Seven Card Stud
Lesson 1: Some General Recommendations (part I)

So far in this AceEXTRA for beginners series, I have focused on limit Omaha high and limit Omaha hi-lo, eight or better. As most of you will probably know, I play mostly flop games nowadays. In fact, my favorite games are the games that you guys probably like best, too: hold'em and Omaha. Having said that, I have always tried to keep my stud game at the highest possible level, and whenever I find a good game I do not hesitate to play in it.

It needs to be said, though, that stud has lost a lot of the popularity it once had. The number of stud games both in Europe as in the U.S. has been declining slowly but surely over the past few years. And with the incredible popularity of televised poker where hold'em is almost always the game featured, it would be unrealistic to expect a sudden reversal of this trend. But since stud is still an important game, and because a lot of casinos and (Internet) cardrooms still offer the game, I would recommend all of you to try to learn to play this game as well as possible.

Of course, this series of lessons on stud is there exactly for this reason: try to learn to play this game at least reasonably well, without having to study things into depth. I have structured these lessons as follows. First, I will come up with a long list of general recommendations, things to take into account when playing stud. These recommendations are listed in random order, and include some rather advanced concepts that you will need to know even as a relative beginner. I will then discuss some important issues on a street-by-street basis, so you will know what to do and think at the various stages in the hand.

Some general recommendations

• People who have voluntarily entered the pot and then on fourth or fifth street pair their doorcard are usually very dangerous. Even if this person doesn't have three of a kind, you can still expect to be up against some other strong holding (like two pair or one pair + straight- and / or flush-possibilities). You will need a very good hand to continue in this spot, and if you have any doubts regarding the strength of your hand, then you should simply give it up.

• Distinguish between the type of hands that would like to have many opponents, and hands that prefer to play heads up. With a hand like (K4) K you would almost always like to reduce the field, whereas with a hand like (7h 5h) 3h you would usually like to see fourth street as cheaply as possible, preferably against more than one player. You should adjust your decisions and your play accordingly.

· When in doubt, you should fold on third and fifth street, but call on sixth and (especially) seventh street. Wrong decisions early in the hand (like taking up a medium pair with no kicker against a higher pair) tend to compound themselves later in the hand, so it is usually best to err on the side of caution when you've got no or just a bit of money invested. But when you do not know where you're at on sixth and seventh street, then it is often better to call than to fold. This is simply because the size of the bets is usually very small in relation to the size of the pot. Thus, making a mistake by calling is usually not nearly as bad as making a mistake by folding. If you fold a winner on seventh street, this can be considered a disaster, so in general you should be willing to call a bet at the final stages of the hand even when you think you've only got a slight chance of having the best hand.

Some final words

In the next lesson, I will give you some more recommendations for playing this game. Take care, you guys, and good luck.

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