Seven Card Stud Starting Hands

If you ask a lot of poker pro's what their personal favorite game is, you might be surprised to hear a lot of them say Seven Card Stud, if you ask those same pro’s what the toughest game to play well is, you will probably get the same response. A good Seven Card Stud player will have a bigger advantage over an average table than in other games, because the ratio of good players to terrible is quite high.

The number one concept that a new Stud player has to understand is starting hand selection, and it is not as easy a task as in Hold Em, where your hands are far less variable, in seven card stud, you have a lot more hand combinations to think about.

I break the types of starting hands that you can receive and play as Premium Hands, Drawing Hands and Small Pairs.

The best starting hands are the premium hands. These hands consist of a pair of tens or better and Trips (three of a kind). Being dealt three of a kind to start out the game is the best premium hand that you can get. The higher the three of a kind, the better. You can play these hands from any position and can play them aggressively.

One of the biggest mistakes players make in a Stud game is playing far too many hands, or not knowing what situations to play certain types of hands in. Use this to your advantage, as an example, in a multi-way pot, you want your big drawing hand going against players who think their (K3)K is golden, and you may be holding (89)10 suited.

There are two types of drawing hands that you can play. One is three flushes and the other is three straights. The three flush draw is preferable because a flush outranks a straight. The higher the cards in your three flush the better the starting hand that you have. If your drawing hand is a K-Q-10 of clubs if you get another K, Q or 10 you now have a premium hand.

Higher cards in a three straight are also preferable. A three straight of A-K-Q can also become a premium hand.

Playing too many hands gets you in a lot of trouble, not necessarily because of what you are first dealt, but because of the trap you might be setting yourself up for in a later round of betting. The last thing you want is to get stuck with a soft draw when you should have just folded anyway. Advanced players look to pick on the new or just plain stubborn players who choose to chase at small flushes or straights when another player is at worse holding a bigger inherent draw, if not a made hand.

The third type of playable hands are small pairs. Small Pairs are any pair from two to nine. As you can easily see, the higher the small pair the better. The higher the kicker the better the hand. In fact a pair of fives with an Ace or King Kicker is oftentimes a better hand than a pair of eights with a three for a kicker.

Concealed pairs (pairs in your face down cards) are better than a split pair (one paired card face down and the other face up) because if you get three of a kind you have the opportunity to play the hand deceptively.

Seven Card Stud is a game that rewards an extremely high level of table awareness. Stud is tough because of the amount of information that you must process upon making a decision, however if you can put all the pieces together properly, it will make your decision quite easy.

The two most important pieces of information in Stud, which are obvious but often misinterpreted, are how many opponents are in the hand, and what cards are already displayed on the table.

You also need to be aware of all the standard poker information such as the tables aggression level, along with who is doing the raising and calling, and both your position and that of your opponents, etc.

When all this is put to use, you will know whether or not it is a good idea to continue to play or throw your hand away.

A simple example is if you hold (10 10)Q and you see two players each holding a ten face up, and a lot of your drawing cards face up already, and there are several callers already, folding is probably a good idea. If it folds to you and you have a chance at stealing the antes, or are last to act and can get heads up, then playing the hand is an option.

Like any poker game, the more Stud you play the more comfortable you will get with the starting hands, and be able to get a good feel for what you should be playing when.