Introduction to 7-card stud
Part 1 – How 7-card stud poker compares to other poker varieties
Think Omaha and Hold Em are very different?
Almost all poker players are familiar with Hold Em and many players are also familiar with Omaha and aware of the different dynamics of both games. Yet for all their differences, both games are actually fundamentally similar. They both almost always have a small blind and a big blind. They both have 4 betting rounds (pre-flop, flop, turn and river), they both use shared community cards. 7-Card stud and for that matter all variations of stud poker on the other hand are from another poker galaxy altogether.
Spread of Games online
There is a wide variety of 7-Card Stud games as well as other stud varieties available online these days and they are available on all the major online sites. Games vary from from micro stake games playing for just a few cents, to high stakes games where there are $1,000s in the final pot . As of February 2010 the availability fo ames is a as follows on Full Tilt Poker :- The smallest micro stake game has is $.05/$.10 with antes of $.01 and a bring-in of $.02. The medium stakes game of $3/$6 has an ante of $.50, and a bring-in of $1. Full Tilt hosts its highest stakes game in what’s known as Ivey’s room, there the highest available game is an absolutely massive $2,000/$4000. The offers games ranging from microstakeThe low stakes online games are usually $2-$4 while the higher games are typically $8-$16 or $10-$20.
How good is your memory?
They are no community cards for one thing. Every player has 4 cards showing by the time the river comes. So in a game with 8 players, although it rarely happens, you could have theoretically a potential 32 i.e. 8 x 4 face cards showing on the table. That’s a whole load of information to take on board and make use of that is not a feature in a community card game such as Hold Em.
Powers of memorization are a key ability in stud poker. So either you need to be naturally gifted in this area or have worked on this mental facet either through playing stud or by some other form of ‘brain training’, without this ability you will always struggle in stud poker.
Antes up always
Secondly there are no blinds in Stud Poker; instead everyone posts a small amount known as the ante. In low limit games this is normally around 10% of the big bet amount, i.e. in a $1/$2 Limit Stud game you would normally find an ante of about 20 cents.
In Part 2 of Introduction to 7-card stud we will take a look at how to play stud poker.
