Want to learn 7-Card Stud?

I love the game of 7-Card Stud. Absolutely love it. I prefer it to other forms of poker, but not because I dislike the other games. I'll play in any game, anywhere if I'm available. But due to the explosion in popularity of Texas Hold 'Em, the country has turned to this game for recreational poker. And so the general skill level of the average Hold 'Em player has risen in the past decade. When a person goes to a casino to play Hold 'Em, they generally come in with some knowledge of how the game works. Even if they aren't very good, it's getting increasingly rare to find total fish in a casino game.

Still, the average player still can't hold a candle to a pro. The pros have turned more to Hold 'Em as well, because that's where the most money is. Rich tourists want to go gamble for a day or two, and so they try out the game they've seen all over television.

Texas Hold 'Em.

The moral of the story is that Texas Hold 'Em games have gotten tougher and tougher to beat. Everyone knows how to play the game, at least to a degree.

Which is why I started playing Stud. While the skill level of the average Hold 'Em player has risen , the skill level of Stud players hasn't gone anywhere. If anything, it's declined. And so Stud tables are filled with older players that grew up playing Stud (notice I didn't say grew up playing Stud well) and younger players that wander over because they're temporarily frustrated with Hold 'Em. So basically, you're playing with a bunch of players that don't really know what their doing. And because Stud is a game where the strongest hand can often shift from player to player on each betting round, people are more inclined to chase in hopes of getting lucky. They allow themselves to remember the few times they chased and hit their miracle river card; they conveniently forget all of the three-flushes and medium pairs that didn't pan out. A table full of unskilled chasers.

In other words, it's prime pickin's for the well-equipped player.

So how do you get "well-equipped?" Well, for a while I was considering posting a tutorial series on how to win at 7-Card Stud. But then I realized that would be darn-near plagiarism, because I learned everything I know about how to win at Stud from the Stud section of the original Supersystem. The section was written by David "Chip" Reese, and the man knows what he's talking about. I've been told that the Hold 'Em section of that book is almost obsolete, and can no longer be used as a guide to winning. But the Stud section is golden. If you want to win some easy money, I strongly recommend you read Chip's instructions and follow them to the letter for a while. Then, as you get more comfortable, you can make your own personal adaptations. But the strategy and tactics that he outlines are, in my opinion, flawless. Get the book.