7 Card Stud High Low

Stud Hi Lo, also known as Seven-Card Stud High Low is a poker variant of Seven Card Hi. The games are similar, only that the pot canbe awarded to both high and low hands.

Stud Hi Lo is a game of skill and strategy. The winning hand at the final is based on the regular poker hand rankings, with one difference however: Stud High Low will award the pot to both the highest poker hand and the smallest poker hand.

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As in 7 Card Stud, in Stud High Low each player starts with 2 hole cards and one upcard. From this point there are another 3 rounds of upcards, each round having involved betting, and a final round (fourth), bringing a downcard and a last betting round. At the end, each player ends up having 4 upcards (faced up) and 3 downcards (faced down - only for them to see). The players holding the best hand and the worst hand of any 5 cards win hald the pot each.

For a low hand to be awarded half of the pot in Seven Card Stud High Low, there are a few conditions that need to be accomplished: hand must be formed from 5 cards, all 5 cards must be 8 or lower in value (Ace included as an 1), no pair (therefore all cards must be different). As an example an Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 counts as a low hand (and it is actualy the lowest hand possible in Hi Lo games). As you will think this is a straight, you should remember the fact that in High Low poker variations straights and flushes do not count in low hands.

Each Stud Hi Lo begins with every player putting an ante into the pot. The ante is not a blind (as in other poker variations), and does not count toward any future bets. In Stud High Low, the betting round starts not from the left of the dealer, but from the player showing the lowest upcard. This player must put down a bet (this is a forced bet, not optional), and in online poker the software will automatically put down the minimum bet for this player (the bet is also known as the bring-in). Each player can then fold, call the bring-in or complete the bet (raise to the lower limit). Once the bring-in is completed, the reraise limit is of 3 (for each round alone). On fourth and all successive streets, the betting will start with the player showing the highest board. If two or more players have the same high board, the betting starts with the player closest to the left of the stud button.

The betting rules are different, depending whether the game is Limit, Pot Limit or No Limit. We recommend you read the How to Play 7 Card Stud High Low article and download a free poker software for practice.