7 STUD h players. Am I playing far to tight???

Hi all.

I have been playing a lot of stud recently, winning a bit, so I decided to try a $2/$4 FL game.

I`m wondering if its just me or if I am playing too tight.

I was not getting the cards and when I did I ended up folding. For example, AA hidden with a 9 showing. I raise a few streets with 3 callers. One of the guy spikes a pair showing, so I fold to his raise. I know it is probably the correct play - he must have hit his set at least.

I should probably drop back to lower stakes - I might be playing with `scared` money - but here is the stats from part way through the session. Tell me what u think.

During current Stud session you were dealt 116 hands and:
- saw fourth street 25 times (21%)
- saw fifth street 8 times (6%)
- saw sixth street 4 times (3%)
- reached showdown 1 times (0%)
Pots won at showdown - 1 of 1 (100%)
Pots won without showdown - 5

As all things in poker, it depends. Playing Stud correctly, at least in my humble experience, relies heavily on picking your battles and reading your table right. If you're at a very loose table and get dealt AA9, or even better AAK, you should raise and probably reraise if people let you: you are probably ahead and facing chasers. Make them pay dearly to do so, you'll get them back soon enough since you'll only play premium hands and they won't always hit.

Now folding to his raise (on what street? had your hand improved ? how many outs did you still have ? was he also showing straight or flush capacities ? What was his 3rd street card, etc...) might have been the correct play, maybe not. Let's say he is the typical loose, aggro maniac that likes FL StudHi.

He has xxJs showing and calls every raise you throw at him and his hand is xxJs4hJs when he reraises you on fifth street. Now, that 4 is very unlikely to have helped him much (unlike he likes to play A4J preflop) and if he has any brain, he won't get into a pot without at least some sort of draw or pair before the flop. You might still be ahead if you have paired that 9 or any of the 4 or 5 street card. If not, if you still have outs for that 9 or A, calling might shut him down a bit on 6th and you can dump it if it does not.

Another scenario, he has xx8 showing and he not only brings-in but raises. He still calls all your raises on every street but his hand on 5th street now looks like this xx8hJh8s. Now, his chances of having us beat are even greater since he can already have filled up to his boat, or has trips 8's or J's (he probably has a pair of 8's or J's to raise on 3rd street). I muck my AA unless I have two pairs of my own, and even then, I'm not confident in my holding.

But in essence, you pretty much have to play a pretty tight game in Stud: it'll help you bluff people when you have a marginal hand on 6th street (3 of a suit showing but with small pair and were allowed to stay in for cheap) and you won't get involved with the nuts or near nuts, insuring you show down the best hands (something your stats show you pretty much did in that session).