Spice Up Your Home Game With Super Sized Stud High-Low

One of the original kitchen table homes games was Seven Card Stud High-Low Regular (Stud NQ) that was played without a qualifier for the low side. This meant that a ten low, a small pair, or occasionally an even worse low holding could drag half the pot.

This rendered high pairs mostly unplayable, and even rolled-up trips can be a negative proposition unless the pot is multiway and/or you have a low card showing. With a low up card it’s possible to make other hands fold should they brick out early in the hand.

In order to provide balance and make high hands more playable, Seven Card Stud Eight-or-Better (Stud 8) was introduced requiring a low hand to qualify. There it flourished, often being included in the popular HORSE (Hold’em; Omaha Eight-or-Better; Razz; Stud; Stud Eight-or-Better) rotation.

Nowadays home games and recreational casino mixes often include a wide variety of more exotic action games, and increasingly more Stud 8 is being played as “Super” to better co-exist with them.

In Super Stud 8 all players receive four down cards and one face up, but two of those dealt down must be discarded before anyone receives a fourth street card. Failure to do this in a timely manner will result in your holding being automatically fouled.

Often the dealer will pause slightly after third street and make sure everyone has discarded, but the onus is on each player to make sure they have done so. It’s very costly to play out the entire hand before realizing you haven’t discarded, so avoid being that guy at all costs. In some games you are allowed to “roll your own,” in which case everyone receives five cards down and you get to choose your up card.

Super also differs in that the high card brings in the action, not the lowest. And for this purpose the ace is considered low and ties broken alphabetically by the suits, making the K the automatic bring-in card.

The biggest adjustment one needs to make in Super is gaining a healthy fear of running into big hands including rolled up trips, a monster that is approximately five times more likely to be dealt than in regular Stud. Big pairs need to be played with some caution especially if a high card has completed. If they don’t end up looking at trips, they could also be up against pocket aces, another holding that is much more frequently lurking.

Big pairs need to also be aware that the average starting low hand is also much stronger. In Stud 8, players are often entering the pot with good but not great holdings such as (7 5) 2, (4 5) 5, and (A 3) 6, but when everyone is dealt more cards it’s more often the case that more powerful holdings containing more scooping possibilities such as (2 3) 6 and (A 3) 5 will be contesting the pot.

The Minnesota home game crew, (which I wrote about back in Vol. 37, Issue 27), has taken it to another level and invented Supreme Stud 8. In this variant everyone is also dealt four down and one up, but players have the option of keeping three, or even all four of their down cards. No longer is anyone frustratingly required to hand back cards to the dealer that they would have much preferred to keep.

After third street action has completed, each player indicates through their actions how many cards they intend to keep. When only keeping two, you would discard in same manner as normal Super. But if your intent is to keep either three or four, you would place your eventual fourth and fifth street (if necessary) cards face down in front of you. As fourth street is being delivered, players either receive their card from the dealer or expose what they kept, and the same procedure takes place on fifth street.
As always, I grade each game as it is introduced on a scale from 1-10.

Remember, we are always grading on a curve, and most players prefer more action, which Stud NQ (3 out of 10) and Stud 8 (4 out of 10) often lack. However, if it’s a mix where everyone gets to choose a game that needs to be respected without commentary, and no one should be pressured to defend their choice whenever the game comes up in the rotation.

This is obviously most important in a home game with friends, but it’s also respectful to do so in a casino setting unless you are sure the individual who originally chose the game has left. However, there still might be some people still interested in playing it, so if there is any pushback it’s polite to drop it.

Super Stud 8 (10 out of 10) gets the highest possible ranking as it’s probably as good as any game out there. The extra cards create more playable holdings, and while the hands run bigger it’s not exceedingly so, and there’s often the perfect amount of action. Pots are often contested multi-way, but skill still plays a very large role. There are those who may choose to walk on a rotation of regular Stud 8, but wouldn’t dream of missing out on a round of Super Stud 8 and the big pots it often generates.

Although I’ve never had the pleasure of playing Supreme Stud 8 (7 out of 10), it’s easy to imagine the fun involved with being able to keep all of your cards and observe your opponents as they anxiously await to see what they are up against. However, these possibilities might cause the action to slow down, and also might create some confusion when dealing the game.

That said, the Minnesota players are extremely high on Supreme Stud 8 and feel that it could be a huge deal in the mix game universe. With that kind of endorsement, it certainly seems like a variant worth trying in your game. ♠

Kevin Haney is a former actuary but left the corporate job to focus on his passions for poker and fitness. The certified personal trainer owned a gym in New Jersey, but has since moved to Las Vegas. He started playing the game back in 2003, and particularly enjoys taking new players interested in mixed games under his wing and quickly making them proficient in all variants. Learn more or just say hello with an email to haneyk612@gmail.com.