How to Play Seven Card Stud
Seven Card Stud (often stylized as "7-Card Stud) is a poker variant that's often played as part of a mixed-game format.
Once one of the world's most popular poker games, Seven Card Stud ranks behind Texas Hold'em and Omaha in terms of popularity in the modern era. You'll still find the game played at the World Series of Poker, or as part of the rotation in mixed-game cash games.
Let's dive into the rules of Seven Card Stud poker:
(Note: This guide covers the rules of standard Seven Card Stud. You can also learn 5 Card Stud here or Stud Hi-Lo here.)
A strong starting hand in Seven Card Stud.
(Note: This guide covers the rules of standard Seven Card Stud. You can also learn 5 Card Stud here or Stud Hi-Lo here.)
Seven Card Stud Poker Rules Overview
Seven Card Stud is part of the "Stud" family of poker games. Stud poker games involve each player getting a combination of face-up cards and face-down cards.
Unlike Texas Hold'em and Omaha, there are no community cards in Seven Card Stud. Each player gets their own cards, up to a maximum of seven.
Each hand begins with each player getting three cards. Two of those cards are dealt face down, known as hole cards. Hole cards are only visible to the player holding them.
After the first two hole cards, each player gets a third card dealt face up. This card is known as the door card.
When all players have their first three cards, the first betting round commences. After each betting round, all players still remaining in the hand get another face up card.
The pattern of betting rounds and cards dealt repeats up to a maximum of seven cards for each player. After the first round of betting, the cards for all subsequent betting rounds are dealt face up, except for the final round of betting.
The seventh card is always dealt face down in Seven Card Stud. If you take all seven cards, you'll have a total of three hole cards (face-down cards) and four face-up cards. Along with the first two cards, each player's final card is always face down.
After the final betting round, all players still in the hand reveal their hole cards. The player with the best possible five-card combination according to standard poker hand ranking wins.
Betting Rules For Seven-Card Stud
Antes and the Bring-In
Stud is almost always played with limit betting rules. For more on fixed limit games and betting structures, including references to the "small bet" and "big bet" referenced throughout this article, see our guide to Poker Betting Rules.
Stud is unlike Hold’em and Omaha, where two players to the left of the button post blinds. Instead, each player at the table posts an ante, usually worth 5% of the big bet.
The player who receives the lowest ranking door card posts a forced bet called the bring-in which is worth five times the ante. If they so choose, this player may also complete the bet, by posting the entire small bet.
In a $5/$10 7 Card Stud game, players would post $0.50 ante, and the bring-in would be $2.50. If the player chose to complete, they would need to pay $5 (the amount of the small bet).
The Streets
There are no community cards in stud games. Instead, each player in 7 Card Stud receives seven unique cards. The first dealing street includes two down cards and one up card to each player.
Four more betting rounds commence after that, with each player getting another card dealt faceup in each round.
After all seven cards have been dealt, the players will be left with three cards face down and four cards face up.
Players start with three cards (the two hole cards and third street/the door card). A betting round ensues, then fourth street hits the table, followed by another betting round. This continues until every player has 7 cards, with the final card coming face down.
The Betting Rounds
Once the player with the lowest-value door card has posted his bring-in, the action continues clockwise around the table. Every player has the right to either raise the bet, call, or fold their cards.
In a $5/$10 game, players would have the option to raise the bring-in to $5. Since Stud is always played as a limit game, there are exact limits as to how much you can raise.
The third and fourth street use the small bet as the raising and betting standard, while the fifth, sixth, and seventh street use the big bet.
The only exception to this is when a player pairs their door card on the fourth street, in which case they may open with the big bet instead of the small bet if they so choose.
To use our $5/$10 game example once more, players would be raising and betting in $5 increments on the first two streets and in $10 increments on the later three streets. If a player pairs his door card on fourth street, they get an option of opening with the $10 bet.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth streets, each include a single card being dealt face up to all remaining players. Seventh street is then dealt face down. A betting round follows after every dealing street.
Starting with the fourth street, the first player to act is always the one with the strongest showing hand.
For instance, a player showing a pair will always act before players whose hands are not showing a pair. Face-down cards (like your hole cards, your opponent's final card, etc.) are irrelevant.
The Showdown
If more than one player remains in the hand after seventh street, the players show their cards, starting with seat one and around the table clockwise. If there was aggressive action on the last betting street, the player who made the aggressive action goes first in showing the cards.
The player with the strongest five-card poker hand wins the pot. Winning hands are determined using standard poker hand rankings. If two or more players have the same hand strength, the pot is split among the winning players.
In the Stud showdown example above, the player on the right wins with a club flush, beating the left player's two-pair.