by Joseph Waller

Created on: October 13, 2008   Last Updated: September 29, 2010

The game seven-card stud can be played with 2-7 players. Each player buys in with the amount of money they want and is given chips representing the amount that they buy in for. The game starts when each player is dealt 1 card face down then another face down, and one card face up in a clock-wise rotation. All players must put an ante in the pot. An ante is "a mandatory bet to put money into the pot." Then after all players ante up, the player with the highest card is given the right to bet. Aces are high and low in this game. If the player bets, all the other players will either have the option to call "match" his/her bet, raise his/her bet or fold their hand. If playing pot limit the maximum bet is the amount of money in the pot, No limit theres no limit to your bet, Limit means there is a pre-determined limit to how much you can bet. Betting is also done in a clockwise rotation. If the first player checks each player now has the option to check for free, or bet. Once the first round of betting is over, one card is dealt to each player face up in a clockwise rotation.then another round of betting occurs. This process is repeated until each player has a total of 6 cards 2 down and 4 up. once the 6th round of betting is over each player is dealt one final card face down. There is one final round of betting, and all remaining players must flip their cards over after all betting is done. The player with the best 5-card hand is the winner. Hand rankings go as follows:

1pair, 2 pair, 3 of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, Royal flush, 5 of a kind.

If two players both have the same hand ex. a flush the winner is decided by who has the highest card in their flush. If both players have the exact same flush ex. H=Hearts S= Spades KH, 7H, 3H, 8H, 2H vs. KS, 7S, 3S, 8S, 2S the winner is decided by who has the best "kicker" the highest card out of their other two remaining cards. If both players have the same cards this event is decided a draw and the pot is split between the number of players with the same winning hand. Though this event is very uncommon anything is possible.

Some home games are played with wild cards. This makes betting more tricky because you can not win as easily with something as simple as 3 of a kind. You must be careful betting in a game with wild cards because obtaining a 5 of a kind which is an unbeatable hand is very easy to do. I hope this article helps people to learn the basics of seven-card draw.

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