The hands in Seven Card Stud

A good starting hand improves the winning rate in general, but choosing the starting hand is also meaningful in a practical sense.

The player has to keep one thing in mind: Seven Card Stud is usually played as a limit version. Bets and raises are preset, what has an interesting side-effect: The lower the stakes limit, the more players usually call, since they want to stay in the game until the showdown or al least, they hold on to their hand really long, because they still hope to get something good.

The aim is to be the winner in the showdown, or - if chances aren't good enough - to throw away the hand at any time without hesitating. First step for that purpose is set by choosing the starting hands. With a starting hand that offers a lot of chances, the next rounds simply can be played much more relaxed...

Bad hands thus are much more difficult to improve, since they either don't consort with each other in the first place or some of the cards that would have been required to improve the hand have already been dealt.

Good starting hands:
- Triplet
- Medium or high pairs
- 3-card Straight Flush
- 3-card Flush
- 3-card Straight

To the starting hand applies in general: The more combinations are possible, the more chances it stands. Conversely, the less combinations are possible, the less chances it stands.

For instance, a 3-card Flush is a good starting hand indeed, but won't be of much value if more than two cards facing-up of the required colour can be seen at other players hands. And it also doesn't actually matter for the strength of a pair if other combinations are possible, e.g. Straight or Flush.

The actual strength of a hand will change in every new round. The more potential to combine lies in a hand, the higher the chances stand the hand will actually improve.

How it might go on

At the Fourth Street usually there's not much money in the pot. You haven't paid much into the pot as well and another stake for the next card doesn't have to be pricey. However, you should fold instantly if another player obviously has a strong hand and the chances to beat that hand seem to be at a minimum.

A Big Bet now only can be done by a player showing a pair facing-up. You should call at the most, if you can beat the pair facing-up and the chances are low your opponent might have a triplet (e.g. a card required for that triplet has already been dealt to another player).

At the Fifth Street the game changes to the Big Bets. That means the pot might grow quickly now. If you estimate your opponents to be reasonable to some extent, you need a good hand at this point to continue.

This might be an already completed hand or a hand that offers excellent drawing possibilities with many Outs. A completed hand is a Flush, a Straight, a triplet or two pairs with a big chance of a Full House.

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