7 Card Stud Strategy and Tips

American players looking to play Seven Card Stud Online are limited to two choices, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars as these are the only two US friendly poker rooms that have any traffic worth speaking of at any form of Stud Poker. The good news is that both of these sites have a decent selection of Stud games running around the clock. In this guide we’ll focus on how to beat the games at Full Tilt, but this strategy pretty much applies to both sites.

Tips on Beating Full Tilt Poker’s 7 Card Stud Games

If you’re not familiar with how 7 Card Stud is played we suggest visiting the ‘Games Section’ on the Full Tilt Poker website where you’ll find comprehensive game instructions and other relative data. For the purpose of these tips we’ll assume you already know how Seven Card Stud is played.

The most important factor to beating any form of poker is to only play in games where you have an edge. The skill level of the players at random Full Tilt Stud 7 Card Stud games varies greatly and as a result you’ll find some extremely soft games as well as some games that are difficult to crack. While seat position is still important in games where many multi-way pots are being played, ultimately position is not as important in Stud as it is in other games because starting action is determined by the lowest exposed hand on 3rd street and the highest hand on subsequent streets. For this reason once you’ve scouted a table enough that you feel you have an edge you should be willing to take whatever seat becomes available.

Recommended 7 Card Stud Starting Hands

With scouting pushed aside for a moment, the most important factor in beating Full Tilt Poker’s 7 Card Stud games is starting hand selection. This goes deeper than just looking at your starting cards; in 7 Card Stud you’re analyzing your starting hand based on all the upcards that have been dealt to other places and asking yourself: “Do the cards that are out there help or increase the chances of making my hand?”

Playable hands from all positions:

Three of a kind: Three of a kind (a.k.a trips and set) is the best starting hand in 7 Card Stud. If your door card is the higher than that of your opponents they are expecting you to open for a raise, so you’ll want to do that otherwise your play will look to fishy and you’ll put them on guard. When your trips are of smaller value you’ll usually want to build a larger pot and conceal the strength of your hand, therefore it is often advisable to slow play trips until 5th through 7th street where the betting rounds are larger.

Note: The odds of being dealt three of a kind in your first three cards are 424 to 1

High Pairs: The next best starting hand you’re hoping for is a pair ten or higher. These are more valuable when concealed as players will put you on a high pair when you’re showing a high door card. With pairs you’ll want to be opening for a raise in order to eliminate as many players as possible. Do not be afraid to play pairs aggressively during early streets. Be cautious however when your pair is that of your door card and you’re facing heat from other opponents as they’ll often have you beat, otherwise if your pair has improved by sixth and seventh street and you’re not beat by another players board continue to bet and consider raising based on your reads on other opponents, their board and the strength of your pairs and potential redraws. If you’ve not improved by sixth consider folding or at least checking and calling.

Note: In Stud when you start with a pair your odds of improving to two pair or better by 7th street are 1.4 to 1.

Three to a Flush: The third best starting hand is 3 to a flush; the strength of this hand is relative to how many of the other players have been dealt a card that matches your suit. If you’re holding a high door card you’ll probably want to open with a raise and even reraise in order to represent a big pair. The odds of completing your flush are about 5 to 1, but you’ll not only establish fold equity; you have a back up draw as well. If your hand is simply three to a flush with little to go with it you’ll want to get to 4th street as cheap as possible and if you don’t pick up a four flush by then let go of the hand. With medium strength draws and some other possibilities you might consider sticking around to Fifth Street, but if you haven’t made at least a four flush by then you’ll certainly be mucking the hand at your next available option to do so. Playing flush draws in Stud is a bit tricky and situational, but with just a little experience it will begin to come naturally.

Three to a straight: 3 cards in consecutive order of rank is your next best starting hand, as long as they are open ended: (example of non open ended cards are AKQ and A23). With most of these hands you’ll be calling cheaply to see if you pick up an open ended straight draw by fourth street and if you’ve failed to improve by then you’ll be letting the hand go. The exception to this comes in situations where you’ve already shown strength and you feel your opponent has hit a brick as well.

Playable hands in ideal spots / position:

In certain spots such as playing against tight and bluffable opponents, as well as attempts at stealing antes, small pairs or hands such as three high cards are certainly playable. Be prepared to let these hands go on fourth or fifth street when facing pressure, but when you do get lucky and hit with these hands it only will help you get paid off more often on your premium hands.

Recommended 7 Card Stud Reading Material and Tools

7 Card Stud is a game that will only be mastered with experience. Our suggestion is to play some games at both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars to get used to the different playing styles at each site. As you’re gaining experience it will also be helpful to read some books on 7 Card Stud, perhaps the best on the market is 7 Card Stud for Advanced players by David Sklansky, as well as participate in and lurk the 7 Card Stud forums of popular poker sites such as twoplustwo.com.

Best 7 Card Stud Tool: Perhaps the best tool on the market to help players track mucked cards as well as to provide a player with an additional edge is Stud Inspector v1. This is program is on PokerStars approved list of 3rd party software and to the best of our knowledge also complies with Full Tilt Poker’s TOS (be sure to check with them first). You can find the program at pokerinspector.com/stud/

Tip on finding soft 7 Card Stud Games: Most mixed game players will admit that their weakest game is 7 Card Stud – if you’re skilled in multiple forms of poker you might consider playing the PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker HORSE games rather than playing the Stud only tables.