One of the great classics in poker is Seven Card Stud, which has been in existence since the days of the infamous American Civil War and probably a while before that too and has stood the test of time to make it a favourite of private poker schools held on ordinary people’s homes on a Saturday night and backroom bar sessions that go on all night. It is currently enjoying a healthy resurgence in the many popular online poker rooms but its popularity is nowhere near that of flop games which include the incredibly popular Texas Hold’em or Omaha.

The absence of community cards or the flop is the basic difference between these games and Seven Card Stud, meaning that players have to make the best hand they can with five out of the seven cards they are holding. To be successful in this game, you need a pretty good memory for cards as it helps enormously to know which cards have been folded to estimate what’s left in the other players’ hands. Online, this is made easier because you can keep track with your own simple spreadsheet.

However, the hands are ranked in the same way as other poker variations and the betting structure is similar. We’ll take a look at the rules of the game plus give you some strategies and tips for playing Seven Card Stud online