7 Card Stud H/L Strategies
Most of us won’t admit it but 7 Card Stud H/L is not the average mixed game player’s best game. This is proven true time and time again at the tables. Since there is so much room for improvement when it comes to Stud Hi-Lo I wanted to give you guys a few tips. If after reading this you want to learn more about proven strategies for the Stud poker variants please visit the internet’s #1 ranked 7 Card Stud website:
Anyway, since many mixed poker games contain 7 Card Stud HL I strongly suggest looking over these strategies. Some of these concepts apply to standard 7 Card Stud and even Razz poker, both of which are included in H.O.R.S.E poker and newer mixed variants such as 7-Game Mix and 8-Game Mix.
1. Don’t Chase Draws
One of the biggest mistakes new 7 card stud h/l players make is that they chase their draws. Sometimes it is okay to chase, but more often than not, new players don’t know the right time and 7 times out of 10 they will be drawing dead. It is pretty simple to know if you are drawing dead because everyone has some cards face up which gives you information about how many outs you have left. Often when new players sit down, they look at the other players’ cards, but don’t get their use out of them. If you have 6, 7, 9, 10 and you need an 8, look around the table and see how many 8s are showing. If you see all four 8s showing in other player’s hands, you know that you are drawing dead and it would be a good time to fold. However, this is not something many new Stud players know and many get turned off the game because they lose so much chasing dead hands on their first time at a 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo table.
2. Take Charge of the Game
If you start the game early with a high pair, trips or even 2 pair, you need to make sure you are very aggressive. Although chasing is not such a good thing, the other players may not know that. You need to make sure you always bet your hands and bet them good. Because there are so many possible hands in 7 Card Stud, especially in hi-lo, many players may think they have a good drawing hand and this may be true. Represent your hand as a good strong hand all the way. You might still get callers, but if you look weak in anyway, the players are going to call and going to try to out draw you. Even if it is your first time at the table, take charge like you have been playing all your life. When playing with people you have never played with before, you can make yourself to be whomever you choose, so why not be a good, strong, aggressive card player?
3. Practice Your Poker Face
As mentioned above, if you give other players one glance of weakness, you will be called throughout the game. Before you even sit down at a poker table, especially a 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo table, decide how aggressive you want to be. Some players come into the game very aggressively and quickly get named for bullies, of course my personal favorite is to act like I don’t know how to play. If the other player looks weak, take advantage of the situation and hope he wasn’t bluffing. Sometimes you can guide other players into believing you don’t know what you are doing, like if you have 3 cards to the straight showing and you look at your cards and then count your fingers as if you were making sure you have the straight, this is an aggressive move and will often get players to fold quickly unless they don’t believe you, or think they have you beat.
4. Know When and When Not to Bluff
Another big mistake new 7 Card Stud players make is that they don’t know when or when not to bluff. It is harder to bluff in 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo because there are 2 pots people are fighting for. The high pot and the low pot. This means that it is more likely that other players have good drawing hands. If you get caught bluffing, players will look at you differently and your bets will mean nothing to them. This could cause you to mess up the persona you were trying to represent. Although sometimes you can use it to your advantage when you really do have the nuts! Bluffing is something that not everyone can do effectively, but once you get it down, it’s like riding a bike, you never forget. Before you decide to bluff, evaluate how the other players in the hand have been acting. Have they been betting? Have they been a calling station? Have they raised? Paying attention to these small details can save you a lot of money in the long run.
5. Don’t Chase Half of the Pot
Because 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo has 2 different pots to play for, doesn’t mean that you should settle for less and only play for the one pot. This can turn out to be a fatal mistake. If you are playing Hi-Lo, you can guarantee there are going to be quite a few people in every hand. The difference is, new players are okay with fighting for one of the pots where as poker pro’s know to go for them both. There are a few big problems with only chasing one half of the pot. One of the biggest is, what happens if someone beats your hand? Now you are stuck with nothing, in fact you have probably lost some money. If you go for both halves of the pot, even if you don’t win one of the halves, you may still have a chance for the other and it costs the same to play for both as it does to play for one.