, The 2 of spades is outranked by the 2 of clubs.
- In the game, players have the right to fold their hands. They can lose the bet in a pot by doing so.
4th Street
After the first round is complete, the 4th street round in the seven-card stud begins. In it, the dealer passes the fourth card of the game to any of the remaining players. This fourth card is passed facing up.
Now again, a betting round commences in the game according to rules. It starts from the player who received the highest fourth card of the game, which is dealt in this 4th Street round. The betting can also begin with the player with the highest hand. It proceeds in a clockwise manner, moving left from the initial player.
5th Street
After the completion of the 4the Street round, this round begins, and the dealer again passes a card to each player. This card is passed facing up and is known by the name of the fifth card. The fifth card is also the reason why this game is called a 5 card stud.
This game also, likes the 4th Street round, begins with the player who received the highest fifth card. The 5 card stud game can also commence with the player who has the highest hand. It also proceeds in the same clockwise manner moving to the left.
6th Street of Stud Poker
After the five-card stud round, most players leave the game. Now the dealer passes the sixth card to any remaining players. This card, like the other two street rounds, is also passed facing up.
Now in this round, also like the five-card stud round, the betting occurs. The betting begins with the player who has the highest hand or who received the highest sixth card. It also proceeds in a clockwise manner, moving to the left side.
River
After the four rounds in this fifth and final round, the dealer passes the final card to the remaining players. This is the seventh card and thus the name seven-card stud.
Now each player tries to make 5 best hands out of these seven cards. These seven cards include the three-faced up, and three faced down cards of the game. They do this without revealing their card to the other players. Now a round of betting occurs, which starts from the player who has the highest visible hand. The betting proceeds in a clockwise manner and moves to the left.
After the betting is complete, the player reveals their hands. The player who has the highest hands after the revelation receives the pot.
History of Seven Card Stud
The origins of poker in no means definitive, and various game scholars believe it has originated from the French game Poque. Some other scholars believe it started from the As-Nas, a Persian game.
One thing which is the history of stud poker tells us for sure is that it became popular in South America in the 1830s. This game was made popular by the gambling riverboats, which started to spread across the parts of the Mississippi River. During these times, con artists used this game to outwith the visiting rich tourists. This game originating in the American midwest during the mid of 19th century, became popular with time.
It became popular among the American military gradually, and from there, it gained popularity in various other properties. This was one of the most popular poker card games in the USA and other countries until the 1980s, when new games arrived.
Variations of Seven Card Stud
There are various variants of this game. Some of them are:
High and Low
In the high and low variants of this game, all the rules are the same as the basic game. One thing which changes is that the players have to make two hands from their 7 cards. The two hands are high hand and low hand.
Pot is also split between the low and high hands. In case the pot can’t be split in an even manner, the odd chips go to the highest hand player.
Razz
In this version of the 7 card stud, the rules are the same as the basic, and the only variation is that players need the lowest hand to win. The straights, suits, and flushes are also irrelevant in this variant of the game.
Baseball Poker
In the baseball stud poker, the 3s and the 9s are wild. Additionally, the player also gets an extra card if they are given 4. These rules make the royal flush possible as it is possible to have five cards of a similar kind.
The cards are selected as they have relevance to the Baseball game’s three strikes, nine innings, and four balls.
Anaconda
In the anaconda variant, cards are not passed by the dealer evenly, and each player gets all 7 cards at the beginning of the game. They do a passing of card and pass three cards on to the player sitting on the left. Now a betting round commences. After completion of betting, the players pass two cards again to the left. Now again, a betting round occurs. Now again, card passing happens, and one card to the left is passed.
As always, the best hand of seven-card stud wins in this variant.
Cincinnati Poker
In the Cincinnati variant of the stud poker, each player gets five hole cards. They get these five instead of two like the regular game of stud poker. This version of the game is also called 5 card stud due to this way of dealing 5 cards.
Final Words
Seven-card stud is a type of casino game that is popular in various parts of the world, especially in the USA. The objective of the game is to win the best hand.
Players in this game do betting in pots in its various rounds, and at the end, the player who has the best hands wins the pot.
