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Intermediate 7 Card Stud Strategy
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Seven card stud strategies for the intermediate player
As discussed in part one of our Seven Card stud strategy series, patience and discipline are both very important to becoming a good Seven Card stud player. With that realization, we can now look at some actual playing strategies and techniques that will help you start winning at Seven Card stud. This section will cover starting hands and betting strategies. If you are interested in bluffing, hand reading and other techniques, go ahead to our advanced strategies article. For your convenience I have added links to our other Stud poker strategy articles below. Starting hands in 7 Card Stud
In Seven Card stud the starting hands you play depend greatly on the ante of the game. In most low limit Seven Card stud games, the ante is low enough in relation to the betting limits that it is okay to wait around and be patient for great hands. As you advance to the middle and high limit games however, the antes usually get larger in relation to the betting and you will need to play more hands and be more aggressive in order to maintain profitability. For now lets assume you are in a low limit game. With that in mind, you will want to play only the best starting hands. Here is a list of the hands you will want to play in Seven Card stud:
- Three of a kind: This is the best starting hand you can get in Seven Card stud and it will always bring a smile to your face. You can usually play a little slower with a hand like this and perhaps wait until later rounds to really open up the betting. If however you feel you are up against a strong draw or any other hand right away, by all means make your opposition pay to continue contesting for the pot.
- Jacks or better split: This means a pair of jacks with one of the two cards being hidden and the other being your up card.
- Nines or better wired. A wired pair means that both cards are concealed.
- Three high cards to a flush: Low flushes are not that great in Seven Card stud so the emphasis should be on playing only when you have three high ranking cards to a flush.
- Three cards to a straight flush: Always worth a look.
- Three face cards to a straight: This is even questionable, but if the conditions are right it’s a good hand to start with.
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If you find yourself in a game with higher antes, consider making some additions to your starting hand arsenal such as these:
- Any Ace with a face card or any two big face cards.
- Nines or better split, sevens or better wired.
- Add the middle ranking cards for flush draws.
7 Card Stud Betting strategies
Like other poker games, the best strategy to take in Seven Card stud is one that is tight but aggressive. This means that you will be selective in your starting hands, but once you decide to play a hand, you will do so with aggression. Any of the above starting hands usually warrant an aggressive betting strategy except the most powerful ones. A hand like three aces or something similar is usually way ahead, so here it is okay to wait until four or fifth street to raise your opponents. Usually they won’t see it coming and you put yourself in a good position for the rest of the hand.
You’ll notice that most of the starting hand suggestions are for paired hands or only exceptionally high drawing hands. The reason behind this is because drawing hands usually are very expensive in Seven Card stud and simply can get you into more trouble than they can do good. If you are contemplating playing a drawing hand and two or more of the cards you need are out on the board already, you should seriously consider folding. You want to draw only when conditions are excellent for it to happen.
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