7 Card Stud Strategies

Here is a quick guide to getting started at 7 Card Stud. Only experience and practice will make you a great player, but this will start you in the right direction.

The two most important skills necessary to become a good 7 Card Stud player are memory and the ability to calculate the changing pot odds each round. Memory is important as you will need to remember what cards your opponents who folded had showing in order to know what is still available in the deck to help you. Unlike holdem, in which the pot odds are fairly straightforward and easy to memorize, the pot odds in 7 Card Stud change every round depending on what your opponents up cards are. Though this is something that will quickly become natural to you as you gain more experience playing 7 Card Stud, if you are a holdem player and learning Stud, be careful with your calculations.

The best starting hands are trips, often called rolled up, pairs, preferably hidden, three to a flush and three to a straight. Having a hidden pair is a great advantage, especially when you hit trips, as your opponents will have a hard time realizing the true strength of your hand.

Probably more so in 7 Card Stud than most other games, it is very important to pay attention to your opponents. Many players, especially at lower limits will chase straight draws and flushes until the very end, even when the pot odds aren’t in their favor. Because of this, if you can identify these players and isolate them, you may be able to pick up pots with only a pair, or even better, with nothing at all by betting at the end when they miss their draw.

As in holdem, the best 7 Card Stud players are tight and aggressive. Concentrate on playing les than 30% of your starting hands and play aggressively when you are in the pot. Every time an opponent must make a decision, they have an opportunity to make a mistake. I have found the best strategy while learning to play is to look for reasons not to play a hand instead of reasons to play a hand. Much like Omaha, your starting hand should have cards that work in some way together. Hands that can form flush and/or straights are much better than hands with three unrelated cards.