C9 Writes About 7 Card Stud: 3 Plays on Later Streets

So I'm workin' late in the lab again. Doing some tert-butyllithium chemistry. But that's great for you guys, because it means I get bored while waiting for chemicals to do their thing & I write about my favorite poker game.

But anyways, I thought I would offer up some of the most basic moves on later streets that you can pull in order to gain an advantage over your opponent when you're playing 7 card stud. However, a lot of these moves relate to limit hold'em/omaha as well. Just they're particularly applicable in stud, where you can get a much better sense of what your opponent is playing.

Raising for a free card

This move is pretty universal to all forms of limit games, but stud in particular, since draws are much stronger.

In general, the whole premise is that our villain (opponent) in early position bets, and we raise. This raise is designed to get our villain to check to us on the next street, so that we can check behind for our free card. Why do this?

1) On 4th street, the bet is still 1/2 of the big bet. So by raising on 4th, you can get to see 6th street for 1 big bet. However, if you just called, and villain bet 5th, it would cost you 1.5 big bets. So obviously, this saves us money.

2) Often, you will hit your draw on 5th street. So we got more money from villain in this case when we hit. Additionally, your board may become very scary, when you do hit your draw on 5th, so your villain may not pay you off.

3) This puts more money in the pot while you have a high amount of equity (chance of winning), and less when we have less equity.

4) You may win the pot right there, just based on your aggression!

So here's an example:

We have an open ended straight draw on 4th street, and there are two villains in front of us:

hole cards --- Open Cards
X X --- X X X

Villain #1: X X ---
Villain #2: X X ---
Hero (us): ---

So if the action goes:

Villain #1 bets, Villain #2 calls, Hero....

Then we should raise every time! The only cards we can catch to make us act first on the next street would be a ten or 8, and they improve our hand (so we wouldn't mind betting 5th street either). So by raising, on the next street our opponents may very well check to us, and we can check behind, seeing 6th street for free.

Lastly, even if we get 3-bet we should just go ahead and 4-bet. While we may possibly be behind, we're drawing very live even against 3 aces or 3 kings. So 4-bet this street if we get re-raised, and then even raise 5th if villain bets into us again! Because then maybe we can use that raise to see 7th street for free. Here's an example of such a play: http://www.cardschat.com/f46/4-flush...profit-118915/

Also, if you improve your hand, you do not have to take a free card. For instance, if we catch the on 5th street, we should just continue to bet, since we caught flush outs as well, and we can take our free card on 6th street.


Raising to Clear Outs

This is an often under-used play, that is very important for hands that need to be heads up to win. When the pot becomes large, it is very important to make extra raises to knock out other players because the size of the pot is so very large in relation to the bet size.

Here's an example, assuming that we're playing in a $0.5-1$ game:

We hold a pair of split Kings on 4th street, and the pot is 4-way. The 3rd street betting was capped, so the pot is already at $3.95.

Hand & Equity

Villain #1: --- 37.2%
Hero: --- 22.8%
Villain #2: --- 18.4%
Villain #3: --- 21.6%

If villain #1 bets, we should always raise in this position! And here's why:

If we just call the bet from villain #1, we put in $0.50 to win 5.95$. Our equity in that $5.95 pot is $1.36.

However, if we raise & villain #1 re-raises, but the other villains fold, then it costs us $1.50 to win $6.95. Our equity in the $6.95 is $3.02, or 43.5%! So even though we put in an extra 2 small bets while an under-dog, clearing those outs for ourselves gained us a large increase in equity!


Valuebetting 1 pair on the River in Heads-Up pots

Heads up pots in 7-card stud is often a race to two pair. However, the odds of making 2 pair by 7th street is 42%, assuming all your cards are live. So the odds that you and your opponent both do not make 2 pair by 7th street is 34%! So a third of the time, if you start with a pair higher than your opponent's, you are likely to still have the best hand at the river. So checking the river everytime is clearly a leak if our opponent will call a bet.

So if you start the hand off heads up, and your are left on the river with a single pair, you should *strongly* consider value-betting that single pair if any of the following conditions are met:

1) Your pair is in the hole & is large (Jacks or better)
2) You have been caught bluffing the river before
3) Your opponet is unlikely to have a draw
4) Your door card is lower than your opponent's
5) Your opponent is good & realizes that he is getting large pot odds to call on the river

The more of these factors that you put together, the more you should value bet your 1-pair hand.

For example:

On third street, you have the following hand. You raise, and are called by villain.

Hero: ---
Villain: X X ---

You have bet every street, and villain has called. On 7th street, your boards looks like so:

Hero: --- --
Villain: X X --- -- X

Villain's 3 cards that he has caught are all at least partially dead. Additionally, his door card is higher than yours. So he is likely holding a pair of sixes, which would beat the pair of 5's you had been representing.

Additionally, the 2nd diamond we picked up on 4th street could represent a flush draw, which villain can beat with 1 pair if we missed our draw. And villain's board is just so unlikely to be a draw, so he will often have a pair to pay us off with.

I would bet my single pair of aces here for value against all but the nittiest of opponents, especially at microstakes, where there are calling stations everywhere, and your aggression will often be mis-interpreted as maniacal play.


So I hope that gives you guys some ideas for how to relieve poor players of their pocket change! Now my reactions are done, and I'm going home!