Learning 7 Card Stud

I moved on to Limit 7 card stud last night. Here, like Omaha, there are two versions. The regular where the best high hand wins and hi/lo where the pot can be split. Also like Omaha, to qualify for the low you need five cards 8 or lower and straights/flushes are ignored.

I joined four 0,04/0,08 cent tables (lowest stakes available) of limit 7 card stud first and played a few hundred hands. People were absolutely horrible - LOL! Since this is limit poker not pot limit, the bets always seem fairly low compared to the pot. It seemed most hands had six active players and typically half of these went to the showdown.

I don't know anything about strategy for this game, but do know enough to only play hands that have nut potential. I played pocket pairs with a decent third card, Axs with decent 3rd card and three suited connector type hands preflop. If my outs didn't improve with each street, I folded to heavy action. But the few times I did make a nut hand, there were usually two or three people giving me their chips all the way to the showdown.

Being patient definitely pays off here. Actually, if there are enough people playing to multitable a bunch of these, AND you don't mind being a tight nit, I think this would make a great place to build a  bankroll. I was profitable on all four tables I played. On the other hand, I only played about 300 hands, so it might have just been dumb luck :)

I also tried limit stud hi/lo. I only got in about 100 hands, but people seemed even more likely to be calling stations than in the regular stud game. I played starting hands that could scoop the pot winning both the high and low. I lost a huge multiway pot on one table though. I had a A high low flush (A2356 which I thought was the nut low) and was drawing for a straight flush vs 3 other players with lots of raising on every street. I missed my draw and lost both ends. One guy had the real nut low A2345 and another guy had quads for the high! I lost a whole dollar on that hand - lol! Luckily, I won enough on the other tables to be up about 30 cents for this set.

Playing these stud games was fine when the tables were full. However, several times tables became short with only 3 or 4 players. I don't know enough about the game to play short handed or heads up and found myself either folding too many hands or getting too involved with second best hands.

Next up on the agenda are the final two games that form the 8-Game Mix: Limit 2-7 Triple Draw and Razz. Once I've tried them, I can try the actual 8-game mix itself.

Roland GTX