How to Play Seven-Card Stud
Seven-Card Stud deals each player seven cards — some face-down, some face-up — and the best five-card poker hand wins. There are five betting rounds and no community cards, so everything you learn about your opponent comes from the cards they're showing. Standard rankings apply: straights and flushes count, and the ace is the best card in the deck.
The rules in six ideas
If you've played Razz, you already know the rhythm of this game — two down and one up, a bet every street, seven cards by the end. Stud is that rhythm with the goal turned back the right way up. If you've only played Hold'em, the new part is that there is no board: nobody shares a card with anybody.
1. Highest hand wins. Normal poker. A flush beats a straight, trips beat two pair, and the ace is the best card you can hold.
2. Seven cards, best five play. Two arrive face-down and one face-up. Then three more face-up, one at a time, and a final card face-down. Your best five of those seven make your hand — the other two simply don't matter.
3. Four of your cards are public. This is the skill of the game and the reason it rewards paying attention. By the end, your opponent has seen four of your seven — and you've seen four of theirs. Half the information is on the table.
4. Cards you've seen are gone. With no shared board, every card showing around the table is one fewer in the deck. If three kings are face-up elsewhere, you are not making four of a kind — and this is the one thing Hold'em never teaches you to track.
5. The worst card showing pays first. No blinds. Everyone antes, and then the player with the lowest door card is forced to open with the bring-in. This is exactly backwards from Razz, and for exactly the same reason: the game makes the worst-off hand pay to start.
6. Then the best board leads. From fourth street on, the player whose face-up cards make the strongest hand acts first — again, the mirror of Razz, where the lowest board speaks first.
Try it — one real decision
You hold (A♠ A♦) 7♣. Sarge shows K♥. Your move?
How the betting works
Everyone antes. The lowest door card is forced in for the bring-in, and two players showing the same rank are split by suit — lowest first: clubs, then diamonds, hearts, spades. Tied deuces, and the 2♣ pays. From fourth street on the highest board acts first. Bets come in two fixed sizes: small on third and fourth streets, double from the fifth card on, with raises capped — you always know the most a hand can cost you.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards do you get in Seven-Card Stud?
Who bets first in Seven-Card Stud?
Is Seven-Card Stud the same as Razz?
Are there community cards in Seven-Card Stud?
What is the best starting hand in Seven-Card Stud?
Terms to know
Reading about poker doesn't make you good at it.
Seven-Card Stud is coming to Beyond Hold'em — the skills transfer. Razz is the same deal with the goal flipped, and it's playable right now.
Play Razz free — the friendliest door into mixed games