I post these articles every week. They come courtesy of the Full Tilt Poker newsletter. Perry Friedman is one of the Poker Pros at Full Tilt Poker. You can get great tips like these every week simply by downloading their software and becoming a member. Plus its a great site!

Third Street In Seven Stud

For those of you who are unfamiliar with seven-card stud, there are some betting quirks in the game that you should understand. During the opening round of betting (also called “third street”), the player with the lowest up card is forced to act first. There are two choices: Bet the “bring-in” amount (which is usually one-third of the full bet) or “complete” the bet (make it a full bet). If the player chooses to bet the bring-in amount, another player has the option of completing the bet. Note that this is not considered a raise, because it is only increasing the initial bet to one full bet. This means there is still a bet and three remaining raises allowed during the opening round.

You should almost never bring in for a completion in Stud Hi, except in very rare tournament situations. There are a number of reasons for this, including the need to conceal the strength of your hand and the desire to keep your options open later in the round.

If you make it a habit only to bring in for a completion when you have a good hand, an astute player will pick up on this and will steal from you every time you don’t complete the bring-in. Conversely, if you always complete the bet, you are throwing away money when you are forced in, which is usually when you have a bad hand since you already have the lowest up card.

Furthermore, bringing in for a completion limits your betting options. If you bring in for the minimum and someone else completes the bet, you can raise back for a full bet, whereas your opponent can only complete for a partial bet. You can also decide to slow play your hand if someone completes. Completing the bet exposes you to being raised back a full bet. By always bringing in for the minimum, you do not give away the strength of your hand and leave your options open on third street.

When playing in a live ring game, I will seldom even look at my down cards when I am the bring-in. Whether or not you look at your cards first is a matter of personal preference, but by not looking, you can’t give a tell. However, one of the important aspects of stud is being aware of what cards have already been dealt out to your opponents. If you decide not to look at your hole cards, you should still peruse the table and take inventory of what cards are already out.

For some people, cataloguing all the upcards may be a tedious and exhausting process, and they will prefer to look at their downcards first so that they immediately know which key cards will improve their hand, or if they even have a playable hand at all. The only flaw with this shortcut is that when you do have a playable hand, you need to be aware of what your key cards are and know which cards will help or hurt your opponents. I recommend getting in the habit of always mentally keeping track of all of the up cards.

In heads-up play, keeping track of the cards is much simpler; they are always there to see and you don’t need to remember who folded which cards. This makes it even less important to check your down cards before acting.

In online play, you will always be aware of your down cards, but you should still get in the practice of tracking your opponents’ cards. One way to keep the game interesting - and to work on your skills at the same time - is to track all the cards even when you are out of the hand. As the hand progresses, try to figure out what hands your opponents are likely playing. At the showdown, you can see how well your reading skills are coming along.

Stud can be a very enjoyable and interesting game, but it relies less on intuition and more on keeping your mind focused and your eyes open.

- Perry Friedman

Posted by as admin at 7:12 PM UTC

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Several days ago I wrote about seven card stud advanced stratgies. I talked about how you can count cards to determine your chances at making hands.

I wanted to talk about this a bit more and share some more tips with you. One tip that many people overlook is the 4 color card deck. What is the 4 color card deck? A 4 color deck makes clubs green and makes diamonds blue. So you have green clubs, blue diamonds, red hearts, and black spades. Yes it looks cheesy, however there is great strategy in it.

When playing 7 card stud you want to be able to count cards. You want to count what your opponent has and you want to compare that to your own hand. Having the color coded cards makes it even easier to count the cards. Visually it takes less time to count 4 “green” cards, than it does to look at all the black cards and determine which ones are clubs and which are spades. You can within a second determine how many of each suit is showing by simply using the 4 color card deck.

When counting cards what you want to do is compare them to the cards in your own hand. This makes it easier to keep track of.

So you’ll look in your hand. Lets say you see a pair of 10’s in your hand. Such as 10 10 and you have a J showing. You can look around the board and determine what your opponents have facing up. Do you see any other 10’s? How many cards above 10 do you see? If you see that the cards facing up are mostly low cards then your 10s might be the highest pair… However if you see a lot of face cards, then you know that your opponents probably have higher pairs than you do.

Similarly do you see jacks? Maybe you can catch a 2nd jack. However if you see 2 jacks you know that would be a foolish play.

Now also think about your opponents. Is your opponent making strong bets? Perhaps he has two pair or 3 of a kind. Is he playing weak simply calling bets? Perhaps he is on a draw? Is he drawing for a flush? Lets say he shows a couple of clubs… And you know you have a couple of clubs in your hand, plus by counting cards you’ve counted 3 more clubs. So assuming your opponent has 4 in his hand, you have 2, and there are 3 dead clubs already played. That makes 9 of the 13 clubs in play already. There quite possibly were even some dead cards you didn’t see in opponents hands who have already folded. Your opponents chance of hitting that flush is going to be very bad.

Using these strategies you can greatly increase your odds in seven card stud.

- Fittsy

Posted by as admin at 8:39 AM UTC

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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 as admin at 5:35 PM UTC

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Did you know the World Championship of Online Poker is at pokerstars this weekend?

The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is the world’s biggest online poker event with 15 big events and a guaranteed prize pool of $8 million!

You can enter satellites for as little as $3 or 50 frequent player points.

Don’t miss out! The tournament launches this weekend. Satellites are going on NOW!

I’m going to be playing in satellites this week!

See you on poker stars!
- Fittsy

# DATE EVENT BUY-IN FEE GUARANTEE   1.   September 4 (Sun)   No-Limit Hold ‘em $500   $30   $800,000     2.   September 5 (Mon)   Pot-Limit Omaha (rebuys)   $200   $15   $200,000     3.   September 6 (Tue)   No-Limit Hold ‘em Match Play    $200   $15   $200,000     4.   September 7 (Wed)   Pot-Limit Hold’em Short-Handed 6/Table   $200   $15   $200,000     5.   September 8 (Thu)   No-Limit Hold ‘em (rebuys)   $200   $15   $700,000     6.   September 9 (Fri)   Limit Hold ‘em   $200   $15   $150,000     7.   September 10 (Sat)   Pot-Limit Hold ‘em   $500   $30   $350,000     8.   September 11 (Sun)   No-Limit Hold ‘em   $1,000   $50   $1,000,000     9.   September 12 (Mon)   Seven Card Stud   $300   $20   $150,000     10.   September 13 (Tue)   No-Limit Hold ‘em Triple Shootout   $1,000   $50   $700,000      11.   September 14 (Wed)   Limit Omaha High/Low   $500   $30   $250,000     12.   September 15 (Thu)   Seven Card Stud High/Low   $500   $30   $150,000     13.   September 16 (Fri)   Pot-Limit Omaha   $500   $30   $250,000     14.   September 17 (Sat)   Limit Hold ‘em   $1,000   $50   $400,000     15.   September 18 (Sun)   No-Limit Hold ‘em   $2,500   $100   $2,500,000                 Total Guarantee   $8,000,000

WCOOP event times: Monday - Friday 3:00PM ET, Saturday and Sunday 4:30PM ET.

Posted by as admin at 2:54 PM UTC

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In seven card stud each player is dealt 3 cards facing down and 4 cards facing up. Each player has their own set of cards. There are no community cards as in Texas Holdem.

7 card stud is dealt to a table of 8 or fewer players. This means you have two fewer players than in a traditional holdem game.

7 card stud is dealt, 2 cards down, one card up to all 8 players. Then the first round of betting occurs with the player with the lowest card being forced to bring in half the initial bet. This is a forced bet to get the pot started. This player may choose to make a full size bet if they like.

After the first round of betting another card is dealt face up to all of the players at the table. This makes the fourth card. Betting from this point on will begin with the player who has the highest up card(s) initiates the betting.

Now the third card is dealt face up. Another round of betting occurs. At this point the bet is now doubled.

Now the fourth card is dealt face up. Betting starts again.

The final card is now dealt face down. Betting occurs again, and cards are shown.

There are two variations of Seven card stud commonly played today. Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud High Lo.

7 card stud is a high card game. Meaning it is played like normal poker with the highest hand winning the pot. The highest hand is the royal flush, followed by straight flush, 4 of a kind, etc.

7 card stud high/lo is significantly different. In each hand there is a possibilty of two winners who split the pot. Half the pot goes to the person with the high hand following the traditional poker rules as above. The other half the pot goes to the person with the low hand. The low hand being comprised of 5 unique low cards ranging from Ace to 8 where the ace would represent “one” as in blackjack. So the best low hand would actually be ace, two, three, four, five. Pairs do not count towards low. You can only count one of your cards from the pair. So if you had a pair or a set of threes only one 3 could be counted towards low. However straights and flushes don’t affect this. So a straight flush a 2 3 4 5 would be the best hand. It would win both low and high unless someone else had a higher straight flush or royal flush.

In high lo there isn’t always a low winner. Sometimes there is only a high. It is also possible for one player to win both the low and the high as in our example where you have the straight flush. This is called “scooping” the pot.

One key thing to keep in mind is Scooping the entire pot (winning the high and the low) is significantly more profitable than winning two split pots. Why? In a split pot your winning your chips back, and perhaps making a small profit. In a hand where you scoop the entire pot you will win significantly more chips and make much more profit. Scooping a few pots is going to earn you A LOT more than splitting a bunch of pots.

You should probably start out playing high/lo in some low limit games or even freebies. Or sometimes you can find mixed games where you play holdem for 20 minutes, 7 card for 20 minutes, and omaha for 20 minutes. This can be a great way to learn the other games you are unfamiliar with.

- Fittsy

Posted by as admin at 7:53 PM UTC

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My friend BenB over at The Poker Blog posted an article this weekend about 7 card stud. He actually listed a strategy he uses to determine which starting hands he will play:

The hand I’m willing to play to a raise are: 3 high cards to a straight, 3 suited cards, a split pair bigger than 10s, a wired pair bigger than 7s. I realize that I’m playing incredibly loose, but it works for me because I have no problem throwing away two pair and I am very good at figuring out what people have based on their board cards.

Keep in mind that BenB is an experienced player. He knows when he is in too deep and knows when to lay down the cards. I would not recommend these starting hands to anyone. However if you want to try them out for fun or in a tournament try BenB’s strategy. I played on Full Tilt at $.10/$.20 this weekend and won $25 in a little over an hour using this method.

He plays the following STARTING hands in 7 card stud (high):
Wired pairs bigger than 7s (meaning the two hidden cards are a matching pair)
Split pairs above 10 (meaning one of the pair is hidden and one is facing up.)
Any 3 suited cards
3 high cards to a straight

Now keep in mind BenB is pretty good at judging his hands. I am also pretty good at this.

I know how to read my opponents hands and determine what my odds are going to be of successfully finishing my hand.

So for example if I have 3 hearts and I’m playing for the flush, but I see my opponents each have a couple of hearts… I know my odds of getting two more hearts has gone down considerably. I know where 5 of the 13 hearts are. I know there are only 8 hearts remaining. Depending on my odds, what the amount to call is, etc. I may play another card. If on the turn of the next card I see another heart or two come out I know there is very little chance I’m going to make my heart flush.

So I know when to play these cards.

However I thought I’d give them out as an example of starting hands you might want to play in 7 card stud HIGH. Keep in mind that 7 card stud high-low is a different story!

- Fittsy

Posted by as admin at 6:53 PM UTC

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So maybe I found my game!

I played in a
poker stars freeroll tournament of 7 card stud high-low. I had NEVER played this variation before. I didn’t even realize it was a high low until the tournament started. I folded the first few hands and went to google and did a search for some 7 card strategy sites. I used the following resources to help me learn the game:

http://www.pokersyte.com/seven_hilo.htm
http://www.studstrategy.com/7cardstudstrategy8b.htm
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_magazine/archives/?a_id=13968
http://www.thepokerforum.com/jvpr14.htm

This gave me the rules and helped me learn some strategy. I really didn’t understand the “low” part for awhile! I played for probably an hour before I realized a small pair didn’t neccessarily disqualify me!

Basically 7 card stud high low is like this.

Anything 8 or lower qualifies for the low side. You can use any of your 7 cards to create the low hand. Straights and flushes do NOT disqualify you. The best low hand has the lowest high card. So you need 5,4,3,2,A to have the best hand. An 8 as your highest low card will help you make low but it will be beaten by anyone whose largest low card is a 5, 6, or 7. It is best to view some of those sites above to get a feel for how this works.

The really amazing thing about 7 card high low is that you can actually win both the low and the high. A straight 5,4,3,2,A is one of the best hands in the game. You have a strong chance to win both the high and the low. This is called “scooping” the hand.

Anyway I really enjoyed the 7 card game. I lasted over an hour and a half and placed 1202 out of 3993 players! That is the best I have ever done in a tournament. That means I was in the top 31% of players in the tournament. Not too bad!

I’m definitely going to find some more 7 card games to play today and see how well I do. I wonder if it was just a fluke?

- See you online
Fittsy

Posted by as admin at 1:45 PM UTC

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