I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now: Split-Pot Stud Games

Continuing our investigation into all games beyond no-limit hold’em, in this column we will wrap up the stud games with the two split-pot variants, stud eight-or-better and stud high/low regular. For a deeper discussion about how ante and bring-in sizing should affect our third street strategy, see my previous article on stud. Essentially, the bigger the ante, the more pots we should be playing.

The key to any split-pot game is playing to scoop, winning both the high and low side of the pot. Then, when scooping is going to be difficult, don’t make things worse by narrowing the field. You want your half the pot to be as big as possible, not to be mostly put in by you like in a heads-up split pot situation. We discussed this a bit when we talked about Omaha-eight-or-better, leading us to decisions like limping A-2-3-4 in early position instead of opening with a raise.

Split-pot stud games play a bit differently in the sense that an aggressive line is usually optimal for several reasons. The risk/reward ratio is less in stud games compared with flop games. If the stakes in a flop game are $40-$80 and the table is seven handed, then there is $60 to win preflop in blind money and it requires a risk of $80 to win. In a stud game of the same limits, there will be $80 in antes and the bring-in, only requiring a risk of $40 to attack. Therefore, opponents only need to fold more than a third of the time to make a completion on third street profitable. Because of this, open limping in stud-eight-or-better is never optimal. When players do open limp, which is often, they nearly always have three low cards that aren’t very coordinated, sometimes a low pair and another low card shows up too. It’s really easy to play against ranges like this, again making open limping sub-optimal. I also don’t like limping behind limpers in stud-eight, as it eliminates the top end of your range and makes you easier to play against also.

Things are different in stud high/low regular. Since there is no qualifier for the low end, the pot will always be split, and if you’re showing a high card then it’s going to be awfully difficult for you to scoop the pot, and your opponents know this. This makes hands like split queens unplayable, and hands like rolled up queens should rarely do anything except call, since it is going to be impossible for them to scoop the pot.

When evaluating opponents, you first want to determine if players are honest or dishonest with their starting hand ranges. The majority of players are honest and have what they’re representing. Showdowns are always important, and if you can determine that a player started a hand with a brick then it should strongly affect play against them in the future. Abnormally passive play on fourth and fifth streets is also indicative of a player choosing starting hands that include bricks.

When facing a completion on third street, it is usually correct to call rather than raise, unless we have reason to believe that our opponents have a brick in their hand, in which case we should be raising. Much like the math in razz, equities swing greatly on fourth street and are often narrow on third street. We want the pot to be small enough that we can give up when they catch a good card, any card ace through eight with another low card, and we catch bad. We want to avoid expensive losing hands, and getting ourselves into a spot where we’re a card behind going into the big bet streets is the easiest way to build an expensive losing hand. If there is any reason to believe that your opponent is weaker than the hand he’s representing, then we can call, but if that is the case then we should have raised on third. If we raise on third, then the pot is going to be bloated enough that we need to peel fourth street when they catch good and we catch bad.

Any time our opponents catch bad and we catch good, we need to be betting regardless of how strong our actual hand is. If they call and we both improve on fifth street, we should continue to bet. Any time we are a card ahead, we should be betting. Fifth street is the inflection point, and three-quarters of the money put into a standard stud pot goes in after fifth street. This means we should often be folding fifth street, and rarely folding sixth street.

When both players catch bad on fourth street, checking when first can never be bad. Granted we would prefer to bet when we have pairs and check when we have three low cards, but if we only bet when we have a made hand, then we will be really easy to play against. Since our brick is usually a brick, checking every time to balance our range is fine, but is not optimal. Checking made hands here on fourth can pay off dividends through deception on the later expensive streets, too.

In summary, put yourself in spots to scoop. If you can’t scoop, you want the half pot that you can win to be as big as possible, and not heads up. Big pairs have value in stud-eight, but need to be played cautiously when opponents’ boards turn into situations where you’re getting freerolled. Stud high/low regular should be played much like razz, making low hands and freerolling the high end. Always pay attention to the information available, try to figure out what they have, and the rest is easy.

Peace and good luck,
Devo ♠

Bryan Devonshire has been a professional poker player for nearly a decade. With over $2m in tournament earnings, he also plays high stakes mixed games against the best players in the world. Follow him on Twitter @devopoker.