Seven-Card Stud

What you need & setup

1. Give every player an equal chip stack (for example, 100). Chips are turn-mechanic points, nothing more.
2. Agree the stakes structure — stud is traditionally played fixed-limit, with a small stake size for early rounds that doubles on fifth street.
3. Every player posts a one-chip ante into the pot before the deal.
4. Shuffle a standard 52-card deck.
5. Deal each player two cards face down (hole cards) and one face up (the door card).
6. Cap the table at eight players; with a full table and long hands the 52-card deck can run tight (reshuffle discards or deal a shared final card if it ever runs out).

Turn sequence

1. Third street: the player showing the lowest door card posts the bring-in (a forced small stake); action continues clockwise with calls, raises, or folds.
2. Fourth street: each remaining player is dealt a second face-up card. From now on, the player showing the highest up-cards acts first each round.
3. A chip round follows fourth street at the small stake size.
4. Fifth street: a third face-up card is dealt, followed by a chip round at the doubled stake size.
5. Sixth street: a fourth face-up card is dealt, followed by another big-stake chip round.
6. Seventh street (the river): a final card is dealt face down, giving everyone three hidden and four exposed cards.
7. A last chip round is followed by the showdown: best five of your seven cards wins the pot.
8. If only one player remains at any point, they win the pot immediately without showing.

The Goal

Each player ends up with seven personal cards — three hidden, four exposed — and makes their best five-card poker hand from them. There are no community cards; every card on the table belongs to someone.

As always in poker, you can also win by pressure: if your exposed cards look scary and your chip actions back them up, opponents may fold better hands.

Hand Rankings

Standard rankings apply, strongest first: royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card.

Only your best five cards count at showdown. With Q♥ Q♦ Q♠ 9♣ 9♦ 4♥ 2♠ you hold a full house, queens over nines, and the 4 and 2 are ignored.

Identical five-card hands split the pot; suits never decide a winner at showdown (they only break ties for the bring-in).

Up-Cards and the Bring-In

The exposed cards drive the action. On third street, the lowest door card must post the bring-in — a forced starter stake that gets the pot going (ties for lowest are broken by suit order: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, low to high).

From fourth street onward, the strongest exposed cards act first. A player showing a pair of kings up must open the action, revealing a little strength ordering every round.

Special traditional rule: if a player pairs their door card on fourth street, they may choose to open at the doubled stake size immediately.

Chip Rounds

There are five chip rounds — more than any common poker variant — on third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh streets. Options are the familiar check, call, raise, and fold.

Stud is traditionally fixed-limit: raises use the small stake on third and fourth street, then the doubled stake from fifth street on, usually with a cap of three or four raises per round.

Because there are so many rounds, small early decisions compound; a loose call on third street commits you to expensive streets later.

Memory: The Folded Cards

When players fold, their exposed cards leave the table — but the information does not. Remembering folded up-cards is the defining skill of stud.

Example: you hold 8♠ 9♠ with two more spades exposed, but you remember three spades were folded around the table. Your flush draw is far weaker than it looks.

Beginners should start by tracking just the cards that matter to their own hand (their pair ranks and suit), then expand from there.

Showdown and Ending

After the seventh-street chip round, remaining players reveal their hole cards, and the dealer reads each best five-card hand. The strongest hand takes the pot; exact ties split it.

Sessions run hand after hand with the deal rotating. Play to a time limit or hand count and compare final stacks, or play tournament-style until one stack remains.

Scoring & how the game ends

• Chips are points only; every hand's pot goes to the winner and stacks carry across hands.
• Antes and the bring-in seed each pot, so even folded-around hands move a few chips.
• Fixed-limit stakes mean pots grow steadily rather than explosively — expect sessions to be decided by consistency, not one giant pot.
• Compare final stacks to the starting stack at the end of the agreed session length.

Winning: Win each hand by making the best five-card poker hand from your seven cards at showdown, or by being the last player who has not folded.

Common variations

These are genuine regional and house-rule differences — none of them is “the one true way” to play. Agree with your table before starting.

• Seven-card stud hi-lo (eight or better)

  The pot splits between the best high hand and the best qualifying low hand (five different cards, all 8 or lower). A rich split-pot game.

  Common: A staple in mixed-game rotations

• Razz

  Stud dealt identically but the lowest hand wins outright; aces are low and straights and flushes do not count against you.

  Common: Played in mixed rotations such as HORSE

• Spread-limit stakes

  Instead of two fixed stake sizes, players may stake any amount within an agreed range on every street.

  Common: Common in home games and smaller rooms

• Shared river on full tables

  With eight players all reaching seventh street, the deck can run out; the final card is dealt face up as a single community card everyone shares.

  Common: Standard emergency rule wherever full tables play

• Mississippi stud order

  A variant that changes the dealing pattern (final card face up, one chip round removed), bridging toward community-card play.

  Common: Occasional home and online variant

A little history

Stud poker games are generally traced to 19th-century America, and seven-card stud by most accounts became the dominant form of poker in the United States for much of the 20th century before hold'em overtook it.