Understanding the Game of 7 Card Stud Poker.

Seven Card Stud Poker is a rewarding poker game which can be tough to master. The Seven Card Stud Poker game also demands an entirely different approach as far as betting and strategy are concerned.

One's memory plays a major role throughout the game. But once you manage to get into the groove, seven card stud poker is quite easy to play. In order to do well in competitive games, it'll take a lot of practice and experience.

In Seven Card Stud Poker, the standard deck of 52 cards is used. The game begins with the dealer issuing each of the players three cards : two face down cards and one face up.

If there is bring-in, the player with the lowest ranking upcard should pay the bring-in, and the betting starts in the normal clockwise order. The bring-in is assumed to be an 'open' and hence the next player may not check. In the case of two players having low cards of the same rank, the suit may be used as a tie-breaker.

On the other hand, if there is no bring-in then the betting begins with the player showing the highest ranking upcard, who may check. However if a tie occurs here, the suit is not used to break the tie. Instead, the player who sits first in the clockwise direction from the dealer gets the first chance to place the bet.

After the first round of betting is over, the players are dealt another face up card (after the burn card that is useless). Betting now starts with the player whose upcards constitute the best poker hand (no flushes, straights or full houses since less than five cards are face-up). In fact in all the following rounds, the player with the best poker hand acts first, check or bet up to the highest limit.

The second round of 7 Card Stud Poker is followed by another upcard, followed by betting, a fourth upcard, followed by another round of betting, and a fifth downcard and it's round of betting, before heading towards showdown. In the showdown, the player with the best poker hand will win the pot. The pot is split in the event of a tie.

In seven card stud, a dilemma could arise if there are eight players in the game. Seven cards dealt to eight players, plus the four burn cards sums up to 60. But a deck will have only 52 cards. This is a classic case of 'card sharing', and in usual circumstances it won't lead to any card crunch, since one or more players must have folded before it actually gets to a point of card scarcity. But things could lead to an impasse in low stake games where players might not fold that quickly. In such cases, as a first step, previously dealt burn cards are used to complete the deal. If that option does not work, instead of dealing a downcard in the final round, a single community card is placed in the middle, and is shared by everyone, assuming it to be the seventh card in their hand. In no case however are cards from the folded hands used as backup cards.