On the Starting Line in Seven-Card Stud Eight-or-Better - Part I

Seven-card stud eight-or-better, which we'll call 7-stud/8 for simplicity's sake, is a game that's rapidly growing in popularity as a cash game and a tournament staple. Because players are trying to make low hands as well as high ones, there's more action in 7-stud/8 than in traditional seven-card stud games. Although the structure of the game is identical in terms of the use of antes instead of blinds, the number of betting rounds, and the low card bringing it in with a forced token bet, the game's strategy is very different, and so are hand values. Certain hands with which you'd usually raise in seven-card stud are frequently candidates for the muck in this game.

I've received a lot of e-mail lately from players who are discovering this game, yet have no idea about how to approach it when it comes to selecting the right starting hands, and how to avoid the kind of troublesome situations that usually befuddle new players. This is the first in a three-part series aimed squarely at new 7-stud/8 players, and while there's much more to the game than the information included in these three columns, it provides a point of departure for new players as well as a framework for beginning to think strategically about the game.

The rule of thumb in high-low split games, where there can be two winners or one player can scoop the pot by making the best high hand as well as the best low one, is to play low hands, because they frequently back in to high hands, too. High hands seldom morph into low ones.

Since the objective of split-pot games is to scoop the pot, playing two-way hands that have a chance of making a high hand along with a low one is how you'll make most of your money. Choosing the right cards to play and learning the kinds of bling-bling flashy hands that look good but really ought to be folded can put a beginning 7-stud/8 player on the right track in a hurry. Players who don't conceptualize a set of starting standards for 7-stud/8 find themselves at a big disadvantage, because they invariably find themselves interpolating a starting strategy from seven-card stud, and that causes all sorts of problems.

Before exploring specific hands, it's important to realize that in 7-stud/8, just as in seven-card stud, you are playing a game in which the value of your hand is dependent upon the availability of live cards. If you start with three low straight cards, but many of the cards you need are already exposed in hands belonging to your opponents, the chance of completing your straight is significantly reduced. If your cards aren't live, you'll have a much harder time catching them, and that will only add to your frustration and cost you money.

With that firmly in mind, you should have an idea of what some of the better starting hands are. If you hope to start with two-way hands, you can't do much better than 3-4-5. Not only do you have three low cards, but you've got straight potential as well as a chance to make a very good low hand, and any ace, deuce, 6, or 7 on the next card will significantly improve your hand. If you're fortunate enough to start with the 3 4 5, you have a hand that can improve to a flush as well as a straight or a low hand. Even if you catch a card like the J, you've improved. Now you have four to a flush, and although the jack does nothing to increase your chances of making a low hand, you're not dead, either. That fourth heart keeps you in the hunt, and if the next card is, for example, the 7, you've got a draw to a low hand to go along with your flush draw – and two chances to get there.

Suppose you catch the A on sixth street. What could be better? You've made an ace-high heart flush and a 7-5 for low, and you can raise with impunity. If you've got two or three opponents who look like they're going low, you will probably take the high side, and you may scoop the entire pot. If your opponents all appear to be going high, you will win the low end and still stand a good chance of scooping.

While you don't have the absolute nuts in either direction, you should feel very confident with a hand like this. In fact, with two or more opponents, your half of the pot will be quite healthy, particularly if you've been able to continue raising your opponents – all of whom are contesting the other end of the pot. If you scoop the pot, you'll be stacking chips for the next two hands. When you've got a lock on one end of the pot and are freerolling toward the other, you can really win some money whenever you're lucky enough to scoop.

Big hands, however, are not always big moneymakers, and this is where the strategic concepts in 7-stud/8 begin to diverge from playing strategies for seven-card stud. Here's an example: Suppose you're dealt rolled-up kings, and catch the fourth king on the next card against one opponent who is obviously drawing for low. You can bet and raise every chance you get, yet when all the shouting's done, you'll each come away splitting the pot, and your miniscule profit will be measured in terms of antes and the forced bring-in bet. In a full game with betting limits of $20-$40, you'll chop $24 in antes, minus the $3 house drop, plus a $5 bring in. That's a profit of $13 – not much of a return when you've raised endlessly with four of a kind, is it?

But if you make a two-way hand that figures to have a lock on at least one side, you can – and should – jam the pot by betting and raising at every opportunity. You'll scoop if you get lucky, and whenever there are multiple opponents, each dollar you bet generates a profit even when you split the pot.

The flip side of this is also true. You must avoid situations in which you are the one being sliced and diced. You can't duck this entirely. Sometimes you will find yourself against two or three opponents, all of whom are going high while you are going low. There's no guarantee you'll make that low, however, and you may wind up calling all the way to the river only to fold your hand. All 7-stud/8 players can tell you stories about the occasions when they started out with four cards to a 6 or 7 low, only to catch three high cards (7-stud/8 players refer to useless high cards as bricks or bananas) in succession and have to throw their hand away on the river because they failed to make even as little as a pair for high and they made no low hand at all. Since you need a low hand of five unpaired cards with ranks of 8 or lower, you can begin with a high-quality draw, catch a fourth low card on the next round, yet fail to catch that fifth low card you so desperately need. There's nothing you can do about it, either, because 7-stud/8 is a game in which you're forced to gamble with good low draws.

On the other hand, you can avoid situations in which your draw to one side of the pot is not the best one. You'll frequently see players drawing to an 8 low against opponents who are drawing to a low that's obviously better. When both players make their hand, the 8 suffers for that indiscretion, and wins only when the better draw fails to connect.

Stay tuned. In the next issue you'll learn why aces rule this game in a way they never can in a game in which only the high hand wins the pot.

Raise your game with Lou Krieger at http://www.royalvegaspoker.com. His newest books, Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker Games and Winning Omaha/8 Poker, are available through Card Player.