How to Play 7 Card Stud Hi Lo

High Ranking Poker Hands

High ranking poker hands are the normal standard hands from the poker hand rankings that are used in most poker variations and in the standard version of Omaha.  The highest being a Royal Flush and lowest being just a high card.

Low Ranking Poker Hands

A low hand must contain five different cards that are all numbered eight or lower for it to qualify.

Straights and Flushes are ignored but Pairs or Three of a Kind are no good and cannot be counted. For more detailed information see our guide to low poker hand rankings.

The best low hand you can get is 5-4-3-2-A and the worst qualifying low hand is 8-7-6-5-4.  The hand is always counted down from the highest card so if some one had 8-7 low against some one with 8-6 low, it does not matter how the other three cards run the 8-6 low will win.

For a low hand to qualify all the cards in a players five card hand (made up of three community cards and two cards from the players hole cards) must be numbered 8 or lower.  If even one card is numbered 9 or higher a low hand is not possible.

The Seven Stages of a 7 Card Stud Hi Lo Poker Hand

Stage 1 – The Dealer Button & Antes

A Seven Card Stud poker hand starts off with the allocation of the “Dealer Button”.

The dealer button is a marker that goes around the table in a clock wise rotation one position per hand.  The dealer button marks out which player the dealer will deal cards to first which is the player to the left of the dealer button.

Before any cards are dealt each player must put an ante into the pot which ensures there are chips to be won every hand.  The ante amount is normally 1/10th of the low value bet amount so at a $1/$2 table the ante amount would be $0.10.

Stage 2 – Hole and Door Cards

Once the Antes have been put forward each player will receive three cards, two cards face down which are called the hole cards and one card face up for all to see called the Door card.

The player with the lowest value Door card exposed will “bring in” which means he has to put forward the first bet.  This player has the choice to either put in the minimum bring in amount which is normally 1/5th of the low value bet or to raise to the small bet.  So on a $1/$2 table the bring in amount will be $0.20 or the raise amount will be $1.

The player to the immediate left of the bring in will be next to act with a choice of:

1. Fold – which means his cards are taken away and he will play no further part in the hand.
2. Call – which means to match the amount of chips put into the pot by the previous player.
3. Raise – which means to increase the amount of the current bet by an increment of 1 small bet. All other players must then match the increase bet to continue in the hand.

All raises in this round must be the same as the low value bet amount.  There can be only one bet and three raises permitted in total for each betting round.

The action will go round the table in a clock wise rotation until all players who wish to continue in the hand has put equal amount of chips in the pot.

Stage 3 – Fourth Street

The next card is dealt to all remaining players face up and this card is called the fourth street.

Once again another round of betting commences and the first player to act is decided by which player has the best two exposed cards on show.

This player has a choice whether to check or bet.  All bets and raises in this round must be of increments of the low value betting amount.  Once the betting has finished and all remaining have either checked or matched any bet made, the game moves onto the next round.

Stage 4 – Fifth Street

A fifth card is dealt to each remaining player face up and another round of betting will start.  The bets from this round onwards will be in increments of the high betting value, so on a $1/$2 table each bet or raise will be $2 from now.

Stage 5 – Sixth Street

The sixth card is then dealt to all players face up and another round of betting will commence.

Stage 6 – Seventh Street

A seventh and final card will be dealt to all remaining players face down.  From this point all players will know what their final hand will be and a final round of betting will start.

Stage 7 – The Showdown

If two or more players are left in the hand after the final round of betting has finished we then move onto the showdown.  All cards are revealed at this point to determine who wins the pot or each pot if there is a qualifying low hand.