1. Stud Poker Starting Hands Meaning
2. Stud Poker Starting Hands Signals
3. Stud Poker Starting Hands
4. Stud Poker Starting Hands Clip Art

The category All Starting Hands is broken up into the following 6 groups: Rolled Up, Pairs, Three Big Cards, Three to Straight, Two to Straight and High Card For more information about the numbers displayed, please read the Seven Card Stud notes.

5-card Stud Rules - Incomplete Hands (For Betting Rounds) Any hand with less than 5 cards is an incomplete hand. In 5-card stud poker, before a betting round starts, the open cards of each player. New Seven Card Stud players like to play lots of hands because they believe that anything can happen. That may be true but if you want to become a profitable poker player, you need to be restrictive in which hands you play. A loose starting hand strategy loses money because it costs money to play those hands and they rarely win.

1. The following terminology is useful for discussing starting hands in Seven-Card Stud High-Low poker. The table below defines 12 types of starting hands along with a description and an example of each. The twelve types of starting hands can be sorted into five broad categories that describe how they play.
2. Poker Starting Hands - Comprehensive guide to which poker hands you should play, including a 2020 Texas Hold'em poker starting hands chart.

Stud Poker Starting Hands Meaning

Playing Premium Starting Hands

Poker is a game of decisions, and seven card stud is no exception. Throughout the course of a session, you will have to decide when to fold, when to bet, when to call, when your opponent really has the hand he is representing, and even when to leave the table.

After choosing a table and deciding to have a seat, the first key decision, after the deal, you will face is what to do with your starting hand – your pocket cards and door card, the first three cards you are dealt. Some starting hands are good, some are great, and some are junk. These traits are not static, either. A starting hand that may have been good in one spot may be awful in another, and vice-versa. The article discusses the two strongest types of starting hands, the premium hands: trips and premium pairs.

Trips

If, after getting dealt an ace door card, you happen to look down and see a pair of pocket aces to go along with it, congratulations: you have just been dealt the best starting hand in seven card stud. Any time you get this hand or any other set of rolled-up trips, you have a very powerful hand. The temptation may be to raise at every opportunity to try to get as much money in the middle as possible. For the most part, try to resist. If you immediately start raising through the roof, you may find everyone folding on the opening round, leaving you with only the antes and the bring-in bet to show for your monster hand.

Instead, you may try playing your hand more slowly for the first two streets or so. Call any bets on the opening round and on fourth street, letting other players bet your hand for you. This enables you to get a little money in the pot early. On fifth street, when playing seven card stud the betting doubles, pick up the pace. Start betting and raising, simultaneously getting more money in the pot (your pot) and getting some other players to fold, particularly those who might be drawing to hands that would beat you. Pay attention, howeverto the possible other hand rankings. If the guy whose hand has been looking more and more like a straight starts suddenly starts raising you on sixth street or the river, you may have to reconsider with your trips are still as strong as they were a few streets ago.

Premium Pairs

Premium pairs are pairs of tens or higher. Playing pairs in seven card stud can be significantly more complicated than trips, with more variables involved. The first of these variables is whether your pair is wired (your pocket cards are paired) or split (your door card matches one of your pocket cards). A wired pair is more powerful than a split pair, because it is better concealed, especially if it turns into trips later.

The biggest difference between trips and a premium pair on the opening round is that with a premium pair, you want to raise. You are trying to get as many players out of the hand as possible. Premium pairs play better against fewer players, so bet with impunity on third street. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. For instance, if you have split jacks, and one player raised in front of you with a queen door card and another player re-raised with a king showing, you might reconsider the strength of your hand.

On fifth street, your goal again should be to eliminate the competition. You want that guy across from you with the three-straight showing to get out of your way before he has a chance to make his hand. Do not allow a free card with just an unimproved premium pair on fifth street. The overarching theme here is that opposed to with trips, with a premium pair, you want to be playing against as few players as possible every step of the way. It may be tempting to try to sneakily build the pot by check-raising your pocket aces, but in seven card stud pocket aces is often not a winner by the time the river cards get dealt.

Ashley Adams has been playing poker since he learned it, literally, at his grandfather's knee 42 years ago. He's been a winning casino poker player for the past 11 years, playing primarily at Foxwoods Resort Casino but also in poker rooms all over the world. He has won at ring games and tournaments, at Stud, Stud8 and Hold Em, limit and no limit. He is the author of Winning 7-card Stud (Kensington, 2003) and over 100 articles about poker. He is due to publish Winning Baby No Limit Hold Em in 2006 and has recently been working with numerous charities on fundraising poker tournaments.

You wouldn't be too far wrong if you just never played 3-Straights. That's not to say that there isn't some profit in them if you play them correctly. There surely is money to be made with wise play. But for many players, too much is invested and not enough is reaped because they play them incorrectly. Let me try to give you some of the basic parameters for playing these tricky little hands.

Stud Poker Starting Hands Signals

First of all, nearly every list of playable Third Street hands lists 3-Straights. And, frankly, there are so few starting hands that are worth playing in 7-Card Stud, that impatient stud players often jump at the chance to just have something worth pursuing. 'Yippee' they exclaim with their chips, 'at last I can play'. And so they do...poorly.

Keep in mind that you have to be very selective about 3-Straights. Unless the game has a very, very high ante structure or if the players are very, very loose, I wouldn't play any of these hands unless all three cards are in sequence. I would pass on any one or two gapped straights like -- or --. Pitch them right off the bat unless you're strictly on an ante steal in late position against a tight player. Oh, and try not to distract yourself by looking to see what you would have gotten if you stayed. Sure, sometimes you would have hit the perfect 'tweener' that would have helped you. But hey, it still would only have been a 4-Straight. And half the time or so they don't even manage to make a real hand. Besides, worrying about what you would have gotten is a route down which madness lies. So beware!

Wait for three consecutive cards. But you can't play all of those hands either. You want high 3-Straights. At least as high as -- in nearly all situations. Against any aggressive opponents you want to avoid the --, -- and -- type hands. The reason is simple. If you don't hit the one of your perfect cards on Fourth Street you really have absolutely nothing. If, on the other hand, you start with something that has some high cards, like 9-10-J or higher, then at least you have a shot at making a Premium Pair on Fourth Street. You give yourself two ways to improve (much as I explained in my prior column on playing 3-Flushes).

You also want to play these hands against many opponents - passive ones if possible. This is because you want to have the best implied odds that you can. Implied odds means the money you expect to win if you win the hand versus the amount you must put in the hand. What you want is little pressure on you - checking ideally, and no more than a single bet - but as much reward as possible - meaning as many possible opponents. This too is very similar to the advice on 3-Flushes.

You also want to be sure that your 3-Straight is live. You don't want to play if more than one of your immediate Straight cards - the ones immediately before or after the 3-Card sequence you hold - are live. So, for example, if you have --, you don't want to play if more than one 9 or K is exposed. Similarly, you don't want to play if two or more of your secondary straight cards, or more than one primary and one secondary Straight card are gone. If you hold -- you won't play if you see a and a , or a and a or a and a .

Here's a 3-Straight you can play and a way to play it correctly.

You're dealt --. That's the first plus - it's three high cards. The bring in is to your left with a . He bets $5 in this $20/40 game with a $3.00 ante. Five players after him call the $5.00. None have an , , or . The next player, with a folds. It's up to you. This is heaven. You have six opponents, just the partial bring-in bet, all of your primary and all of your secondary Straight cards are live. And your call will kill the betting action for the round. You should gladly call the bet. Though you may be tempted to raise because of the ideal situation don't. Remember that you want to see Fourth Street cheaply.

Stud Poker Starting Hands

Unlike 3-Flushes, you have to be at least slightly concerned about whether you might make your hand and still lose to a higher hand. If you make your Flush in a typical 7-Card Stud game you nearly always (though not always) win the pot. But that's not nearly as likely with a Straight. Straights lose, of course, to all Flushes. So if you believe you are against a Flush draw early on you often should not call a bet - especially if your opponent has a higher door card or if your cards are not very live. This is because even if you improve in either direction you still may be up against someone who improves to a better draw than you will have.

You want to avoid situations that are likely to see a double bet or that are likely to be heads up with you against a raiser. You have to anticipate what other players are likely to do sometimes before you decide to call. Remember, you want to get in cheaply, you want the hand to have a number of other players if possible, and you definitely don't want to go heads up against just one other player - especially an aggressive one.

Here's an example of what I mean. The bring-in with a 3c is to your immediate left. An Ah calls, a few players fold, and a Qs raises on your right. You have (--). Fold the hand. There's a good chance that the Ah is on a heart draw or that he is slow playing a pair of Aces and will re-raise when you call. You're likely to face a raise, few opponents, and possibly someone drawing to a Flush. Get out while you can get out cheaply.

Stud Poker Starting Hands Clip Art

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