7 Card Stud Advanced Strategy
As we have stated at the beginning of this section, 7 Card Stud is a complex variation of poker. Playing it requires a lot of patience and concentration, mastering it could cost you a lot of time spent in cardrooms and your money.
Being a poker beginner, you will need a lot of help learning effective strategies of playing 7 Card Stud. Here are some tips that would help you claim the pot.
- Only play live hands. Meaning you should only play hands with a potential to improve. For example, your 3 starting cards are of the same suit (three flush), then several other cards of this suit also appear on the table. This means your hand is unlikely to improve further, your hand is said to be dead and should be thrown away. On the other hand, if only one or two of your suited cards are showing, you may have a chance to improve your hand in the coming rounds.When the first round is completed (the third street), check out all the door cards. You can consider your hand dead if most of the cards you need to make a pair or a possible winning hand are already out.
- Big pairs play better in short-handed pots. Say you have a Queen pair, this is a good starting hand. You have a reason to raise or re-raise a bet at this early stage of the game because big pairs usually do best when played in short-handed pots. Against only a few opponents it has a chance of winning without improvement. But you are in danger of losing if you have a lot of opponents who have a chance of improving their hands as the next rounds unfold. The opposite is true, however, if you have drawing hands such as three flush or three straight. Because although they are good starting hands they don't really have value unless the next rounds bring out the cards that will help boost it. On this case, you prefer to have more opponents so that when you do make a hand there are still enough players around to pay it off.
- Small and medium pairs are more difficult to play than big pairs. Say you have a 6-pair or 4-pair in your starting hands, these are occasionally good hands. If you decide to play this, you should remember that one of your opponents can easily catch a card higher that your pair that will give him a better edge than you.
- One or more high card adds value to your hand. We cannot emphasize more the important part that high cards play. Having a high card, say a K or an A, can do you good in two ways: one it's a good kicker card, two if you pick up another K or A then you have a pretty heavy pair that has the chance to win the pot.
- Beware of scare cards. Scare cards are those that can either improve you hand or helps get another card that could improve your hand. For example, if you draw a suited Q to go along with your K, your opponent would be wary that you have a pair, a straight, or even a flush in the works. At the same time, be wary when your opponent catches a scare card. Make careful decisions on when you will call or raise a bet.
- It's often worth it to go all the way. Although it's true that you should be selective of the hands you play, once you enter the pot it's generally right to go along the way even if you feel you don't have the best hands. But of course, if it's certain that you have a losing hand, you should fold immediately and not waste any more money. But in most situations, if you've played your cards well long enough there could be a lot of ways for you to win. Plus, how else will your game improve if you always resist going all the way?
