7 Card Stud is the classic poker game that gained immense popularity in the "old west", developing into the Hi-Lo version as poker players sought more challenge on the felt.
7 Card Stud Hi-Lo Rules are easy enough to learn, but often take some practice to truly grasp the influence of High and Low hands.
7 Card Stud Hi-Lo Rules - The Basics 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo is essentially two poker games in one.
Players are dealt a total of 7 cards throughout the hand, and must first develop the best possible High Hand, then the best possible Low Hand.
The winners of each hand - High and Low - splits the pot.
It isn't quite as simple as all that, however.
The High Hand is played in the normal manner, with standard poker hand ranks.
The Low Hand utilizes much different hand ranking rules and requires 'Qualifying'.
Qualifying Low Hand 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo is also known as "8 or better" because of the hand development rules, defined as follows: - Aces are the lowest card - Straights/Flushes are not considered combinations - A 5-card hand may not contain any card higher than an 8, and no pairs or better - Strongest 7 Card Stud Low Hand: A-2-3-4-5 - Weakest 'Qualifying' 7 Card Stud Low Hand: 4-5-6-7-8 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo Rules - Betting Structure 7 Card Stud can be played in most limits, though the standard setting is a Fixed Limit betting structure.
Unlike Hold'em style poker games, 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo uses the classic Ante bets, followed by a Bring-In bet.
These are forced bets that cannot be waved off.
We'll now define Fixed Limit and forced bets.
Fixed Limit: This betting structure determines exactly how much a player may bet/raise throughout the hand.
For the first two betting rounds, all bets/raises must match the low bet, doubling to meet the high bet in the final three betting rounds.
For example, in a $2/$4 game, the low bet is $2 and the high bet $4.
Ante: A very small wager placed by all participants before a hand is dealt.
The actual amount of the Ante may vary from one poker room to another, but is generally 10-25% of the low bet.
At $2/$4 stakes, the Ante could be $0.
20, up to $0.
50 per player.
Bring-In: This forced bet, equal to 50% of the low bet, is placed by just one player, after the initial deal, where everyone receives their first 3 cards.
To start, two cards are dealt face down, followed by a third face-up, known as the Door Card.
The player with the lowest Door Card places the Bring-In bet.
Should a tie for lowest card occur, the player with the lowest suit makes the bet.
Suits rank lowest-highest alphabetically: Club > Diamond > Heart > Spade.
7 Card Stud Hi-Lo Rules - The Deal In this section, we will layout an example hand, from the deal to the showdown, to teach how a typical 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo hand plays out.
Note that at any time during a hand, if all but one player Folds, that player is instantly awarded the entire pot.
A 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo hand begins with all players putting up the Ante bet.
Each player is then dealt one card at a time, starting with the player left of the dealer and continuing clockwise until each player has a total of 3 cards - two face-down and the third face-up (the Door Card).
The player with the lowest Door Card places the Bring-In to start off the first round of betting.
The player left of the Bring-In may bet, raise or fold.
He may not call the Bring-In since it is only ½ of the low bet.
Remember, all bets and raises must match the low bet amount for the first two betting rounds.
Betting continues around the table until all players have acted.
The Bring-In will only need to add chips to his current bet in order to call/raise.
Once all players have acted, calling the current bet (or folding), the hand continues.
4th Street: A 4th card is dealt face-up to each player.
This time, and for the remainder of the hand, the player with the highest Open Hand (face-up cards only) will start the betting.
5th Street: Another card is dealt face-up to all players, followed by another round of betting.
All bets/raises now increase to match the high bet.
6th Street: Another face-up card and another betting round...
7th Street: The final card is generally dealt face down (see "Not Enough Cards" below).
The last betting round commences...
The Showdown: Because of the split nature of 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, we will divide the Showdown into two portions - the High Hand and the Low Hand.
High Hand: Every active player uses the 7 cards available to them to develop the strongest 5-card hand.
The highest ranking poker hand wins half of the pot.
Low Hand: The Low Hand must Qualify to win.
Active player attempt to develop the best qualifying Low Hand.
The player with the lowest hand wins the other half of the pot.
If no player Qualifies for a Low Hand, the High Hand winner takes the pot.
It is not uncommon for two players to tie for the best Low Hand, resulting in a split of the Low half of the pot.
7 Card Stud Hi-Lo Rules - Not Enough Cards 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo can be played by up to 8 players.
Should all 8 players choose to stay in the hand - none Folding throughout - there won't be enough cards in a standard 52-card deck to deal every player 7 cards (8 x 7 = 56).
Though extremely rare, there is a solution for such an occurrence.
The 7th Street would be dealt face-up in the center of the table as a Community Card.
Every player assumes this single card to be their own 7th Street.