Smart Moves in Seven Card Stud
Seven card stud is a classic poker game, and one in which you can gain
a real advantage over your opponents. Texas hold'em remains
the most popular poker game, so often times those sitting at a stud
table will not be as experienced as you are, provided you have studied
the game. To get started, here are some smart moves you can make to get
an edge in seven card stud.
Play Three Strong Starting Cards
Players coming from hold'em will instinctively want to play
if they have two good cards.
While you should definitely be playing
hands like (As 6d) Ac, in general, you need all three of your cards to
be working in order for you to
have a playable hand. (Tc Js) 3h is not
an attractive starting hand in seven card stud.
Make Good Decisions on Fifth Street
If you call a bet on fifth street, it will often be mathematically
correct for you to play all the way to the end because of the pot
odds.
Therefore, fifth street is a critical decision time. If you make good
decisions and calculations on fifth street, you can save a
tremendous
amount of money in the long run.
Steal Pots
In hold'em, there are a lot of pre-flop pots that are not
worth
stealing, as they have only a bet and a half in them from the two
blinds. In seven card stud, each pot is bursting with antes and a
bring-in, and you can fairly well gauge where your opponents stand in
the hand after three cards. Take advantage of all the early
stealing
opportunities you can in seven card stud. You will be surprised at what
a difference it can make in your win rate.
Bluffing In Seven Card Stud
Seven card stud is a game commonly played as
a fixed-limit game, where the amount you can bet on each street is
pre-established. However,
the game can also be played as a pot-limit
game (common in online casinos),
which opens up some
opportunities for additional strategies,
particularly bluffing.
Texas Hold'em Poker and Pot-Limit Seven Card Stud
Unlike Texas hold'em, which has four betting streets, seven
card stud has five betting streets. This means that a pot-limit hand
of
seven card stud can easily become effectively no-limit by the river
unless the stacks are very deep. Therefore, if you are a no-limit
Texas
hold'em player, you can bring the aggressiveness that may
make you successful in that game and use it to great effect in a
pot-limit seven card stud game.
How Pot-Limit Seven Card Stud Differs from Traditional Seven Card Stud
Seven card stud often comes down to a made hand vs. a
drawing hand. In
the traditional fixed limit version of the game, the pot size
relative to the fixed bets often make it correct to
draw to a winning
hand all the way to the river. When playing pot-limit seven card stud,
the player with the made hand can and should often
make it unprofitable
to draw by making pot sized bets.
Bluffing Dynamics in Seven Card Stud
The interesting thing about
seven card stud is that it is very
difficult to tell when a player has a made hand. As soon as the player
has three of a suit showing, he
may already have a flush. If a fourth
one comes, it becomes very likely. Since there are three down cards, a
player can actually have four
of a kind while showing absolutely
nothing on board. You can see why these conditions are rife for
bluffing.
If you have four of a
suit showing and no one else shows a pair, you
have a great opportunity for a bluff with a pot-sized bet. It takes
great fortitude for
someone to call off a large amount of chips
gambling that one of your three hidden cards does not make your hand.
If they have a pair
showing, they may have two pair or trips with their
hole cards and be willing to take a shot at a full house, so you should
be more
reluctant to bluff against pairs. This holds true only if their
cards are live. If an opponent with a pair has his cards matched by a
few other players at the table, his odds of having or catching a full
house is much less likely and he can be more easily moved off his
hand.
Notes on Seven Card Stud
These moves listed above will not automatically make you a superior
seven card stud
player. They can, however, as stated, give you a
considerable edge against unskilled opponents. If you really want to
make money at stud
though, you should
study
books written by masters of the game,
memorize their advice, and try to put that advice into play as
frequently as possible. You
should also study the poker
articles here on the
site. It will teach
you many aspects of a winning poker strategy.
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