Seven Card Stud Rules

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Seven Card Stud Rules

Seven Card Stud offers a traditional poker game with a good possibility for high stakes action. Poker has always been a favorite card game played among friends or for the serious gambler, it's played with other gamblers of mixed caliber. There may be slight variations in the game, but what we are going to do here is to present you with the basic rules of play.

The object of Seven Card Stud is to make the best possible poker hand from seven cards. At the beginning of each hand each player must 'ante up'. The dealer begins with the player to his immediate left, deals each player two cards face down and one card face up, one card at a time. When this hand is dealt, the first round of betting begins. The player having the lowest Up card must make a forced bet, this is either half the minimum bet or the full bet, player's choice.

Seven Card Stud

Starting in this round the player with the highest Face Up card may Check, and if so, then the other players are free to do so as well. If no Check is called, each of the other players must call, raise or fold. Once the Pot is satisfied, each player is dealt a fourth card face up and each must make a Full Bet, raise, or fold. The fifth card is dealt and the minimum bet is double what it was the last round. For example if in round four, the minimum bet was $2, in round 5 it will be $4. Each player must declare his intentions and then the sixth card is dealt and another round of $4 minimum betting goes around the table. The seventh and final card is dealt Face Down and the final round of betting begins, as we the previous two rounds the minimum bet is $4.

There are certain strategies that really come into play with Seven Card Stud. A must to learn is the art of Bluffing. This is a high powered, adrenaline pumping poker game with all sorts of situational possibilities. It's not unheard of for a high card to win the pot. It's also a game that calls for pure gut instinct, and a strong stamina to beat the more seasoned players.

Learn to read your opponents Tells. A Tell is an unconscious signal of what is going on with your opponent, his hand, his intentions and whether he is bluffing. You don't want to sit there and stare at your opponent throughout the game or he will make an extra effort to hide his Tells, but casually make mental notes of how a player reacts given a certain situation. For instance, your opponent has been playing rather low key for several rounds, then starts to bet, raise or otherwise act in a way he has not acted before. What he does per se is not important, the reason he is doing it is. Follow through with the hand and play as you normally would, but make note of the outcome for the opponent your are studying. Was all this action due to an actual 'good hand' or was he trying to throw you off track and Bluff his way through. He quite possibly was trying to Bluff, therefore winning a pot he could not have won only with what was in his hand.

Learn not to give away your Tells. I gather friends for a poker game, and ask them to scrutinize my actions during the game. This is a great opportunity to learn what you may be giving away without even knowing it. Do this on a regular basis to keep yourself 'fine tuned' and ready for action.

You don't want to get into a poker game and look like 'The Sucker". There is an old saying, "If you look around the table and can't spot the sucker in the first five minutes, the sucker is you". One way to avoid this is to know and be familiar with the rules, the lingo and to come to the game with full knowledge of these. Watch others play poker and learn. If you are not in the middle of the action, it's easy to watch and learn from the players. You can learn to pick up on who is likely to Bluff, who is the conservative player, and who is the all or none player ( which is a dangerous player in that he has no fear of losing and is will to take more chances than the average player ).