Mon, 09/12/2011 – 07:07 – PokerPages Staff

If you’ve visited PokerStars and not fully explored the range of poker variants available to players, you’re missing a whole range of exciting poker play. Games like Seven Card Stud and Five Card Draw offer a different style of game, with new challenges and tactics needed to succeed, as well as slightly different poker rules.

The Deal

Unlike Texas Hold ‘em, there are no community cards in a game of Seven Card Stud. All cards are held only by the player that they are dealt to. The object of this game is to make the highest five card poker hand using the seven cards received from the dealer. To begin with, each player is dealt three cards, known as the Third Street. The first two of these cards are kept secret, whilst the third is turned over, so that your opponents can see. Following this deal, there is a round of betting.

Subsequent rounds

After all bets have been placed in the first round, each player remaining in the game is dealt a further face-up card. There then follows another round of betting. This continues until every player has six cards, of which two are face down and the remaining four are uncovered.

Seventh Street

Once the betting has been completed following the fourth face-up card, a final card is dealt that remains face down. At this point, there is a final round of betting. If a multitude of players remain after the final betting round, a showdown will take place. All players still with a chance to win must turn their cards over, and the player with the highest ranked hand wins the pot.

Visit PokerSchoolOnline to learn more about Seven Card Stud and other varieties of poker.