While this great American poker game once ruled the scenes at card rooms across the world, it saw a slight dip in popularity over the past ten years due to a new wave of young aggressive players taking to Texas hold’em. With poker exploding however, seven card stud has seen a nice resurgence in the online poker world. You can find great games at pretty much any online poker room these days and with a little practice and strategy know-how, you can take advantage of the below average player base quite quickly. In this article, we will discuss some of the basic strategies of seven card stud that will put you on the fast track to success the next time you sit down to play a hand at your favorite online card room.

Starting hand and playing strategy

In seven card stud you need to be very selective about the hands you enter the pot with. Because the hands stretch on for quite a long time, you can end up getting yourself in big trouble by playing poor starting hands. While this is not a set-in-stone list, below are the best starting hands in seven card stud and the only ones you should play when you are first getting started with seven card stud:

* Three of a kind: This is an incredibly powerful hand. Whether you have trip aces or trip twos, this is a monster hand in seven card stud and should always be played
* Jacks or better split: This means that you have a pair of jacks or better where at least one of the paired cards is exposed.
* Nines or better wired: In a wired pair, both of your paired cards are concealed making it a particularly powerful hand.
* Three cards to a straight flush: Believe it or not three regular flush cards are usually not enough to start a hand in seven card stud. You want to make sure they are either connected or at the least, very high flush cards.
* Three high cards to a straight: This is the weakest of the starting hands here and we don’t suggest routinely playing this, but if you can get in for cheap go ahead.

With these hands in mind you see that the best hands are typically ones that have high pairs or three of a kind. The problem with drawing hands in seven card stud is that many times players simply stick with them too long. If you have three to a straight or a flush and you do not pick up your next card on fourth street then it is a very good idea to lay down the hand and wait for a sunnier day. A huge mistake for beginners is to miss on fourth street and then blindly continue on hoping some other card will come to their rescue.

Learning the ins and outs of becoming a great seven card stud player are beyond the scope of one simple article. If however you are disciplined enough to keep to the starting hands mentioned here and realize that draws need to happen early, then you have a great foundation from which to start playing and an excellent chance at growing into a competitive stud player once you gain some experience.