Seven Card Stud
Seven Card Stud is a variant of the card game Poker . Along with Texas Hold'em and Omaha Hold'em, Seven Card Stud is the most common type of poker game offered in casinos and is often played in poker tournaments , such as the European Poker Championship held annually by Casinos Austria in Velden am Wörther See .
Seven Card Stud is a descendant of the older Five Card Stud and has almost completely replaced it.
The game
The rules
The following description follows the regulations of Casinos Austria.
General
Seven Card Stud is played by two to nine people with a pack of 52-hand French playing cards .
The aim is to get the highest possible poker combination or to get the other players to give up by playing skillfully.
Each player receives up to seven cards.
Split limit
Seven Card Stud is rarely played no limit , but mostly with split limit . The usual 5/10/20 staggering means: The ante is € 5, the lower limit € 10 and the higher limit € 20.
First round of betting
Before the start of a game, each player pays a basic stake, the so-called ante, into the pot , after which each player receives two cards face down ( hole cards ) and one card face up ( door ) from the croupier ( dealer ).
The player with the lowest exposed card opens the first round of betting ( betting interval ) with the Forced bet ; that is, he must bet at least one stake in the amount of the ante, he can only bet the lower split limit.
If two or more players have the same lowest cards in terms of value, the color decides according to the ranking from the bridge : clubs or clubs ( ♣ ) are the lowest color, followed by diamonds ( ♦ ), hearts ( ♥ ) and Spades ( ♠ ).
Number of raises per betting round
In each betting round the stake may be increased a maximum of three times, that is, a player opens the round with a stake ( Bet ), this can now be increased ( Raise ), increased further ( Reraise ) and the betting round closed with a final increase ( Cap ) become. This means that if the lower limit is € 10, the stake in the first betting round without the ante already paid is a maximum of € 40.
Second betting round
At the end of the first round of betting, each player receives a second open card ( fourth street ), and the second round of betting follows. From the second betting round onwards, the first player to speak who has the highest open combination.
If a player has an open pair, bets can be made between the ante and the higher limit, otherwise the lower limit still applies in the second betting round.
The opener can now either
- wait ( check ) and make no use or
- Bet ( BET ), i.e. within the allowed limits ( Limits pay a use in the pot).
If this player waits, the next player can also wait or bet, etc.
However, once a player has bet, the following players can only either
- hold ( call also respond ), and to deposit the same amount in the pot, or
- increase ( raise ) and set a higher amount than the previous player, or
- get ( fold and fit ) - in this case, the player places his cards face-down and are lost this game.
If one or more players have bet, the betting round continues until all players either
- have kept the stake or
- dropped out of the game.
A player may not bet twice in a row in the same betting round unless another player raised between the two bids. So if a player opens the round with a bet or raises and all following players either hold or fold, this betting round is over and the player who raised the stake last may not raise again in this betting round.
Third and fourth betting round
At the end of the second round of betting, each player receives his third face-up card ( Fifth street ) and the next round of betting follows. From the third round you can only bet between the lower and the upper split limit.
After the third round of betting, the players receive a fourth face-up card ( Sixth street ) and the fourth round of betting follows in the same manner.
Last betting round
When the fourth betting round is over, each player who has “called” up to this round receives his seventh card ( Seventh street or River ) face down; so he has four face up and three face down cards.
Are in the course of the last round only two players in the game, it can now be repeatedly increased until one of the players by direct drawing ( call ) the showdown required. This means that the restriction to one bet and a maximum of three raises is lifted in the final betting round as soon as only two players are fighting for the pot.
Showdown
If there is a showdown after the last betting round, the player must
- in the last round of betting as the last increase ( raise ) has, or,
- if no one has increased, the one first in the last round of betting is set ( BET ) has, or
- if no one has bet, the one who spoke first in the last betting round ,
show his hand (his combination) in full . The croupier now puts together the best five-card poker combination from his seven-card hand and puts the two unneeded cards aside; these two cards never influence the decision to win.
All players remaining in the game can now prove their eligibility to win one after the other and also reveal their cards.
The player with the highest hand wins and receives the pot.
In the event of equal combinations, the pot will be divided among the winners. As is generally the case in poker, the color of the card has no bearing on the decision to win.
The pot can of course also be won earlier if all but one of the players in a round put down their cards and give up ( fold ).
Burn cards
Before the croupier issues the first cards and before each subsequent card issue, the croupier always puts the top card as a so-called burn card , face down, aside.
Basically , the dealer always burns the top card. However, if he no longer has enough, i.e. the number of remaining players plus two cards, he takes the cards that were burned earlier, mixes them with the remaining pile and continues dividing.
The bottom card must never be given; If the dealer only holds the number of active players plus one card in his hand, no card is burned as an exception.
Discarded cards, i.e. cards from players who have dropped out, are no longer used.
The purpose of these regulations is that the top and, above all, the bottom card of the stack can be recognized by a player as a result of a careless hand position on the part of the dealer and that the player could take advantage of it.
If the dealer can no longer share a card for each player because he would also have to deal the bottom card or there are fewer cards available than players, he shares a common card.
Common Card
If eight or nine players take part in a game, it can happen that in the last round there are not enough cards in the talon ( deck ) for each player to be served as usual. In this case, the croupier places a single card face up in the center of the table. This card is considered a common card , that is, as part of the hand of each individual player, as in the game types Texas Hold'em and Omaha Hold'em .
Table stakes
In order to take part in a game, each player has to place a certain amount ( buy-in ) on the table in front of them before their first game .
A player may not insert any tokens ( chips ) from his playing capital ( table stakes ), which he must leave on the table in front of him for all to see , unless he finishes his game.
A player may increase his playing capital between two games, but never during a single game, by buying additional chips. If a player buys chips, he must increase his playing capital at least to the amount of the buy-in.
If a player runs out of chips during a game and is said to be all-in , a side pot is played.
tax
The croupier retains an estimate of 5% from the stakes made in each round .
Variations
Like most poker variants, Seven Card Stud can also be played as high-low : the pot is divided between the best high hand and the lowest low hand . The normal order applies to determining the best high hand or the lowest low hand , but a different order is occasionally agreed for the order of the low hands .
literature
- Fritz Babsch: International and Austrian Card Game Rules , Piatnik, Vienna, 1983
- Claus Grupp: Poker. Rules and tricks. Updated new edition. Falken-Verlag, Niedernhausen / Ts 1997, ISBN 3-635-60225-6 ( Falken - Falken-Taschenbuch 60225).
- Albert H. Morehead, Geoffrey Mott-Smith: Hoyle's Rules of Games. Descriptions of Indoor Games of Skill and Chance, with Advice on Skillful Play. Based on the Foundations laid down by Edmond Hoyle, 1672-1769. 2nd revised edition. A Signet Book, New York NY 1983.
- Albert H. Morehead, Richard L. Frey, Geoffrey MOTT-SMITH: The New Complete Hoyle Revised , Doubleday, New York, 1991
- David Parlett : The Oxford Dictionary of Card Games , Oxford 1992
- Alexander B. Szanto: Poker, Ekarté and Starpoker. 11th revised edition. Verlag Perlen-Reihe, Vienna et al. 1985 ( Perlen-Reihe . 651).
- Casinos Austria rulebook
- Rulebook from the Piatnik company