Hi. Come on in. I've made cheese and mushroom omelets with a light chili sauce. Put on your bib and dig in.
I'm glad you got here early. We're going to learn to save money during play, which is the same as winning money, because money saved at the poker table spends as well as money won.
It has come to my attention that there are still people playing seven-card stud. So, those who are in that category draw close and heed "Roy's Two-Point Plan for Winning With Straight Draws in the Low and Medium Limits of Seven-Card Stud." (Money-saving hold'em ideas will come at a later time.)
This plan has two sections: limiting the number of straights played, and then, how to draw to them. It will take some explaining, but stay with me and it will, like it has for my students, pay off.
It actually isn't a two-point plan, but I didn't know what else to call it. You can just call it, "Another Way to Win," from Roy West (nice guy). Or, maybe I'll make it one of "Roy's Rules."
This advice assumes that you accept my premise that there are only three straights worth playing on third street in low- and medium-limit seven-card stud. If you insist on continuing to play any others (except in rare instances), we have no more to say to each other. Those who have stayed, listen up.
My 35 years of study and play, reams of computer analysis, and other local professionals all tell me that when playing for a straight, there are only three starting combinations of long-term value: Q-J-10, J-10-9, and 10-9-8 - and the 10-9-8 is marginal.
When starting with the 10-9-8, there is only one possibility of pairing a premium card, the 10, and that's the bottom end of the premium-pair spectrum. The J-10-9 combination gives you two premium cards to pair, and the Q-J-10 gives you three, which makes them much more powerful than the 10-9-8 start.
Most working players concede that any combinations lower than those are not worth playing. Most pros at lower and medium limits don't play small straights, which are often beaten by larger straights. So, now someone will ask, "What happened to the old 'rule of eight,' which states that the smallest starting straight should include an 8, making an 8-7-6 a playable starting hand?" Well, it's just that - an old rule. Keep playing it if you don't like money. What about K-Q-J or A-K-Q? I prefer in my teachings to put them into the "overcard" category, which I'll go into another time. Big cards in your starting straight give you another way to go, pairing a big card, if you don't lengthen the starting straight.
This brings us to part two, and Roy's Rule of Two Points. One of the winning ideas when playing the game of seven-card stud is to play a hand only when your cards are "live." Examples: When playing J-10-9, your primary cards needed to make a straight are the eights and queens. Your secondary cards are the sevens and kings. Primary cards that you see showing in other players' upcards on third street are worth one point each. Secondary cards are worth a half-point each. If you see a total of more than two points, too many of the cards that you need for your straight are dead.
If you see an 8 and a queen when playing J-10-9, that's two points; or, two queens would be two points, as would two eights. The hand is playable. If you see one queen and one 7, that's one-and-a-half points - playable. Two sevens, one point - playable. Any combination of two points or fewer gives you a playable hand from that standpoint. One queen, one 8, and one 7 - two-and-a-half points - is not recommended to be played as a straight, but maybe as an overcard hand (more on that another time).
All of this gives you one more thing to think about while playing poker - as if you needed one more thing. But that's why they pay me the big bucks. And look at it this way: If beating poker was easy, everyone would be doing it.
That 12-egg omelet was just right for our appetites. Now I tire and require repose. Kill the light on your way out.
Roy West, best-selling poker author, continues giving his successful poker lessons in Las Vegas for tourists and locals. Ladies are welcome.
