7 Card Stud Hi-Lo

7 Card Stud Hi-Lo Rules
7 Card Stud Hi Lo is a more difficult game than Holdem, because your opponents have one more holecard. It is the game of choice for hard core players. Stud demands strategy and skill and it takes a lot of play to develop the capability to win with consistency. Because of the added difficulty, top players develop an added edge over new players in this game. Let's begin with the basic rules.

Betting Limits
7 Card Stud hi-lo games are defined by their betting limits. The following are common limits in most online poker rooms: $.05/$.10, $.25-$.50, $.50-$1, $1-$2, $2-$4, $4-$8, $8-$16, $15-$30, $40-$80 and above. The game's betting limits can be used as a strong indicator of competitor experience in this game. It should also tell the Stud player the size of the bankroll you should have before you sit in.

Buy-In and Bankroll
Your minimum 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo buy-in is typically 10-times the low limit, or $20 for a $2-$4 game. But we recommend you buy in with 50 times the low limit, or $100 in a $2-$4 game. Adjust your table to suit your bankroll. For online poker, we recommend $.25-$.50 limit tables or less for players who have logged less than 50 hours real money play time at 7 Card Stud.

The Ante
Ante in 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo is mandatory and changes depending on the betting limits. 7 card stud antes are around 10%-12 ½%. Common Online Poker Room antes:

Dealing
We'll use a $2-$4 game as our working example, so the Ante is .25. The dealer deals clockwise starting on their immediate left. They deal one card at a time around the table until each player has two pocket cards (face down) and a single up (the "door" card). At this point the dealer indicates which player will open the betting, determined by the lowest door card (visible card to the other players). If there's a tie for low door, suit resolves it: spades over hearts, followed by diamonds, and finally clubs is the lowest.

Betting
Once the initial cards have been dealt, the game begins. At this point we've got three cards on the table per player and that's called "Third Street".

Third Street
The player holding the lowest door card must "bring it in" by opening with a bet equal to ½ the low betting limit ($1 in our example game) or the low betting limit ($2 in our example game). If the low door player doesn't make this bet, they're forced to Fold and the opener passes to the player on their left. The next player clockwise from the opener can Call by matching the opener, Raise by betting the low betting limit ($2) or Fold. Once the betting has reached $2, further raises must be in $2 increments until the cap is reached. If the bring-in bet is $2, subsequent players have three choices: fold, call $2, or raise to $4.

Raising
The maximum allowable number of bets per player during any particular betting round is four. This would consist of the opening bet and three raises. Once the betting limit for that round has been reached, players have only the option of calling or folding. In brick and mortar (casino) games, house rules usually allow for unlimited re-raising on the river. Players therefore have the opportunity to stop the betting at anytime with a calling bet.

Fourth Street
The dealer gives each player another open (up) card. Unlike third-street, the opener in the fourth and remaining streets is the high hand as determined by the open cards. They may Check (Pass) or Bet. If they Bet it's at the low limit ($2) and that fixes all raises in this round to the same. If the high hand is an open pair, the opener can choose to bet at the upper limit ($4) and this fixes all Raises in the round to the upper limit.

Fifth and Sixth Street
Again, the fifth and sixth cards are dealt up and high hand opens. All bets and raises are at the upper limit ($4).

Seventh Street
The last card, called the "river", is another pocket card (face down). All bets and raises are at the high limit ($4).

Showdown
After the bets and raises, the remaining players enter the Showdown. The opener reveals his pocket cards. If a player wishes to compete with this hand they too reveal their pocket cards, or they can yield and muck out (Fold). At the casino it's the dealer's responsibility to call the winner, as determined by the best 5-card hand under normal Poker rules. In online games, the software will designate the winner and the pot will be passed to them.

All remaining players must use their two pocket cards and the three community cards to make the best possible Omaha Hi hands.

In 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, half the pot is split when someone has a qualifying low hand. If there is no qualifying hand for low, the best high hand wins the whole pot. To have a qualifying low hand, you must be able to make a five card hand with an 8 or lower as its highest ranked card. Straights and flushes do not count against you when determining a low hand though, although pairs and trips do count against you. Any pair is considered a higher (and therefore losing) hand to a hand made without a pair.

To determine who has the best low hand, you start by comparing the highest card in the hand. So a hand with its highest card being an 8 would not be as good as a hand with its highest card being a 7. These hands would be referred to as an "8 low" and a "7 low" respectively. If the two hands have the same high card, you then compare the next highest card. And if those cards have the same ranking, then you compare the next highest card, until you've compared all the cards.

The worst possibly low hand you could have would be 8-7-6-5-4, and the best possible low would be A-2-3-4-5. To determine the best possible low hand in a game with community cards, you would take the 3 lowest cards (8 or below) on the board (the shared cards), then determine what the lowest 2 cards someone could have in his or her hand that wouldn't pair the board. A lot of times this will be A-2, but not always.

You shouldn't need to memorize the chart of low hands below, but with any luck, it will be illustrative and interesting at the same time. The table is in order of best low hand to worst low hand.

Qualifying Low Hands Chart from Best to Worst

1	A-2-3-4-5
2	A-2-3-4-6
3	A-2-3-5-6
4	A-2-4-5-6
5	A-3-4-5-6
6	2-3-4-5-6
7	A-2-3-4-7
8	A-2-3-5-7
9	A-2-4-5-7
10	A-3-4-5-7
11	2-3-4-5-7
12	A-2-3-6-7
13	A-2-4-6-7
14	A-3-4-6-7
15	2-3-4-6-7
16	A-2-5-6-7
17	A-3-5-6-7
18	2-3-5-6-7
19	A-4-5-6-7
20	2-4-5-6-7
21	3-4-5-6-7
22	A-2-3-4-8
23	A-2-3-5-8
24	A-2-4-5-8
25	A-3-4-5-8
26	2-3-4-5-8
27	A-2-3-6-8
28	A-2-4-6-8
29	A-3-4-6-8
30	2-3-4-6-8
31	A-2-5-6-8
32	A-3-5-6-8
33	2-3-5-6-8
34	A-4-5-6-8
35	2-4-5-6-8
36	3-4-5-6-8
37	A-2-3-7-8
38	A-2-4-7-8
39	A-3-4-7-8
40	2-3-4-7-8
41	A-2-5-7-8
42	A-3-5-7-8
43	2-3-5-7-8
44	A-4-5-7-8
45	2-4-5-7-8
46	3-4-5-7-8
47	A-2-6-7-8
48	A-3-6-7-8
49	2-3-6-7-8
50	A-4-6-7-8
51	2-4-6-7-8
52	3-4-6-7-8
53	A-5-6-7-8
54	2-5-6-7-8
55	3-5-6-7-8
56	4-5-6-7-8

Our Site Recommendation: When considering our overall site reviews, and factoring in this games availability on each site, we recommend 7 Card Stud be played at either Pacific Poker or Party Poker.

At peak hours, there are 200 players enjoying 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo at Party Poker. You can use the banner at the top of this page to go direct to Party Poker, or use this link to read the complete Party Poker Review.

At peak hours, there are 100 players enjoying 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo at Pacific Poker. You can use the banner at the bottom of this page to go direct to Pacific Poker, or use this link to read the complete Pacific Poker Review.