Seven Card Stud High/Low

8 or better


This variation of Seven Card Stud is becoming more and more popular. The pot is divided 50-50 between the highest and the lowest hand (the highest card must not be more than an “eight”).

Game Description

Seven Card Stud is played with a deck of 52 cards. Up to 8 players can take part in the game.

Every player must pay an Ante, independent of how much the limit is, before the first card is dealt. Then every player receives three cards. Two cards face-down (hole cards) and one card face-up (door card). The player with the lowest door card begins with the first round . When the same value of cards are shown, the type of card is the deciding factor (spade, heart, diamond, club). This player now has the option to only bet the forced bet (half of the limit) or the whole bet. A betting round (clockwise) follows. Now every player receives another card, face-up. From the second round onwards, the player begins who has the highest face-up card. Then every player receives another card, face-up, followed by a betting round. This is now repeated once more. The last card (the seventh card) is given to the player face-down. Should it happen that there are not enough cards for every player, then a common card is dealt out. Finally the last betting round can be played and the best high and low hands with a maximum of five cards (should there be one) divide the Pot 50-50. If there is no low hand, the high takes 100%.

Low-Hand

The lowest and therefore the best low hand is ace, 2, 3, 4 5. The higher cards (e.g. 2,3,4,5,7 is better than ace, 2,3,4,8) are decisive in the assessment of low. In order to have a valid low hand, the following criteria must be fulfilled: The highest card cannot be higher than an "eight". Streets and Flush do not count with low. Low must not have any pairs in it. A player can use the same five cards for high and low – e.g. for high: 3,4,5,6,7 and this is also valid for low.

Limit Policy

As you can see from the game description, there are five betting rounds in Seven Card Stud. During the first two rounds (two cards face-up) there is a lower limit (e.g. it would be $2 for $2/$4) for every bet or raise. There are two exceptions to this: first, it could happen that all players can only make the forced bet (e.g. it would be $1 for S2/$4) and second, if a player has a pair with his/her first two cards face-up, then the players can also play the higher limit (e.g. it would be S4 for $2/$4). If this higher limit must be played, then the following bets must also be according to the higher limit. From the third betting round onwards (third card face-up) the higher limit (e.g. it would be $2 for $2/$4) is to be played.