Seven card stud poker is an exhilarating and challenging online poker game that can take a long time to master. A poker player is dealt with seven cards throughout the course of the game in seven card stud poker. The winner is determined by the best five-card poker hand.

In seven card stud poker games, there is usually a limit betting structure where the bets are in fixed increments, unlike Texas Hold’em and Omaha.

Seven Card Stud Poker Rules

Ante

In Seven card stud poker, ante is a nominal amount placed in the pot by all the players before the hand is played. What an ante does is, it ensures that a hand has a minimum amount to pay out. Because of ante the players are encouraged to play instead of folding. Ante amount is usually small and depends on the game being played.

Third Street

At the start of a hand, every player is dealt with 3 cards, two hidden hole cards and one face up. The player who has the lowest face up card is the ‘bring-in’, the one who has to start the action. This player has to either make another nominal bet, the amount of which depends on the game, or a full bet of the lower betting increment. The action continues in the clockwise direction till the time betting is complete for the round.

Fourth Street

In the next round, each player receives another face up card which is known as ‘Fourth Street’. The player whose face up cards have the highest value is the one to act first. For example, a player with an exposed pair of Queens would act first, provided that no other player has a pair of Kings or better. The player acting first may either check or bet the lower structured betting amount. There is a round of betting.

Fifth Street

Each player now receives another face up card which is known as ‘Fifth Street’. Again the player to act first is the one whose exposed cards have the highest poker value. There is a round of betting. All the bets are in big bet increments (4 in a 2/4 game) starting from Fifth Street and for the rest of the hand.

Sixth Street

Each player now receives another face up card which is known as ‘Sixth Street’. The same happens here too, a player with the highest value of exposed poker cards acts first. There is a round of betting.

Seventh Street (River)

Each player receives the final (seventh) card which is dealt face down. Player with the highest poker value of exposed cards acts first. There is a final betting round and if there are more than one player remaining after that, we have a showdown.

Showdown

If there is more than one player at the end of the last betting round, the last bettor or raiser shows his or her cards first. The player in the earliest seat shows his or her cards first, provided that there was no bet in the final round. Remaining hands in the showdown are exposed clockwise around the table.

The poker player with the best five-card poker hand wins the pot. In case, players have identical hands, the pot is equally divided between them.

Player Betting Options

In Seven card stud poker, a poker player can take actions like ‘fold’, ‘check’, ‘bet’, ‘call’, or ‘raise’. What options are available with a poker player depends on the actions of previous players. In a scenario where no player has made a bet, then you can either check or bet. If one player has made a bet, then the players to follow can fold, call, or raise. To call is to match the amount of the previous player’s bet. To raise is to increase the amount of the previous player’s bet. In limit games, bets and raises are in predetermined amounts.

Additional Stud Rules and Situations

To determine the bring-in in Seven Card Stud poker game, ties in card rank are broken by suit. The suits are ranked based on the alphabetical order - Clubs (lowest), Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades (highest). The lowest suit in the game breaks a tie. For example, if there is a deuce of Clubs and deuce of Hearts at the beginning of a hand, then the deuce of Clubs would have the bring-in. This rule is not applicable to the ranking of equal hands during the showdown.

There is a possibility that the game might run out of cards before the Seventh Street can be dealt, as stud games have 8 players with only 52 cards in the deck. In such a scenario, a single community card is dealt face up on the table, which is shared by all remaining players.

Once you start playing a Seven Card Stud poker game online, you will get better at it with time. Now that you know how to play poker and rules for stud poker, come play the thrilling poker game online on India’s most loved gaming platform, First Games.