How to Play 5 & 7 Card Stud Poker

5 Card Stud Click here to Play Poker at Coral Now!

5 Card Stud - This is the basic form of stud, or open poker. It is called "open" because one or more cards dealt to each player is openly visible to everyone.

This invites closer analysis of the game, since you can compare your entire hand to the partially exposed hands on the table.

Stud poker is also characterized by having more betting rounds than draw, or "closed" poker. This usually results in faster action and larger pots.

The first card is dealt face down to each player. Four more are dealt face up with a betting round after each. The best high hand wins the showdown, and you'll usually need a pair.

7 Card Stud

7 Card Stud - This popular form of stud poker is most often played in casinos and card houses, with the intention of getting the betting action started.

Two cards are dealt face down to each player, followed by one card dealt face up. Normally, the highest single exposed card starts the first betting round.

But in this game, the player showing the lowest card must place a mandatory "blind" bet (no player may check in the first round).

If more than one player has the same lowest rank, the first person to bet is determined by the alphabetical order of the names of the suits.

For example, if Player 1 shows the deuce of spades and Player 2 shows the deuce of clubs, Player 2 bets first. Three more cards are dealt face up to each player, with a betting round after each one.

The seventh card is dealt "down and dirty" to each remaining player, followed by a final betting round.

In the showdown, you may use any five of your seven cards to form your poker hand. It typically takes two pairs to win this game.

The Hands:

1 Royal Flush
2 Straight Flush
3 Four of a Kind
4 Full House
5 Flush
6 Straight
7 Three of a Kind
8 Two Pair
9 One Pair
10 High Card
click on the links to see a flash picture of the poker hands.

1. The most valuable hand in Poker is the Royal Flush the reason it is the most valuable is because it's the hardest hand to get.

2. The next most valuable hand is a straight flush this is five cards of the same suit in numerical order. If there are two straight flushes at the table the one with the hightest value card wins. You can't wrap around in poker that is J, Q, K, A, 2, is not allowed.

3. Four of a kind is in third place although self evident this hand requires 4 cards of the same value.

4. The next ranked hand is the Full House, this requires the five cards to be made up of three of a kind and a pair. If two players or more have a full house then the player with the highest ranking three of a kind wins.

5. A Flush this hand is made up of five cards of the same suit, it matters not who has the most high value cards in their hand a player only needs one really high card to win for example:
Player one has 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, A
Player two has 3, 5, 9, J, Q, K
Player one wins by virtue of the Ace being higher than the king.

6.Straight. Five cards in numerical order, regardless of their suits. A Straight cannot "wrap around." In a tie, whoever's Straight goes to a higher ranking card wins.

7. Three of a Kind Three cards the same, and two random cards that are not a pair.

8. Two Pair Two sets of pairs, and another random card.

9. One Pair One pair and three random cards. If more than one person has a One Pair, then the person with the highest ranking pair wins.

10. High Card If none of the players have anything of value, the player holding the highest-valued card wins, with the 2 as the lowest card, and the Ace as the highest. In the case of a tie, you move to the next highest card, and continue. Click here to Play Poker at Coral Now!

Learning the Rules

Now that you know what it takes to win, we can clue you in on how the game itself is played.

Unlike fun games, poker is almost always played for a cash. Before the game begins, the players should collectively decide on a betting limit.

A betting limit keeps the game friendly, and prevents you from losing your car, shirt or your wife.

The Basic Rules 5 Card Draw

First, each player places an ante or "token bet" into the pot before the cards are even dealt. The ante can be anything from a ten pence to hundreds of pounds. The ante guarantees that someone always wins something on each hand.

Once everyone has coughed up their ante, the dealer deals the cards face down around the table, starting at the player to his left and continuing clockwise. The dealer (if playing) deals to him/herself last.

The dealer deals everyone their first card, then goes back around the circle to deal the second, and so on. As soon as everyone has five cards, the remainder of the deck is placed in the middle of the table, and play begins.

Each player looks at his or her cards, and then the first player places a bet. While there are several ways of deciding who bets first, poker novices are best off letting the player directly to the left of the dealer make the first bet.

Then on the next hand, the person to his left will bet first, and so on around the table for each new hand.

Players have several options as far as the first round of betting goes. If no one has made a bet yet, you have two choices:

Open : If no one has placed a bet when your turn comes you may make the first bet this is known as opening the pot. (Remember do not exceed the agreed limit.)

Check : You can only check if no one has opened the betting. This simple means you don't wish to open the betting but you don't want to quit either.

Once the betting has opened you have the following three choices.

See : This means you are going to match the bet of the player you are seeing. (also means to call). for example if someone bets a £1 and you wish to stay in the game you must see them by betting a £1 of your own.

Raise : To raise requires you to first see the previous bet, and then increase with a bet of your own. For example the previous player has bet a £1 you would say I will see your £1 and raise you by £1.

Fold : To fold requires you to give up on this hand and place your cards face down on the table. People tend to do this when they believe the hand they have is too weak to compete. Remember you will win more money at Poker by knowing when to fold than trying to play with bad hands.

At this point all the players who haven't folded are allowed to get rid of the cards they don't want and take some new cards.

A player is permitted to get rid of up to 3 unwanted cards and receive up to 3 new ones from the deck (as long as the player always has 5 cards total). No one sees what anyone else discarded (threw away) or drew (got as a new card). It's all done face down.

After every player draws 0 to 3 new cards, the betting begins again. You have the option of opening or checking , and once someone opens, you can see, raise, or fold.

The game ends when there are no more raises (everyone saw everyone else's bet), or everybody but the winner folds.

Now everyone turns their cards over to see how they have gone on. The player with the highest hand wins the pot.

So now you've got the hang why don't you go and play for real click the coral poker image for some great play

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