The rules of 7 Card
Stud are quite different from Texas Holde'm. Unlike Texas Hold'em,
where you can look at your two hole cards before determining whether you want to put any money into the pot,
in 7 Card
Stud, all players must first ante before they receive their initial cards. Texas Hold'em uses the
blind
structure whereas 7 Card
Stud uses
ante's.
There are five betting rounds in a complete game of 7 Card
Stud Poker, not including
Ante.
After the
ante, Each player is dealt two cards face-down (hole cards) and one card face-up (
door card).
The
action is started by forcing the lowest upcard by
rank and suit to bet the amount that corresponds to the bring-in
for each limit. The
action then rotates clockwise and players must either
call the minimum bet forced by the low card,
or make the first
raise, which only completes the bet to the lower value of the limit structure. For example, if you
were playing a $3-6 7 Card
Stud game, every player may have to
ante $.50, and
the low card by
rank and then by suit is required to initiate
action with a minimum
small bring-in bet, which may be $1.00. Raises thereafter are of the exact amounts of the fixed limits for each
betting round in a game of 7 card
stud poker - in this case, the
raise would be $2, and all subsequent raises
would be the full $3 bet.
According to the rules of 7 Card
Stud, on the first round of betting, Suits are ranked: spades (highest), hearts, diamonds, clubs.
This helps determine the low card who must make the bring-in bet.
You can easily remember this order because it's alphabetical!
On subsequent rounds, the high hand on board initiates betting
action. If hands are tied, the player to the
left of the
dealer acts first.
After the first round of betting is completed, each player is dealt one card face-up. This is commonly called 4th
street.
The second round of betting begins, starting with the highest hand showing, and the bets are still $3 in our example.
Each player is dealt another card face-up (5th
street), and at this point the limit is raised to the higher limit amount and
bets are now $6 in our example. Third round of betting.
Each player is dealt another card face-up. This is commonly called 6th
street, and we have our fourth round of betting.
Finally, the seventh card is dealt, also known as the
river card, but this one is dealt face-down. The fifth and final
round of betting begins. Players then show their hand, "the
showdown", and use any 5 of their 7 cards to make their best
possible poker hand. Those are the basic poker rules of 7 Card
Stud.
