One of the cool aspects of seven card stud is that everyone can see 4 cards from each players hand. This allows for a lot of bluffing because 43% of the players cards are hidden from view. If a player has a pair showing, they easily might have a full house or four of a kind hidden. Players with 3 or 4 suited cards showing could easily have a flush. So this leads to a lot of opportunities for bluffing. On the other hand a player could have a flush with only two suited cards showing!

Another cool aspect that many people overlook is that you can see SO many of the cards available. The initial deal shows 8 cards face up. Thats 15% of the entire deck of cards.

How might you use this to your advantage?

Lets say you were dealt three hearts. You are thinking about betting hoping for the heart flush. However you notice that three other hearts were dealt face up already. That makes 6 of the 13 hearts. Since there were also 16 cards dealt face down chances are a couple more hearts will be dead to you. Odds are not very good that you’ll hit the heart flush. So you probably don’t want to play it.

On the other hand, lets say you were dealt a wired pair of 6’s. (That means your hole cards, the ones face down, are your 6’s.) You look around at all the cards facing up and don’t see any other 6’s. You might want to play the hand knowing you have a hidden pair and you have a chance to make a set. On the other hand if you look around and see both the 6’s in the other people’s hands, you might want to fold the hand even though you have the wired pair.

If you pay close attention to the cards that are dealt you’ll be able to play very smart poker.

Lets say for example you have an inside straight draw. However you see 4 of the cards are already dead because they appear in other player’s hands. Your odds of hitting your inside straight draw are now not any better than a gutshot straight. Once again you might want to lay the hand down.

These are just examples to get you thinking about how to play strategically when you play 7 card stud.

- Fittsy

Posted by in Learn Poker, 7 Card Stud