Pokerwiner.com → 7 card stud guide
THIRD STREET
MIDDLE PAIRS, 7S, 8S, 9S
My thinking here is to be conservative with middle pairs at the start in medium and lower-limit stud poker games. At the big limits, you’ll often see players ram and jam with these middle pairs, especially if their kicker is an overcard to the board. But at our limits, your primary concern is the quality of your kicker not deciding whether you will raise, but whether you will play.
Automatically raising with middle pairs at these limits will cost you a lot of money in the long run.
So let the big kids splash around. That’s fine for them because their games are more aggressive, due largely to what is known as an overrate, compared to our limits. That means that their ante is a larger percentage of the bet size. For example, at $10-$20, as the game is dealt in Las Vegas, the ante is $1. At $20-$40, the ante is $3. Notice that the limits have increased by 100 percent, but the ante has gone up 300 percent.
And as the limits increase, the ante size increases by a greater percentage each time. This encourages aggressiveness. But at our limits, with a smaller percentage ante, being conservative works better. You’ll want to consider several things in deciding whether to play a middle pair on third street. What is the quality of your kicker-how high is it? What is your position?
Are you in the “steal” position (last to act with only the low card and perhaps one other caller in the pot)? Ante stealing. Are your cards live? Is your pair hidden or split? What are the other player’s doorcards (first upcards)? Let’s look into these questions, and hopefully come up with some workable answers.
First, your kicker. How big is big? Standard poker wisdom says that if you start with a small or medium pair, your side card (another word for kicker) should be an ace. That’s because an ace would be an overcard to the board and would give you a shot at the highest two-pair sf you pair your kicker. I modify that to say that your kicker should be an overcard to the board, but probably not lower than a queen or jack.
After all, when you play these middle pairs, your objective is to hit three-of-a-kind or a big two-pair at fourth street. If your kicker is a small one, then you can’t make a big two-pair. Worse yet, if you pair your small kicker on fourth street, you have trouble (more on trouble as we get farther along).
Let’s suppose the dealer blesses you with a split pair of sevens and an ace kicker-you have a seven showing with an ace and another seven in the hole. Your cards are all live. The low card tosses in the bring-in money. Do you play? Yes. Live cards and an overcard kicker: yes. But what if there is a raise before the action gets to you-do you play? I do I can see that there will also be one other caller (and hopefully, he will be on a draw), However …
In an instance like this,look for reasons to not play.
Does it look as though there might be another raise behind me? I’m gone, thank you. I have found a reason not to play. If my kicker with those two sevens is a jack instead of an ace, I don’t call the raise. At these limits, it is most likely that the raise will come from a pair higher than jacks. And if the raise comes from exactly a jack, kicker is a dead doornail.
As I attempt to put the raiser on a hand, I’ll want to see if his cards are live here on third street. So I’m saying that I’ll stand one raise with a medium pair and a definite overcard kicker. But if I have to call a double raise, I’ll fold my tent, even if my kicker is that magic ace.
Now let’s say that you have called with a split pair of nines in early position. A conservative player raises showing a small upcard. You know that this player raises only with large pairs, so he has something big buried. In this instance, your smaller pair has a legitimate call against a bigger pair. This is contrary to some of what we have already discussed.
“What’s up?” you ask. What’s up is that it now becomes easy to read your opponent’s hand. He cannot make two pair without your seeing it, except on the last card. If he pairs his doorcard or any other card before seventh poker street, you can see the pair laying there and will know that he has two-pair, and you can play accordingly.
We’ve talked about being willing to call a raise with a hidden pair, especially if your kicker / upcard is higher than the pair you figure your opponent raised with. But if there are still players to act after you who have higher doorcards than the upcard of the raiser, especially if they are aggressive players, you should fold because you are in danger of a reraise behind you. You can stand one raise in this situation, but not two.
Generally, when you hold a medium or small pair on third street with one of your pair-cards showing on the board, you should pass-unless your kicker is an overcard to the board and is no smaller than a queen.
That overcard gives you the possibility of making the highest two-pair, in addition to improving your pair to trips if you catch the last available card of your rank. But the biggest factor in determining whether to play a pair with one of your cards already out is your position in relation to where that card is on the board.
Let’s say that I have a pair of eights. If my needed eight is in front of me (must act before I act) and plays, I’m gone. The fact that he played indicates a strong possibility that the has the last eight in the hole, especially if my two eights are hidden-because then he can’t know that his eights are dead.
If he folds, I can figure that he doesn’t have another eight and so can play-assuming that I have a big poker overcard. However, if my needed eight is to my left and must act after I do, I don’t know if he’s going to play or not. I don’t have enough information to make a correct decision, so I’ll take brief moment to glance to my left to see if I can pick up a clue as to his intentions.
Often, you can see a player reaching for his chips long before the action gets to him. or you can tell that he is ready to toss his hand when it’s his turn to act. If he indicates that he intends to fold, I play. If he is reaching for his chips, I fold. And if I can’t tell either way, I have to fold because of my lack of information. I hope you’ve noticed the stress put on high kickers in determining whether many of your hands are playable.
seven card stud is a game of live cards. It is also a game of high kickers.
Here’s another example. Suppose you put your opponent on a pair of jacks while you hold a medium or even a small pair. For you to play, you must have an ace, king, or queen in the hole for a kicker. You don’t want it to be your upcard because you will probably have to act first at fourth street strategy.
Since your hand is not strong enough to bet, you’ll have to check, showing weakness. A savvy opponent will jump all over that, betting strong on every card. Unless you get immediate, significant improvement, you’ll be in a position of checking and calling, which is indeed a weak, meek (and generally losing) way to play poker. So, as a general summary:
Middle pairs should be played conservatively at these limits, with a lot of consideration given to big cards as kickers.
Tend to not call raises unless you have a specific, profitable looking situation. If there has been no raise, limp in cheaply (just call). You’re looking to make exactly three of a kind at fourth street, or two high pair sf your kicker is a high one. And, by golly, I hope you’ve gotten it tattooed on your brain by now: big kickers, big kickers, big kickers.
THIRD STREET
SMALL PAIRS, 2S THROUGH 6S
Generally speaking, these small pairs are played much the same as the middle pairs except that, of course, they are more vulnerable. You’ll have to be more alert to when you think that you are beat. And, of course, it’s more likely that a pair of threes is going to be outrun than a pair of eights of prime importance again is your kicker/side card:big! The bigger, the better. I’ll repeat: You can’t make a big two-pair sf you start with a small kicker. Any improvement at fourth poker street is more likely to be to two-pair than to trips. Assuming that your cards are live, there are three cards you can catch to make two-pair and two cards to make trips.
Small pairs almost always play better sf they are hidden, mostly because of the surprise value when you make trips.
Also, with your small pair in the hole, your kicker is your upcard, and it will be big (hopefully, an overcard to the board). This type of hand is among the most difficult for your opponents to read. If you have the biggest upcard and don’t raise, they will most likely put you on a drawing hand (a big straight or high flush).
When you trip up at fourth street with the same suit as your high doorcard, most opponents at the medium and lower limits will be sure that you are on a flush draw. You’ll have a surprise for them later on. When you pair your doorcard at fourth street, they may misread you again, probably putting you on a three-flush with a big pair.
A small pair with a small kicker is also playable, but not very often. The two instances you might play them are in late position with no danger of a raise-with all your cards absolutely live; and when you think you can ante-steal with them from a late position.