Seven Card Stud TOPICS Draw Poker Five Card Stud Seven Card Stud Community Card Other Fun Poker Non-Poker Games Rules of the Igloo  Variant Ideas BACK TO HOME   Got a great game? See an error? I love to get feedback! Please write me at chilcoot@mtaonline.net We play more seven card stud games than anything else. Not surprisingly, we think these are our best games. Seven card stud games generally require greater skill than draw or five card stud games, since players have lots of information to process.   Seven Card Stud PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL One down, one up to each player. PLAY Bet. Deal one up to each player. Bet. Continue alternating up cards and bets until each player has seven cards. Seventh card is dealt down. Bet. Showdown. WINNER High hand. VARIATIONS Lowball Best low hand wins. High-Low Split Pot is divided between the player with the best high hand and player with the best low hand. Add a declare and an extra betting round after the final bet in regular seven card stud. Chicago Pot is split between player with high hand and player with highest spade in the hole. Chicago Taxi Same as Chicago, but each player's lowest hole spade is wild. Thanks Jeffrey Peterson! Black Mariah Pot is split between player with high hand and player with lowest spade in the hole, such as the ace of spades. Football Pot is split between the player with the high hand and the player with the highest "football" hand. Football hand is based not on poker value, but on points calculated as follows: sixes are worth 6 (touchdown), aces are worth 1 (extra point), threes are worth 3 (field goal), and deuces are worth 2 (safeties.) Thanks to The Oorang! Boston Players are dealt four down. Players discard one card and turn one face up, leaving two hole cards. Play continues with a bet as in normal seven card stud. Thanks to Kevin Phelps! Heritage Classic First three cards are dealt face down. At signal, players simultaneously flip one up. Low hold card and all like it are wild. Player may opt to take seventh card up for a set fee to the pot. Thanks to Jay Calkin! Heinz 57 Fives and sevens are wild. If a player has two sevens, either exposed or not, that player and not the player with the high hand wins the pot. Thanks to Kevin Phelps! B All seven cards are dealt face down, with no betting rounds except one at the end. High hand wins. Thanks to Christopher Banks! Guillotine If you either open the betting or raise on the sixth card but ultimately lose the pot, you must match the pot. Thanks to Harry S! Twister A player dealt a face-up 8 has the option of declaring "Twister!" During a twister, each player must give three cards to the dealer. Those cards are shuffled, and three cards from this seperate pack are dealt back to each player. Thanks to Steve Rivet! Cowboys A player dealt a jack up has the option of paying a set amount for two additional hole cards. Every other player receives one additional hole cards. Can also be played no-peek as Blind Cowboys. Thanks to Jon Goldberg! Second Hand High Pot goes to player with the second highest hand, or to the only remaining player if everyone else folds. Second Hand High-Low Pot split between players with the second highest hand and the second lowest hand. Note that this adds a declare and another bet immediately before the showdown, as in High-Low Split above. Seven Card Flip Deal four down to each player. At dealer's signal, players simultaneously expose two cards face up. Bet. Continue as seven card stud with two up cards and a final down card. May be played high-low. Follow the Queen PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Two down and one up to each player. PLAY Seven card stud, but when a queen is dealt up, the next card dealt up and all cards of the same rank are also wild. If another queen is dealt up, the next card dealt up replaces the previous wild as the new wild card. If a queen is the last card dealt up, then nothing is wild. WINNER High hand. VARIATIONS Queens are also wild. Black Mariah If the Queen of Spades is dealt face-up, the hand immediately ends. All players re-ante and the hand is redealt. Change the Diaper (Dirty Schultz) PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Two cards down and one up to each player. PLAY As in 7 card stud, with the following changes. Whenever a natural pair is dealt up to a player, the next card in the deck is dealt up in the center as a marker. All cards with the same rank of the marker are wild. If another pair is later dealt up, the next card from the deck replaces the marker, which means that, in all probability, the wild card will change. Each player's seventh card is dealt up. However, a player may pay a preset amount and have their seventh card dealt down, thereby decreasing the chance that the wild card marker will change. WINNER High hand. Kankakee PLAYERS Up to eight. INITIAL DEAL Two down to each player, plus a joker displayed in the center of the table. PLAY Same as seven card stud, except everyone shares their third card, which is the joker. The joker, which is placed in the center of the table to reflect that it is shared by all players, is wild. WINNER High hand. VARIATION Instead of using a joker as the community third card, deal a regular, nonwild card from the deck for everyone to share. NOTE This game is notable because it allows an additional eighth player to participate in a game similar to seven card stud. Most seven card stud games are limited to seven players. Baseball   PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Two down and one up to each player. PLAY Seven card stud with threes and nines are wild plus these changes: If a player is dealt a face-up three, the player must immediately either match the pot (perhaps limited to a preset amount) or fold. If a player is dealt face up four, the player immediately receives another up card. If that up card is also a four, the player immediately receives another up card. WINNER High hand. VARIATIONS Rainout Rule If Marge Schott (Queen of Spades) is dealt face up, the hand is terminated and redealt. After three rainouts, a dome is built over the stadium, preventing further rainouts. The Natural A player who remains in the game until the end and whose hand does not contain a wild three or nine wins half the pot. If two players have naturals, player with the better natural wins that half. Note that a natural can win the entire pot if it beats all hands at the showdown. Thanks Jeffrey Peterson! Football Instead of threes and nines, threes and sixes are wild. Players dealt a three face up must match the pot (perhaps limited to a preset amount) or fold. Instead of fours, players dealt an up two get an additional up card. Night Baseball PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Seven cards face down to each player. PLAY Do not look at your cards! This game is similar to baseball, except players may not look at their cards until they are flipped up, as described below. The player to the dealer's left exposes a card. Bet. The next player on the left starts exposing cards until that player's revealed hand beats the highest revealed hand on the table. Rolling player must obey any Baseball payment rules that apply as player flips cards (paying for an exposed three, extra down card for a four, etc). As soon as player's revealed hand becomes the highest showing hand, player stops rolling cards and begins a betting round. Player to left of lead player then rolls until that player has exposed the best hand. Bet. If a player rolls all the cards and does not beat what is on the table, player is out and a betting round begins with the player with the highest exposed hand. The game continues to the left ,with players flipping cards and starting betting rounds, until all the cards have been turned up or there is only one person left in the game. WINNER High hand. Juneau (Seven High-Low No Peek Declare) PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Seven cards face down to each player. PLAY Do not look at your cards! This game is similar to Night Baseball, but without all the special cards, and is played high-low. The player to the dealer's left is the first lead player. The lead player exposes one card and starts a betting round. After the betting round, the next player on the left starts rolling cards until that player's revealed hand beats the highest revealed hand on the table (initially, the first lead player's single up card) or until the rolling player has exposed six of the rolling player's seven cards. Bet, beginning with player with highest poker hand exposed. Continue in turn with each player rolling until player has the high hand or has exposed six cards, with a round of betting whenever someone stops rolling cards. When no one can defeat the high hand without rolling a seventh card, bet. Now all players may look at hole card(s). (Note that the player with the highest exposed hand may have more than one hole card to peek at.) Declare. Bet. Showdown. WINNER High and low hands split. VARIATION 6 You're Out Instead of seven cards, deal six cards face down to each player. A player who flips a 6 must immediately fold. A player who flips a 4 receives an extra down card. Thanks to Rob Grabon! Kings PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Two down, one up to each player. PLAY In form, this game is seven card stud high-low with kings wild. However, there are important differences. Player may push the first up card dealt to player in a given round to the player on his or her left by paying a small fee to the pot. A player who pushes a card to the left must accept next card in the deck. This deck card is dealt to the pushing player when someone down the line accepts the pushed card, or the pushed card is discarded by its final recipient. Player who receives a card pushed from the right also has the option of passing the card to the left for the same small fee, again paid to the pot. If the last player to receive a card for that round pushes the card, the card is discarded. Bet, beginning with the player with the best poker hand showing. Another round of up cards is dealt, beginning with the player with the best low hand showing and following around to the right. Bet. Repeat through sixth cards. Bet. Seventh card is dealt face down. Bet. Declare. Bet. Showdown. A player that has a face up king at the showdown may only win the high half of the pot and must declare high only. WINNER High and low hands split. VARIATION Serial Regicide (Super Kings). Same as above, but players get two chances to push a card each round. First card pushed costs a litte (in our game $0.25), second pushed card costs a lot (in our game $1.00). Player must accept third up card received in round. Seventh card is also dealt up, with all the accompanying pushing rules. NOTE Our game does not begin each dealing round with the player with the best low hand showing, but I wish it did. We simply deal new cards beginning with the player to the dealer's left. In my opinion, this provides quite a disadvantage to the dealer and a diminishing disadvantage to players on dealer's right. But our group doesn't agree with me, so we don't play that way. Linoleum PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Dealer first gives two cards down to each player. Dealer then exposes top deck card and places it face up next to the deck. Dealer then exposes next deck card and places it on top of the deck. PLAY Roughly similar to seven card stud. Beginning with the player to the dealer's left and rotating around the table, each player has the opportunity to purchase a card. The card next to the deck is free, the card on top of the deck costs one unit, and the unexposed card from the deck costs two units. If player buys the card next to the deck, dealer replaces it with the exposed card on top of the deck, exposes a new card from the deck, and place it on top of the deck. If player buys the card on top of the deck, dealer replaces it by exposing the top unexposed card from the deck and placing it on top of the deck. Player places purchased card face up in front of player. Continue to left until all players have an up card. Bet. Again beginning with player to dealer's right, players buy a second up card as described above. Bet. Continue until all players have four up cards. Bet. Dealer gives each player a down card from the unexposed cards at the top of the deck. Bet. Declare. Bet. Showdown. WINNER High and low hands split. VARIATIONS All sorts of changes may be made to the price of cards. After the first round of up cards, subsequent up card rounds begin with player with best low hand showing. Auction PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Two cards down to each player. PLAY Dealer exposes a number of cards equal to the number of players face up in the middle of the table. The players will bid on these cards. The players take chips below the table and put a certain amount of chips in one fist as a bid. At the dealer's signal, the players simultanously expose their fists containing chips above the table. The player that exposes the highest value of chips selects an up card and adds it to his hand, leaving it face up in front of him. The person who bid second highest chooses next, and so forth. If more than one person bid the same amount, the player showing the best poker hand selects first. If that doesn't resolve the tie, the player nearest the dealer's left selects. All bids are added to the pot. Player with high card showing begins a betting round. Dealer again exposes cards in the center to match the number of remaining players. Players bid on those cards as above, with bids paid to the pot, and then bet, beginning with player with highest hand showing. Continue until each player has five up cards, with the dealer continuing to deal a number of bid cards equal to the number of remaining players. Bet. Declare. Bet. Showdown. WINNER High and low hands split. VARIATIONS Choose Your Own Center cards are not bid for. Instead, they are given free to the players based on how low their exposed hands are, with ties going to player closest to dealer's left. First up card is simply dealt to each player. High hand wins. Silent Auction. Players who submit tie bids for a card (whether the first card in the round or subsequent rounds) submit additional, freestyle oral bids until a winner is determined. Thanks to Thomas Akin! Wall Street PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Two down to each player. Four up in the center in a line. A one-unit chip from the ante is placed as a marker on the first card in the line. PLAY The first player to the left of the dealer selects a card as follows: Card from top of the deck is free. Card with chip on it costs one unit, paid to the pot. Second up card in line costs two units, paid to the pot. Next up card costs four units, paid to the pot. Last up card costs eight units, paid to the pot. If player selected an up card, dealer slides each of the more expensive exposed cards down one position and deals a new card into the eight unit slot. Continue around the table until all players have an up card. Bet, beginning with player with highest card. Next card selection round begins with the first player to the left of player who began previous card selection round, followed by a bet by the player with the highest poker hand showing. Continue until all players have five cards. Bet. Declare. Bet. Showdown . WINNER High and low hands split. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Two cards down and one up to each player, and three down in the center of the table. PLAY Deal like seven card stud. After each player has four cards, dealer immediately flips the first of the three table cards. This is The Good, and is all cards of the same rank are deemed wild. After each player has five cards, dealer immediately flips the second table card. This is The Bad, and all cards of the same rank up or down must be discarded. If the Bad is the same rank as the Good, there is no Good, and all cards of that rank are deemed Bad. After each player has six cards, dealer immediately flips the last table card. This is The Ugly, and anyone who has an up card of the same rank must fold. Center cards are not shared; they merely serve as markers. WINNER High hand. VARIATION High-Low Split. Pai Gow Split PLAYERS Up to seven. INITIAL DEAL Two down, one up to each player. PLAY Play as seven card stud, with these changes. After the final betting round, players arrange their seven cards into a five card pile and a two card pile. The four up cards should remain visible in their piles, while the three hole cards should remain hidden in their piles. Declare. Players show zero chips to win the two card hand. Players show one chip to win the five card hand. Players show two chips to win both hands. Bet. WINNER Players with the best five and two card hands split the pot. The two card hand ranking is high pair, high card, with straights and flushes ignored. NOTE Thanks to Rick Hawkins!