Five Card Stud
Strategy
A good sound
Five Card Stud Strategy requires playing good
starting hands along with a good amount of
concentration and being aware of the cards that
have been dealt to your opponents. If you can do
these three things - play good starting hands,
concentrate, be aware - then you should be able
to develop into a good Five Card Stud player.
Starting
Hands
The most important decision you will make at the
table will be deciding what starting hands to
play. Good poker players are selective about the
starting hands that they will play. Most new
players tend to play far too many hands and end
up losing money.
There are a
couple of things that make a good starting hand
a good starting hand. The first are the actual
cards that you have been dealt. The second is
the cards that your opponents have been dealt.
Specifically the up card that they have been
dealt.
As part of my
recommended Five Card Stud Strategy you will
base your decision to play the hand only after
looking at your starting hand and after looking
at your opponents up cards.
If you notice
that cards that are important to your hand have
already been dealt to your opponents you may
want to consider folding and saving yourself
money.
Also, just
because you receive what you think is a good
starting hand one time does not necessarily mean
that the next time you receive that same exact
hand that it will be just as good. For example,
if you are dealt a pair of jacks you may notice
that no other player has a jack showing or even
a higher card. You can be sure that so far you
have the best hand.
If the next
time you are dealt a pair of jacks and notice
that one of the other jacks have been dealt to
one opponent and notice that others have higher
cards showing, your hand is not as powerful this
time around. This is why it is so important to
take your opponents cards into account when
playing your hand. You don't want to put money
into the pot trying for a hand that you will
never be able to make or the hand that you
already have will never be good enough to win.
Ok, now it is
time to move on to specific starting hands.
The best
starting hand that you will ever be able to
start out with are a pair of aces. From there of
course a pair of kings, queens, jacks… are all
good starting hands. A pair is always a good
starting hand especially if it is a high pair.
But be sure to study your opponents cards to see
if they have one of your cards or have a higher
card showing. This will really tell you how
strong your hand is.
Whenever I am
fortunate enough to start out with a pair that I
am confident is the best hand I like to start
out betting. This gets more money into the pot
and forces players with weaker hands to fold. By
forcing players to fold you have fewer players
that may draw a card on a later round that will
beat you.
Playing flush
and straight draws can be difficult to hit since
you are only going to receive five cards. As
long as you are only calling a single bet on
each round you can consider playing a flush or
straight draw. If I play a flush or straight
draw I do prefer that they consist of high cards
as this also gives me the opportunity to hit for
a high pair if I do miss my flush or straight.
If you feel
that you are beat and it is unlikely that you
will win the hand at any point I strongly
recommend that you fold your hand. Calling bets
just to stay in is a surefire way to lose money.
When you feel
that you have little chance to win you are
always better off folding and saving your money.
Poker players that win money are the ones who
know when to fold and save money. The key to
winning money in poker is to minimize the amount
of money on any hand that you lose and to
maximize the amount of money that you win.
Being aware of
what cards the other players have been dealt and
what they are doing (betting, raising, calling)
is very important when playing Five Card Stud.
You need to pay attention and see if cards that
are important to your hand have been dealt.
After every
round you must try to figure out what each
player has, did the last card that they receive
help them, what are the cards that will improve
your hand, is your hand good enough to win or
what is the likelihood that you can make a hand
that will win.
After the final
card is dealt its time to figure out what your
opponent has relative to your hand. Look at
their up cards and see what the best possible
hand that they could have is. If you are sure
that you are beat fold. If not then you can at
least call the final bet especially if there is
only one player left in the hand. At this point
you would only be risking one big bet (you'd
risk $4 in a $2/$4 limit game) for the chance to
win the entire pot.
Stud takes a
lot of concentration but with a little practice
you can be a winning player. |
