Seven Card Stud Rules
Seven Card Stud is normally played with fixed-limit betting, but it can also be played in pot limit. Some poker rooms offer a no limit version, but that isn’t really a popular way to play 7 Card Stud. There is also a spread limit variant which is explained further down.
How to Play 7 Card Stud
The goal of the seven card stud os to make the best 5 card poker hand out of seven cards you will be dealt. This is similar to Texas hold’em, except that there are no community cards. All players will each get a total of seven card of the course of the hand. Some of these cards will be dealt face up for everyone to see, and some will be dealt face down so that only the player can see them. You win a hand when every opponent folds, or by having the best hand at the showdown.
7 Card Stud Ante
Seven Card Stud is frequently played with an ante which is an amount every player must pay when starting a hand. For instance, you’ll often see a $0.50 ante in a $5-$10 limit game. Different stakes games have different antes and the ante is usually between 10% and 25% the value of the big blind. Each poker room has their own rules on how antes are calculated. A hand of seven card stud begins with all players having to pay a small ante to the pot.
7 Card Stud Betting Rules
3rd street – Once the ante is paid, everyone player is dealt two cards face down and one card face up. The person with the lowest face up card must “bring in”, which is a forced to bet worht half the minimum bet. This player then has the option to call the minimum bet, to raise or to fold.
The next player then has to call the current bet, raise, or fold. Calling means bringing in the amount of the minimum bet. It is not calling the “bring in” because this only represents half the minimum bet. Then subsequent players get to act one after the other with the same options.
In the fixed limit version of seven card stud, there may be a raise cap so in a three-raise limit game, there can only be up to three raises per betting round.
4th street – The initial bettign round just finished and each remaining player is now dealt a new card face up. There is a second round of betting that works exactly like the initial betting round except there is no more “bring in”. The person with the best exposed hand usually begins the betting.
5th street – Another face up card is dealt to each player, followed by another betting round. At this stage, the minimum bet doubles. So in a $5-$10 game, the minimum bet for 3rd and 4th street was $5. Now the minimum becomes $10 for the rest of the hand.
6th street – Another face up card is dealt to each player, followed by another betting round.
7th street – Each player is dealt one last card face down, followed by the final round of betting, followed by the showdown. The term “showdown” simply means that at the end of the last betting round, if there remains more than one player, the the winner is decided based on who has the best hand.
7 Card Stud Winning Hand
The best individual 5 card hand wins (out of their own seven cards). If a player had raised and everyone else folded, then that player wins and there is no showdown. They have to option to show their cards to everyone, or to much their hand and take the pot.
If there is a showdown, the person that was called mush show all their cards to everyone. The next player must then decide if they want to show their cards or not. If they have a better hand, they must show the cards to prove it. If they are beat, they have the option to muck, or they can show their hand if they want to. Showing your hand is optional of course. “mucking your cards” means giving them back to the dealer without having to show your unexposed cards to anyone.
Rules for playing with the spread limit variant
In a spread-limit game, a player can bet any amount within a predefined range. For example, in a $5-$20 spread limit game, the minimum any player can bet is $5, and the most anyone can bet or raise at one time is $20. Anyone wishing to raise must do so by an amount equivalent to the current bet or higher, up to the maximum amount allowed in the spread. For example, if a player raises to $10, the next player to raise must raise by at least $10 additional dollars, or more. They can only raise up to $20 in this example since that is the maximum raise amount.
