Seven-card Stud - Strategy

In seven-card stud poker where are no positional pros and cons as in Texas hold'em or Omaha. Since the position is changing depending on the development of the player's cards, see Seven-card Stud rules. The strategic elements to focus on is instead how you base your play upon visible cards that have been visible.

A fundamental part of the strategy in seven-card stud is to observe and memorize the cards that are being dealt in a hand. If some of your outs already have been taken from the deck, the potential of your hand is reduced. This is an important factor when you decide if you going to fold or not.

A rule by the thumb to rely on if you hesitate about folding or not is to play until the size for betting are doubled. Hands that are very likely to be beaten or have a little potential should of course be folded immediately after the flop. These are all general guidelines; we should now look on some more specific advices for the game.

Starting hands

The best starting hand in Seven-card stud are (A-A)-A. The parenthesis indicates that these are dark cards. To get this hand or other trips are, however, very rare. One pair is on the other side much more common and in these cases, it’s an advantage if the pair is not shown. For example (Q-Q)-7 is more attractive to play than (Q-7)-Q because it gives away less information to the opponents. All hands that include a pair not lower than 6 or 7 are in most cases worth playing.

Other strong starting hands are suited connectors. Even suited semi-connectors such as (7♦-8♦)-T♦ are playable. Too low suited hand or connectors are, however a risk since they could lose against a higher flush or a higher straight.

You need patience

Playing Seven-card stud on a full table, in other words against eight to ten players, demands a lot of patience. If you want to play with a selective choice of starting hands, which is preferably, you’re going to be watching your opponents play without you a lot. As mentioned, it's an extra betting round in 7 stud compared to Texas hold'em and Omaha. You must be able not to lose your patience and avoid playing hands that aren’t strong enough.

Related article:Seven card stud odds