7-card Stud poker strategies and guide

 Trips - For the record, you will only be dealt trips once every 425 hands. Not too often. When you do get them you are in a very profitable situation. There is almost no doubt that you have the best hand. Recommended is to bet and raise. Keep betting or raising throughout the hand until you are given a very good reason to believe that you are beat. You might slow down if one of your opponents looks like they have made a straight or a flush. Also, you might slow down if one of your opponents has paired his door card and it is higher than your trips. If you feel that one of your opponents has you beat, it does not mean that you should fold. When you start with trips, you make a full house one time in three. If you are overtaken you are no longer the best, but in most circumstances you will have more than enough pot odds to draw for a full house or quads.

 Flush Draw - A flush draw will win 35 - 45% against pair heads up. Simply put, you do not want to play flush draws heads up against a pair. Players usually play any flush draw in any situation. This is a bad idea. To play flush draws, you need to have two or more overcards to your opponents pair, or you need more than one opponent. Either you have two or more overcards to your opponents or two or more opponents. On third street play good flush draws and fold bad flush draws. A good flush draw will be either heads up where you have at least two overcards to your opponent's pair, or you have at least two opponents. The more cards that are alive, the better.

 Straight Draw - Like flush draws, most players will play any straight draw in any situation. This is a huge mistake. To play straight draws you need multiple opponents. Heads up against a pair a straight will win less than 40% of the time. Fold. And just like a flush, your hand is only good if your cards are alive. The cards you are looking for are within two from either end of your three card straight. If more then two of these cards are dead, you cannot proceed under any circumstances.

 Big Cards - If you have three cards ten or above, you are deemed to have big cards. Statistically, those three cards will win 40% of the time against a pair. Like other drawing hands, you do not want to play the big cards heads up against a probable pair. You will not be giving up to much if you always fold three big cards. On the other hand, when you are dealt three big cards, you will frequently have the highest door card. If you have the highest door card and nobody has limped-in or raised, then go ahead and complete the bet. Your hope is that you will win the antes and the bring-in bet right there.

 Fourth Street - If you still have reason to believe that you have the best hand, keep with the basic poker strategy and bet. If you started with a draw, your rule of thumb for forth street is improve or fold. Your three flush is now, hopefully, a four flush. Your three straight is now, hopefully, a four straight. If not, then fold. The exception is against three or more current opponents. If you do not improve your drawing hand on 4th street but you are still facing three or more opponents, go ahead and call once more. Do not call a raise but if you can see fifth street for one more bet you probably should. You are hoping to improve your hand on 5th street.

 Fifth Street - The bet doubles on fifth street. Here, even more than 4th street, your decision to continue is crucial. If you decide to continue with the hand, you will call again on sixth street since there will be even more money in the pot and only one poker card to come. The tricky part is that in order to make a proper pot odds calculation, you need to track not only the number of your outs that are still live but also the number of poker cards that you have not seen. If you have a flush draw you should know how many of your suits are gone. Fifth street is time to decide whether you have enough outs to continue to the river or not. One other critical issue is the size of your draw. If you are going past fifth street with a drawing hand then you want to have a bigger draw than the competition. You must not only make your hand, your opponents must miss theirs. You must considerable devalue your draw if you are against better draws. If you decide that you have the best hand or a good draw on fifth street then you are in for the ride. Do not get married to a hand simply because you started out as the best. You must be willing to fold hands when you are overtaken and you have few outs left with which to win.