Why play Seven–Card Stud High-Low?

[SnappySam]

Q. Why play Seven–Card Stud High-Low?

A. Because it’s fun and profitable! In a recent poll on a well known book publisher’s poker forum. the results could be interpreted to mean that compared to Seven-Card Stud and Razz, Hi-Lo has bigger winners and bigger losers. This suggests that there is money to be made – if you can play the game well.
Some may be under the illusion that Limit games are boring and slow, and that you need a super-power memory to remember all the cards that have come. Whilst I would agree that Limit Hold ‘em is more boring than Ludo, the same cannot be said for 7-Stud Hi-Lo – at least not if you play it like I often do! As for remembering the cards, it’s not an issue – just paying attention will do it.

It pays to know how to play well in as many of the games as you can, and learning how to play 7-Stud Hi-Lo (sometimes referred to as Stud-8) will also improve your regular Stud and Razz play. A serious player would buy Ray Zee’s book, but here’s a few tips to keep you going.

Betting
Most players of this game don’t bet often enough. They fail to bet their drawing hands, seldom reraise and prefer to check and call, as opposed to pushing the action. That is my experience at the $1 MTTs and SnGs at Poker Stars, and where I would normally veer towards a tight-aggressive style at most other forms of poker, this particular game (at these lower limits) bears a more loose-aggressive style of play.

You can bet, raise and reraise when:
You have the best hand
You have a draw to the best hand
It looks like you have the best hand
It looks like you have a draw to the best hand
Opponents are not catching their cards
Your opponents are not betting
You are betting and raising on every street and you miss all your draws on the end
You are showing a pair
You are showing three suited cards
Bet without hesitation, raise without hesitation. Don’t ponder – know what cards you need and what will improve your opponent before the next deal so you can act instantly. If they blink, you bet. If you would call a bet, usually bet yourself, especially on 7th Street. Usually bet on 7th if your opponent does not show strength – such as if he or both of you check on 6th. Unless you are quite obviously beat and your opponent is likely to reraise, of course.

Starting Hands:

A decent starting hand, as in all of poker, is paramount. Best starting hands at this game are trips, three related low cards that can make a flush and/or a straight, Aces with a low card, three low with Ace, two small cards or a small pair with an Ace, the top pair from what you can see, one high two low to a flush (hoping to catch a low suited card), three high to a straight flush. Under most circumstances you should not play high straights or three low cards (without an Ace) that can’t make a straight or a flush: Ah, 6D, 7D good, AC, 2H, 7S bad.

Third street play
Look out for any upcards that you would need for your hand to improve, such as low Diamonds if you have K, 4, 5 Diamonds, or Aces, twos, sixes and sevens if you have 3, 4, 5. Or Aces and eights if you have A, 8, 8. The fewer out there the better. Also look for what cards can and can’t improve your opponent, such as when he is betting with an Ace showing and you and someone else have one each, or a few fives and/or fours are out, thus limiting his low straight potential.
Always play hands that have the potential to scoop the whole pot, but if it looks like all the other players are going for high hands and worse lows than yours, stay and draw to the low. If most of the other players are showing low possibilities, be very inclined to raise it up with your high hands such as trips or Aces and bet aggressively to knock out and/or extract bets from the low hands, which by definition are drawing hands.

Fourth Street
If you improve to a good low draw/flush draw/two pair/trips etc keep betting and/or raising aggressively. If not, fold if there is a bet unless your opponents play weak on later rounds, in which case you can see fifth street. Raise at the right moment – don’t necessarily raise out players too early, but if in position you can often get another call from everyone. Just call along if going for something like a high flush, as you will likely be splitting the pot and need the odds to make it worthwhile. Don’t allow free draws. Beware pairs showing. Look at the upcards all the time.

Later Streets
Keep on betting unless there is real danger from both ends, but even then you need to keep the pressure on. A pair showing could mean a made full house, so be careful but don’t let up. If you miss all your draws on 7th street, it’s usually best to bet anyway, but if you encounter a player who keeps calling you down, if he checks on 6th street, you should also check and only bet if you hit your hand on 7th.
Apply commonsense, use your eyes, watch the other player’s style, check and fold if you have very little. Don’t defend your bring-in. Don’t raise on Third with drawing hands but do so with Aces, and trips to knock out the drawing hands. Sometimes slow down, but be ready to get very aggressive with your good hands.

[offrdmom]

Thanks Sam for the tips 7card stud hi/lo is my favorite =)

[datsme53]

This was always my favorite game to play when I played a lot of ring games live over the many years I have played poker. Most all of the time 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo was played with any low hand getting half the pot, but since I've played online.. it is most always played with 8 or less required to be a playable low hand. The 8 part of the low is what you will see online.. so you must have at least an 8 for low to even have a low hand.

One thing I've always noticed since playing this game online.. there are a lot of players that put too much emphasis on the low. This kind of player will likely see his stack shrink with regularity. A pretty good percentage of hands played that draw to low hands either never make a low, or end up in at least a tie with another player.. or even 2 others. These tied hands for low are not profitable in most cases.. so watch how your betting when you suspect there is likely to be another good low hand or 2 along with you. If your not careful all you will likely be doing is feeding the player who has the best high hand. Raising when you have a low hand and others are apparently playing for low as well may just be building the pot for the high hand and leaving you with only a share of the other half's much harder to tell how many low hands are as good as you are, while it's not nearly as difficult to tell how many high hands are as good as yours. So, constantly be watching all the cards showing so you can stay on top of what hands are with you on the low end.

Thanks Sam for a very good post on Seven Card Hi/Lo! I too believe this game to be great fun .. and yes.. profitable.

[sickfk1]

great read! will read again b4 trying will be kool cuzz im into 7stud

[trekmaster]

7 stud was the game we always played in our teens and 20's somewhere in the 80's texas holdem caught on and no one wanted to play 7 card anymore. always have been on of my favorites jsut so hard to get enough players for a game.

[Assistanc3]

STUD and its variants have always been my favorite games to play, not just because that is what I started on but because it takes a bit more math to play then compared to the more of a gamble games like Holdem require.

Well written article SnappySam, it should help new poker players understand the game better and maybe help those thinking of mixing up games try something else like STUD8b.

[SnappySam]

Couple of thoughts:

I take your point, Dats, re high/lo hands, and it seems we are at odds in our approach to the game. I think the key thing to remember is that the game changes drastically depending on the number of players in the game and in the hand, the stage of the game and the size of the pot. At the start of a tourney I will play only very good low hands that hit on fourth street - otherwise I'm usually straight out. If my low draw on fourth looks better than the other lows, I'm better than 50/50 to hit my low with three cards to come and will often raise it up on fourth, especially if two or more high hands are aggressive. Leverage to knock out other lows is good, so aggressive high hands are your friend. I'll happily throw chips around all the way to seventh, giving me lots of lovely chips in the pot if I also hit a winning high, or suck chips from the high hands.

When it gets down to four players, and the antes are high, then high hands become more prominent - simply because the 'made' hand will be forcing the lows to make a big chip investment to hit their hand - this was previously affordable with more players at the table/in the hand, and the odds could be good enough to justify staying in.

I cannot stress enough how it's imperative, if you have been betting your low throughout the hand, to bet on seventh - it's quite surprising to see how often you can get a fold from what you know must have been a better high hand. And that's the beauty of having a good low starting hand which hits on fourth - against high only hands you have no fear, and so they often fear you - if you spice it up a little.