Page 14 - July 2003 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
Patience, Memory Pay off in Seven-Card Stud by Andrew N.S. Glazer
Today, we’ll learn a few of the more basic strategy considerations involved in seven-card stud. One of the most basic poker principles to remember is that the hand that starts off in front, tends to stay in front. Using an admittedly oversimpli ed example, if you
and I are the only two players in the pot, and I start off with a better hand than you do, look at what has to happen for you to win the hand:
3) Medium pairs (jacks, tens, and nines), especially if they are completely hidden. These hands lose a lot of value when split.
4) Small pairs (eights or lower) usually aren’t playable unless the pair is hidden and your cards are completely live (i.e., you have (7♥–7♦) 6♦ and you don’t see any sevens, sixes or diamonds around the board).
5) Big three ushes (any three suited cards ten or higher) are nice, in part because they can make good ushes, but also in part because they can turn into straights and because merely pairing the high cards can often give you a winning hand.
6) Smallthree ushesareusuallythrowaways.Imight make an exception if I had (2♥–3♥) 4♥, and my hand was completely live (no hearts, aces, or ves in sight), but you can lose a lot of money with these hands because when they don’t make the ush, but instead make two little pair that won’t win.
Apply the same analysis to straights as you do to ushes. Three big connected cards are ok, three small connected cards aren’t.
Andrew N.S. Glazer is the poker tournament editor for Card Player magazine, and is widely considered the world’s foremost poker tournament reporter. He writes a gambling column for the Detroit Free Press, and has authored Casino Gambling the Smart Way, which is available in bookstores or at his web site, www.casinoselfdefense.com. His new book with Phil Hellmuth is tentatively titled Practical Tournament Poker: A Guide to Learning Tournament Poker Skills Through Analyzing Actual Plays of the World’s Best Players.
1) If I improve and you don’t, I win.
2) If I improve and you improve equally, I win
3) If I don’t improve and you don’t improve, I win. 4) If I don’t improve and you do improve, you win. This example does oversimplify many of the
situations you’ll face in seven-card stud, but if you keep in mind just how dif cult it is to win when you start out trailing your competitors, you’ll have a much better chance to win. One of the biggest problems players encounter is investing lots of money in the hope of improving their hand, and succeeding, only to nd that someone else has also improved to something better! You must remember that unlike blackjack, where only your hand and the dealer’s hands matter, in seven-card stud, everyone’s hand matters, because a memory for folded cards may help you make decisions in later betting rounds.
Good stud play starts with selecting good starting hands. If you start with a pair, it is far better to have the pair both be in the hole, rather than having
a “split” pair where one member is your doorcard ( rst upcard). Why? Suppose you hold (9-9) 4, and then on your next card, you hit another nine. Your opponents have very little reason to suspect that this nine has given you a powerful hand.
If instead your starting hand had been (9-4) 9, and then you hit another nine on fourth street (this is called “pairing your doorcard”) everyone in sight hits the “red alert” button because they are very concerned about you holding trips.
Good starting hands vary a lot depending on the game, but if you follow the guidelines I list below, you’ll probably be able to beat low limit games.
Analysis of Starting Hands
1) Rolled up trips, e.g., (5-5) 5. This hand will often win without ever improving, and it improves to a full house or four of a kind fairly often.
2) Big pairs (aces, kings, or queens), especially if the third card ts in to help make a possible straight or ush.
Page 14 July 2003
Column: The Poker Pundit