The easiest way to start to make money when playing 7 card stud is to pay attention to EVERYTHING. When the cards are dealt to the players, look at the door cards and make decisions with that information in mind. There is so much free information to be gained and used to your advantage that if you don’t use it, you will lose money all day. I’m not going to tell you how to use the information now, but I will be happy to author another piece doing that. On top of getting door cards to help make decisions, you get to see half of your opponents hand. Use every piece of information you can gather to help in the decision making process.

Now, to relate this information back to Hold’em. The biggest key to being a winning Hold’em player is to watch what happens at the table, even if you are out of the hand. If you get used to watching tables playing stud, you should see improvement in your ability to make the right move in Hold’em. Knowing when to bluff, call, or raised is based on observations from previous hands or past experiences. If you don’t pay attention to the information that the other players provide, you are missing a big part of how to be a “great” poker player.

If you are good at gathering information playing Hold’em, why not give stud a try. I’ve authored one piece on how to play Stud. Check it out, it goes into how to use the information to your advantage.

Stud Cowboy is a consistent online winner in Stud and is always interested in discussing the game as well as finding those tables/sites that are especially ripe. He is the author of The Life and Trials of FFCowboy.

Now we are at heads up play. I checked my statistics for the first time in the whole tournament, and they weren’t bad. We had seen over 250 hands in the tourney and I went to the flop 22% of the time. My showdown win rate was at 67% with only 18 showdowns. I started heads up in 1st place and started to play a VERY aggressive heads up match. I raised the pot on every small blind and bet every flop, no matter what I hit. That strategy worked for the first few hands, but the other player finally caught on.

At this point I switched gears, which every player should be able to do. I started only betting when I had something and only raised the pot pre-flop with big cards. I think this confused my opponent. I made one bad call and one bad fold during the heads up match. During the early part of the match, I folded middle pair with a good kicker to an all in bet. My opponent showed his hand and had NOTHING. Had I called the tourney is over and I win $2300, which flustered me and caused my bad call. In one hand I flopped top pair with and average kicker, which caused me to bet the flop. My opponent called the bet. The turn came a blank for both and the action checked around. The river was a king and my opponent bet pot, which was around 300,000 chips. I thought about the bet for about 15 seconds and made the call. I lost to two pair on the river. This set me back to about 450,000 chips to his 1,000,000+ chips.

I worked my way back to even with some good slow playing. I noticed that if I checked the flop, my opponent would bet the turn no matter what he had. By catching onto this fact I allowed my opponent to bet into me on the turn when I flopped big. My calls usually forced my opponent to check the river, giving me the opportunity to bet and take the pot uncontested. I worked back to the lead and shrunk his stack to around 400,000 chips.

The final hand! I was dealt 6/9 off suit in the small blind. I raised the pot 3x the big blind and my opponent called. The flop came 6, 9, A rainbow. The pot was 102,000 and my opponent bet pot with first action. I thought about what hands he could have and I put him on an Ace with an above average kicker. I went into slow play mode and let my game timer run down to about 3 sec and smooth called. The turn was a 4 that ruled out any flush draw possibilities. My opponent bet out for 150,000 chips, which was about half his stack. I thought for about 10 sec and raised him all in. My opponent thought for a while, which stressed me really bad. I stated to doubt my read and considered the odds of my opponent having something like A9 or A6. He called the bet and turned over A8. The river came a blank and I don’t recall what it was.

I had a moment of excitement followed by a long moment of shock. I sat in front of my computer for about 10 minutes not moving. The realization of what happen finally started to sink, but I had no way to vent the building excitement seeing as it was 4:45 in the morning.

I’ve learned a few things fromt his tournament:

1. Anything is possible
2. Tight play is the way to go
3. Pay attention to the players at your table. Learn their traits and habits, there is lots to be made be seeing this.

Stud Cowboy is a consistent online winner in Stud and is always interested in discussing the game as well as finding those tables/sites that are especially ripe.

The tournament started with 1265 players, which is an average field for the tournament, with cashing starting at 180th place. The first three hours of the tournament were really uneventful. I won a few hands and made the right folds when needed. I started to get a good feel about the tournament, but quickly dismissed it.

After the third break I moved tables. I took a timid approach for the first 10 hands, feeling out the table and the players at it. My stack was at about 20,000 chips, with about 250 players left. I proceeded to go on the best run of cards I have ever had. For the next hour I saw the following hands: A’s, K’s, Q’s, J’s, 10′s, 9′s, 7′s, 4′s, and AK all twice, and 5′s once. With that run of cards I went from middle of the field to 1st place with 175 players left. After that moment I never dropped below 6th place.

I tightened way up and started to fold a lot of hands. One hand sticks out to show the hour run I was on. The blinds were 1500/3000 and I was in the big blind. A player 2 to my left went all in for 9400 chips and the table folded around to me. I had 2/3 suited hearts and about 250,000 chips. I typed to the player that I had no choice but to call, too little of my stack vs. the chance of knocking someone out. I called and he turned over QQ against my 2/3 suited. I typed “nh” (nice hand) and figured on losing. Flop came 2 10 7 rainbow, turn was a 2, with the river being a 3. I won the hand with a boat to his 2 pair. What happened next shocked me. The player I just took out stated something about his luck and wished me more luck in the tournament. I was expecting him to go into a tirade about me calling with 2/3 suited and catching a miracle hand. After that hand another player jokingly offered to buy my seat from me. He offered $400 cash.

I continued down to the final 18 and the payouts started get bigger. I was sitting either 2nd or 3rd at that point so I continued to play a semi tight game. I’m going to jump from the story for a second to touch on a bit of tourney strategy for a second. When you get to the last table or two in a big tourney the blinds and antes start making for some large pots. If you catch a playable hand pre-flop you need to raise the pot to make the odds less favorable for the remaining players, especially if you are the first to enter the hand. Usually the only caller you will get is the big blind, which usually is calling with a weaker hand. After the flop, if the pot is checked to you (and it usually is), you need to make a continuation bet to drive the big blind out of the pot. With that said, back to the story.

When we got to the top 9 the stress level started to climb. I was sitting in 3rd with about 400,000 in chips and had the big stack 2 to my right and 3 to my left. Between one of the big stacks and myself was one of the 2 short stacks, with the other being 4 to my left. 9th paid about $170 with first being about $2360. With every player that went out, my stress level went up. I continued playing tight and only raising with my big hands. The 3 big stacks rotated between 1st and 3rd until the final 4. At this point the least I could make was about $700. I tightened my game up a little bit more to try to help ensure I made the top 3, 3rd paid $1000 and 2nd was $1400. I took the 4th place finisher out giving me a sizable stack advantage going into the final 3. The two short stacks started ganging up on me and actually knocked me down to 3rd. I got really short stacked, around 250,000 chips. I resided to finishing 3rd and making $1000 when I pushed all in after the big stack to my right pushed on me. I had 2 face cards, I honestly can’t tell you what they were, and the big stack had 5/9 off. The board missed us both and I doubled up with high card, which pushed me to 2nd. The same big stack that doubled me up tried to push me around again and paid the price. The player pushed all in after I raised the pot from the button with a pocket pair. The board tripped me and missed the other player completely.

…to be continued.

Stud Cowboy is a consistent online winner in Stud and is always interested in discussing the game as well as finding those tables/sites that are especially ripe.

I deposited $50 back in January when I started this project and tracked where every dollar went. I went up to about $350 in January and maintained that in February. March was a bad month and I lost all my profit. I played “good” poker in March, but couldn’t seem to win a hand. I was seeing about 3000-4000 hands a month, so I took two weeks off to refresh my mind. April was a short month for me, but I turned in a $250 profit. I took another down swing in May, losing my entire bankroll. At this point, I’m down $50 for the first time in 5 months, but my statistics are almost right where I want them. In my profit months I was wining around 60-65% of my showdowns, which is still a little lower than I would like. In my losing months I was winning only around 55% of my showdowns. That is the only noticeable change in my statistics over the 5 months.

While sitting at the fire station stewing over my bad run of cards, I decided to take a couple of weeks off. There is a poker player on the medic unit we run with and they stopped by the station one afternoon. The other player and myself got talking poker and discussing our recent runs. I told him about my downturn and he was on an upswing. After a little more discussion, he helped reinforce the idea of taking a week or two off. I started into my first week off on Thursday June 7th and not playing poker was killing me. We didn’t have the extra money floating around for me to deposit $50 bucks, so my loving wife loaned me $20 bucks. I played a couple of ring games, but didn’t make any money.

On the 12th of June I decided to venture back into tournament life, which treated me well during my big up swings. I entered a $5.50 Sit and Go. I played solid poker during the whole tournament. I was able to slow play big hands, but also made the correct folds with big cards when needed. I ended up finishing 3rd after a mistimed bluff robbed me of most of my stack.

On a whim I enter the $10+1 Midnight Madness tournament on Full Tilt Poker. That started the best night of poker in my life.

…to be continued.

Stud Cowboy is a consistent online winner in Stud and is always interested in discussing the game as well as finding those tables/sites that are especially ripe.

HOW THE GAME WORKS

Seven Card Stud is played with a maximum of 8 players per table. To start, each player posts an ante and is dealt two cards face down, your hole cards, and one face up, your door card. After the deal is completed the player with the lowest door card has the forced bring-in, usually the bring-in is half the small bet. If multiple low cards of the same rank are exposed, then the bring in (in most cases) defaults according to “suit rank.” Diamonds are considered to be the lowest rank, followed by clubs, hearts, and finally spades being the highest ranking suit. The other way to handle this “tie for the bring in” would be the first person (with the shared low door card) to the left of the dealer will be the bring in. Instead of blinds, stud uses antes and a forced bring-in to establish its pot. Do not feel committed to your hand just because you have money in the pot, in other words, don’t protect you “blind.” After the forced bring, all the remaining players have the option to call the bring-in or complete the bet. I will discuss more later on when to complete vs. when to call the bring-in. One card is burnt and 4th Street is dealt to all the players in the hand face up, with first action on the highest showing hand. 5th and 6th Streets follow the same as 4th Street. 7th Street, or the river, is dealt face down after burning a card, with action starting with the highest showing hand. IF there are not enough cards for every player to get a 7th card, the final card is dealt face up in the center of the table. This card is used as a community card for all players. The showdown goes the same way as Texas Hold’em, with the highest 5 card hand winning.

STRATEGY
Seven Card Stud is a game of observation. With most of your cards, as well as your opponents, being exposed, it becomes imperative that you learn how to read the hands and habits of those you are playing with. For those of you who will be starting out playing online, I would recommend not playing more than a single table at a time. There is simply too much going on in a single hand of stud to pick up on everything if you are multi-tabling.

People have asked me what the best starting hand in Stud Hi is and I give them two answers. The theoretical best starting hand is AAA, rolled aces, but I also say that any 3 cards that work well together can beat rolled cards. The best starting hands are (in no order): any rolled card, any high pocket pair, any 3 suited cards (use common sense), any 3 connected cards, and any other pocket pair. As I stated before, there is a lot of information that can be gained just by looking around the table. When deciding on whether or not to play a hand, take a look at the door cards. If you see more than 3 cards that would help your hand, you probably don’t want to play it, even if it’s AKQ. All you are doing by playing your hand is decreasing your odds to win, making all of your bets and calls donations to the winner.

Here is an example. You hold [Jd 4d] Jh. You see the following door cards: 9c, 8h, 7h, Kd, 10h. Should you play this hand?

Yes and no. Proceed with caution, just calling the bring-in.

There are a few things you should have picked up from the door cards. First, you possibly have 2 Jacks alive in the deck. Second, your flush draw, though it’s a long shot, is alive and well. Third, you shouldn’t be playing to make a straight. If you see an opponent starting to show a straight, use caution and consider folding.

Earlier I mentioned the option to complete the bring-in after the deal. I don’t recommend to a new player to even consider completing the bring in unless you are holding rolled cards. Stick to just calling the bring-in and play your cards vs. what your opponent is showing. The best wisdom I can give you is to not be afraid to fold if you feel your beat. I know the image of Stud is that it’s a drawing mans game, but use the information given to you by reading the table. Don’t try to draw out on players, fold, save your chips for a better opportunity to get them into the middle.

FOR THE ADVANCED PLAYERS
I’m going to touch briefly on when and why to complete a bring-in. Obviously when you are holding rolled A’s, you’re going to want to push hard. Your hand, unless you boat, is very vulnerable to being beat by a straight or a flush. You have two options on how to play the hand after the deal. If you know your table and can expect someone behind you to complete the bet, just call the bring-in and re-raise when the action comes back around to you. If you don’t think someone will complete the bet, do it yourself. You will push people out of the hand, which improves your odds of winning. Either action works well for establishing the fact that you have a strong hand. In my opinion, displayed strength goes a long way to helping you push players off of draws.

This is a start to the knowledge needed to play Stud Hi. I am always available to answer questions about Stud. Don’t hesitate to ask me a question; after all, the dumbest question is the one you didn’t ask.

Stud Cowboy is a consistent online winner in Stud and is always interested in discussing the game as well as finding those tables/sites that are especially ripe.