7-Card Stud gameplay
7-Card Stud is one of the most popular variants of poker available in online poker rooms and offline establishments alike. It's a fun and exciting game – a welcome addition to the world of online poker. It might be less popular than Texas Hold'em, but it still has a stable player base, and it can be found in every major poker room around the world – it is part of the most popular combination poker game, H.O.R.S.E. Its different rules and large number of betting rounds make it a game of choice for many online poker players.
As shown by its name, 7-Card Stud is played with hands of seven cards. The maximum number of players is eight – this can lead to an unlikely, but possible situation when the dealer runs out of cards at the final round of dealing (7×8=56 cards are needed, and the standard deck has only 52). In this case the final card is dealt as a community card.
Betting and dealing rounds in 7-Card Stud
Instead of blind bets, players of 7-Card Stud must place an ante if they wish to participate in the game. After each player has placed their ante, the dealer starts dealing – two cards facing down, one card facing up. This group of cards is called the 'third street'. The first round of betting begins.
The player with the lowest ranking upcard is the one who has to bring-in – to place the opening bet. If there are multiple upcards with the same – lowest – rank, suit decides who brings-in – clubs are the strongest, followed by diamonds, hearts and spades. This is a forced bet. The next player can't check – his only options are to call, raise or fold. The betting continues as normal, clockwise around the table.
The next upcard is dealt – the 'fourth street'. Another betting round follows, but this time the player with the strongest poker hand on the table has to bring-in. Two other cards – the fifth and sixth streets – follow, with their respective betting rounds. The final card – the 'river' is dealt face down to each active player, except for the case described above (if the dealer runs out of cards), in which case the river is dealt face up as a community card. A final betting round is followed by the showdown. The strongest hand consisting of five cards wins.
In 7-Card Stud there is a fixed small and big betting amount. The ante is usually half of the small betting amount, and the big betting amount is usually double the small betting amount. Say, in a game with a small bet of $5 the ante will be $2.5 (or may be rounded down to $2 for easier calculations), and the big betting amount is $10. In early betting rounds, until the 'fifth street' players bet using the small amount, after the 'fifth street' they go on to the big betting amount until the showdown.
The last player to act – bet or raise – will be the first to reveal his cards at showdown. Other players may fold their hand and give up or challenge the revealed hand with their own. Five cards out of the seven in the players' hands can be used to form the strongest hand possible. The dealer will evaluate the revealed hands, determine the highest ranking one and award the winning player with the pot.
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