Seven Card Stud

Seven-Card Stud: The Set-Up and How to Play!

Seven-card stud is one of the poker games that has been around for ever and honestly, while Texas Hold ‘Em has been extremely popular for years, seven-card stud has been around even before the ever-so-popular Texas Hold ‘Em.

If you are just now getting into the game, it can be a very confusing game and you may not be used to it. It is extremely easy to learn once you get the logistics down and learn all about the set-up of this awesome game. First and foremost, you will need to pull together a group of eight people, because for this game you will need about eight players.

There are many differences between seven-card stud and Texas Hold ‘Em. In Texas Hold ‘Em, as many of you already know, there are four betting rounds … well, in seven-card stud, there are five better rounds and the games is played with an ante versus blinds. There is also no community cards used in seven-card stud, so if you are looking for something that uses community cards, this is certainly not the game for you.

All right, now that we have gotten the differences of Texas Hold ‘Em and Seven-Card Stud out of the way, we can now move into how the game is actually played. Well, first, the dealer deals out two cards to each player facedown and then one card that is faceup. These cards will make up your start hand and just as in any card game, the cards are dealt out one at a time, clockwise around the table. The player with the lowest value card showing is the one that is going to be betting first, this is calls a forced bet.

If you happen to get yourself into a situation where there are three players all tied for the low cards, this is one time where the suit of the card will actually come into play. Lowest to highest, the suits of the cards are: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts and Spades. So be sure you keep that rule in mind when you have a situation where many players are tied at once.

The very first round of betting will commence right about now and it will continue clockwise around the player that started off the betting first. Anyone who does not fold after the first betting round will be dealt another card, this card is known as the fourth street and it is dealt faceup.

If there are still a lot of players after this betting round, there are three more cards that are dealt. The fifth street, the sixth street and finally the seventh street; the fifth street and sixth street are both dealt faceup, but the seventh is dealt facedown. This is where all of the players will sort through their cards and determine which hand would be the best possible five-card poker hand and anyone who does not fold will reveal there hand. The best hand will win the pot!

It really is that easy folks!