Five Card Stud Poker

Five Card Stud

Everyone who has watched TV and movies knows how to deal this one, so I’ll skip the mechanics. What to play in Five-Card Stud depends largely on the betting limits and the number of players in the game. In high-stakes action, it is best to fold unless you have an ace, a king, a pair, or two cards higher than 9. Some experts play by the 19 rule; that is, they fold whenever their first two cards don’t add up to at least 19 (counting face cards as 10 and aces as 11). An ace is a very good card in Five-Card Stud, and A-K or A-Q will sometimes win without improvement. But if you play an ace and a low card, it is by far better to have the ace in the hole.

Ideal Situation In Game

The ideal situation in Five Card Stud is to pair your hole card, so that the strength of your hand will be concealed. As Table VII in Part two page 114, shows, the probability of pairing your hole card varies significantly with the number of poker players in the game and the up cards they catch; consequently, it is important that you remember the cards that have been folded around the board. Remember all the cards, not just the ones that would have helped your hand, so that you can assess your opponents'' chances of improvement. Card memory is more important in Five Card Stud than in any other well-known poker game.

Pair Of Cards

A small pair back to back, or on the first three cards, presents difficult problems. Against a single opponent, you probably have a winner with any pair unless he has a higher pair showing. Against seven opponents, you will more than likely have to help a low pair to win. And it’s difficult to improve a pair back to back. My advice, for high stakes play, is to fold a small pair if you do not trip it on the second up card and do not catch an ace or a king for a scare card. If you don’t have a scare card, the betting is likely to become prohibitively heavy for you to continue on your small pair. In limit play, however, you may want to continue regardless of what you catch.

Table In Game

Table VII shows the probability of improving a small pair. Here is another useful table, taken from John R. Crawford’s How to Be a Consistent Winner in the Most Popular Card Games in poker room. As Crawford emphasized, the figures are based on the assumption that all five cards have been dealt. The table indicates that a low pair, even deuces, figures to win in a head-to-head game. A pair of 7’'s figures to win against three opponents. A pair of 10''s, against even eight opponents. But this does not mean that you should play poker l0''s all the way come hell or high water. The value of a pair of 10''s, or most any other pair, depends largely on how many higher cards show around the board; thus, a pair of 10''s is a very good hand against four opponents if only non paired pip cards show, but it is not so good if your opponents show a jack, a queen, a king, and an ace. Your pair of 10''s would be pretty good, however, if four opponents showed two jacks and two queens, which would greatly reduce their chances of making a pair higher than 10''s because they have some of each other’s cards.