What is Stud Poker?
Stud poker encompasses a bunch of different poker games. If you think of poker as countries, Texas Hold’em could be the United States, but Stud poker is Europe, a large assortment of different games with their own quirks, rules and languages that fly under a slightly unified flag.
You may have heard of games like Mississippi Stud, Five Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Eight-or-Better. These are all different variations of Stud Poker and these games follow a few common rules to qualify as such. The main thing that sets Stud Poker apart is a combination of face down and face up cards that each player gets. This is different from games like Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha where the face-up cards are community cards that all players share. In Stud poker each players face up cards belong to them.
In 5 Card stud it’s one face down card and four face up ones while in games like Razz players get three facedown cards and four face up cards. Another element that’s key to Stud poker is positioning, or the lack of it. While in games like Omaha Hi/Lo there’s a button that moves clockwise every hand to indicate position, there’s no button in Stud poker. Position in these games is dependent on the cards showing each hand and can swap from one side of the table to the other or can fall on the same player three times in a row. There are some exceptions to this rule, but it’s generally the case with stud poker.
Aside from this, there’s a slew of different stud poker games with their own unique set of rules.
Stud Poker History
Stud poker has a pretty combative history. It’s not that the game was controversial, but its popularity and new variants tended to pick up during wartime. There aren’t any specific details on who invented the game and when, but Stud poker gained a lot of notoriety and popularity during the American Revolutionary War. Back then, soldiers played a four-card variant and the game was popular on both sides.
By the time the U.S. Civil War rolled around, soldiers decided to add another card to the mix and Five-Card Stud became the dominant poker game on both sides. The game skyrocketed in popularity and was played all over the nation after the Civil War. “5 Card Stud” is even the name of a Western movie starring Dean Martin where Martin gets caught cheating in a game of 5 Card Stud and madness ensues.
Seven Card Stud then became the popular game among American soldiers in World War II. After the war was over, the popularity followed the soldiers back home. Interestingly enough, there seemed to be a geographic split after that where Seven Card Stud became the game of choice in Atlantic City and casinos along the East Coast while Hold’em started gaining popularity out west in California and Nevada.
Since then, there has been an explosion of stud variants but the most popular continue being the seven card varianta. Maybe a new war will find soldiers playing eight or nine card stud though.
Stud Poker Variants
Seven Card Stud
This is currently the most popular form of stud poker. Players start each hand with three cards, two facedown and one faceup. After that there’s a betting round and players get another card. This process repeats itself until players have seven cards, the final card is dealt face down. The player with the highest ranking five-card poker hand wins the pot.
If you need to brush up on hand rankings, head on over to our poker hand rankings page for a quick refresher. For more information on this specific game, check out our Seven Card Stud guide.
Seven Card Stud Eight-or-Better
Logistically, this game plays exactly like Seven Card Stud. There’s seven cards and rounds of betting after every card. The only difference in this game is that it’s a split pot game. That means that half the pot goes to the high hand, and the other half goes to the low hand. The caveat here is that there has to be a qualifying low hand or else everything goes to the high hand. To qualify, a hand must have five cards lower than 8. To learn more, head on over to our Seven Card Stud Eight-or-Better guide.
Razz
Razz is all about the low hand. This is also a seven card stud poker game, but the best hand is the lowest. You can think about it as the opposite of Seven Card Stud. Unlike the Eight-or-Better variant, there doesn’t need to be a qualifying low hand. That means that a pair could be the low hand that takes down the pot.
Five Card Stud
The rules to this game are similar. It’s a high hand game where players are initially dealt two cards, one down, one up. Then there’s a betting round and another card, just like in the previous games. The difference here is that action continues until there are five cards, with four facing up. This game isn’t as popular as it once was mostly due to how much information is revealed with only one hole card. But if you want to learn more about the rules and strategy, check out our Five Card Stud guide.
Mississippi Stud
Mississippi Stud is a little different in that it’s primarily a casino game. You get two hole cards and you’re given the option to fold or play. After that the dealer has three community cards that are flipped over one at a time. Each time a card is flipped over the player has the chance to bet or fold. To win, there’s a pay chart with the qualifying hand needed to win. Usually this is a pair of jacks or better with 6s through 10s pushing, but can vary by casino. For more details, go to our Mississippi Stud guide.
Less Common Stud Poker Variants
Mexican Stud
This is a game that has lots of variants itself. It plays like a five card stud game but always has some special tweak or oddity. This could mean that certain cards are stripped from the deck or that certain cards are wild.
Chicago Stud
Chicago Stud is a split-pot Seven Card Stud game, but it’s not Hi/Lo. The standard high hand does take down half the pot, but the other half of the pot goes to the player that has the highest spade in their hole cards. So if you’re dealt the Ace of spades off the bat, you’re already guaranteed half the pot.
Cowpie Stud
This is a split-pot game that plays like Seven Card Stud until the very end. After players have all seven cards, they have to form one five card and one two card hand. The five card hand must be stronger than the two card hand. Then the pot is split between the best five card hand and the best two card hand.
Baseball Stud
This one’s kind of a free-for-all. There are many variations on the game, but it typically includes wild cards like 3s and 9s. Sometimes players get another card if there’s a 4 showing and there are plenty of other rules you can pick and choose from if you want to play this in your next home game.
Others
If you look around you’ll find that there are dozens and dozens of different Stud poker variations. A lot of them have lots of quirky rules for added fun and gambling and don’t have any strict set of rules. In fact, if you’re creative enough you can come up with your own Stud poker variant and give it a name of your own.
FAQs
Yes, there are plenty of Stud poker events at the World Series of Poker. In fact, there were six different Stud poker bracelet events during the 2021 WSOP and there was plenty more Stud poker in HORSE poker and other mixed game events. So if you’re a stud aficionado and want to go toe-to-toe against the world’s best.
We have you covered right here. There are a ton of different stud games out there and we’ve covered some of the most popular ones. So if you want some more detailed information on strategy and rules, then head on over to our poker games online page to learn more.
There is no shortage of places to play Stud poker. If you want to play live, check out your local casino to see if they offer any Stud poker cash games or tournaments. If you’d rather play from the comfort of your own home and find stakes that range from pennies to hundreds of dollars, then it’s time to find the perfect online poker site for you. We also have you covered in that department. Our team of expert reviewers have played and examined the best poker sites out there and written extensive reviews on each one. So head on over to our reviews page to find the right online poker site for you and start playing stud poker now.
