Poker Strategy - Why Seven Card Stud is Better than Holdem

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Why Seven Card Stud is Better than Holdem

Sure, you could play Texas holdem. Everyone else seems to be doing it. But there's another poker game out there, one that for years enjoyed enormous popularity in card rooms, mostly on the east coast of the United States, but all across the card playing world as well, a game that many pre-poker boom players cut their teeth on, the game of seven card stud. Here are a couple of reasons why seven card stud may be a better game for you than Texas holdem.

The Knowledge Gap is Greater in Stud
As has been noted, everyone is playing holdem these days. Everyone is watching holdem these days. Everyone is also writing about and teaching holdem these days. While not all of the information out there on holdem is good, there is no shortage of good information. Anyone who

wants to get in on the poker action has numerous holdem resources at their disposal, and most players don't sit down without having absorbed at least some information on strategy. Seven card stud, on the other hand, is not as popular anymore, and there is not quite as much analysis in the poker world devoted to the stud game as their might have been in the past. As a result, you will probably find yourself sitting down with much less knowledgeable players at a seven card stud game (especially on the Internet). This is not to say that there are no talented stud players out there, in fact, many of the most gifted players in the world are extremely accomplished stud players. It's simply that a new stud player is much less likely to have read three books on stud and watched stud on television than a new holdem player will have for holdem, and if you are very knowledgeable about the game of stud, this can make a huge difference in your earnings.

You Are an Expert at Processing Information
There are many factors that go into making a good holdem poker strategy, and the ability to take in and process information about what is going on around you is one of them. In Stud, however, being able to absorb and process information is paramount. Due to the presence of as many as 30 up cards, there is much more to keep track of than in a holdem game with at most five cards visible to the entire table. Not only do you have to remember many cards, you have to be aware of the range of hands that each player is representing, rather than just the small range of possible hands that everyone can have in a holdem game. As such, a player who is skilled at quickly assessing a great deal of information will have a big advantage in Stud poker games. If you are ready for your card playing expertise and ability to process information to pay off in a big way, you may want to look into seven card stud. You just might decide that it's a better game for you than holdem.

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