Show your nerve and skill with seven card stud

Before the boom in popularity of Texas Hold’em, seven card stud was the most common form of poker, particularly in home games in the United States and casinos in the east of the country.  Online, seven card stud is still a popular game.  If it’s strategy and nerve that you’re looking for in your poker, seven card stud could be the game for you.

Generally, between two to eight players enter the game, which gets more complicated as the number of players increases.  However, the format of the game itself remains the same, regardless of how many people are playing.  There are six phases of play, with betting taking place between each phase.  The first phase, known as third street, sees the dealer give each player three cards, two facing down and one facing upwards.  Betting proceeds clockwise around the table.  The player with the lowest ranking cards bets first.

From this point on, each player has the option of folding their cards, calling or raising as the betting proceeds.  On fourth street, the remaining players are dealt another card face up.  At the end of each phase, another round of betting takes place.  This process is repeated on fifth street and sixth street too.  Seventh street is where things begin to change, with the remaining players given a final card, this time face down.  Then comes the showdown, where it is time for the remaining players to either continue to up the stakes or to reveal their hands.  This is where a good ‘poker face’ can really pay dividends.

All in all, seven card stud demands nerve and carries all the tension that you could want in poker.