First Impressions of 7_stud

Poker Discussion
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FAIR WARNING: I’ll probably write a few Blog posts about 7-stud in the coming weeks or months. You’ve been warned.

Over the weekend, I played at several tables. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the games, except a few who were impatient. They left to play Hold’em pretty quickly. Yesterday (Monday), I played a freeroll tournament. I played two more this morning, one was high-only, the other, high-low split. For low, there appears to be a qualifier of 8-low. The game is “cards read” with no declaration of direction. They seemed to work fine, though the hands vanish from sight quickly. You can quickly check the “All chat” if you missed what the winner(s) held…

First, a confession: I had forgotten just how much fun it is to play 7-card Stud. It’s been many years since I last played it on a regular basis. In fact, I haven’t played it at all since I joined RP back in 2015, and probably hadn’t for several years prior to that. I see it’s still fun, but there are things I had forgotten or simply never thought of because I was busy with other games.

7-stud takes about twice as long to play as Hold’em. That’s because there’s a whole lot more information to process for each bet. There are all those individual board cards and hands to remember and consider. In Hold’em, there are only two cards in your hand plus five more shared cards on the board. In 7-stud, there will be no more than 2 shared cards, and that is vanishingly rare. If you want fast hands, this game isn’t for you.

If you expect to be the table bully, you may be unpleasantly surprised. AKo isn’t much at 7-stud. Do yourself a favor and be cautious until you’re comfortable with the game.

Winning hands will generally be in the same range as in Hold’em, but they’ll be better concealed much of the time, and single pairs (even aces) are nothing to get excited about, though they sometimes win.

Tournament play is pretty basic with forced bring-in bets by the lowest board card on the first round. There is an ante, which makes sense here. The only issue I noticed isn’t really something that can be “fixed,” it’s that the events take forever to get to the end of them. The first tournament was about 2 hours 45 minutes long when I busted out. The second was over 2 hours, and the third was nearly 3 (I took 2nd in that one). That’s a long time for a single event that has fewer than 120 entering players. A lot of people simply don’t have that much time to devote to a single event. Perhaps shortening the time of each stake level to 5 or 6 minutes from 10 would help. All the players did seem to enjoy the games, though, and that rates a big Thank You to the Staff.

Alan25main

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I have yet to try it, but was watching a table for a while to get a sense of how the game runs. I noticed that it seemed to be slower paced. I wasn’t sure about the betting structure, as I’m pretty used to playing NLHE. The impression I got is that it’s a very different game, and will take some adjustment to play proficiently.

I’m glad Replay has given us the option for a new type of game.

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Hi Alan, Yes I already noted the super long duration of the freerolls and reduced the start stack from 7k to 5k and scrapped the 50/100 blind level That seems to have done the trick.

Rob

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Did I mention that we now have 7 stud SnG?

There are 6 max games from 2,500 up to 250,000 and a 500,000 HUSNG for the higher stakes players

If they run fairly often we can add more stakes.

Not making any promises about a Leaderboard but it will be part of the Poker Room review for the New Year and we will see if we can come up with something to compete for.

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Thank you Chasetheriver I have played 3 7 card stud games and every time I have ended up playing a 7 card game and either Hold’em or Omaha because the pace of the game ran over into another tourney. I thought playing 2 tables was rough but mentally it it is a drain to play 7 card and some other table. What I have noticed is there are 2 hands played on Hold’em or Omaha to only one hand with 7 card. Guess I have to get use to it. I like the 7card games just making an observation.

Lildevil109

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Hi thanks for the observations about the hand length. Thats something we already noted too.

We want the games to last long enough so the new players can get a decent amount of time to learn, but they do need to get done in less than 3 hours.

For now,we are erring on the side of too much time rather than making them too fast, Then, as we get a better idea of tempo, we can modify again.

Rob

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Thanks, for the update, Chase. I played another freeroll this morning, and it did seem to be moving faster. There IS hope, LOL.

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First Impressions. :+1: I like the structure of the games (free roll) and a nice contribution to the games we can play. Hope this option will stay, also after Halloween. Message from The Netherlands, I enjoy these games very much, perfect to mix between Texas and Omaha.

Good Job.

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Hello,7-stud made 2nd after just 4 hours, pot was a measly 6K. Pots need to be increased in order to compensate for time. Otherwise keep on dealing and sharpen those skills.

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I played 7 stud for maybe an hour or two. For not really knowing what I was doing, I didn’t do terrible. The pacing of the game is much slower than hold-em, but that seems necessary due to the number of possible hands you need to consider. This, combined with the betting structure means that you can play a very long time without winning or losing very much. It seems difficult to build a very large pot, and the betting structure makes it feasible to chase draws, and bluffing just doesn’t make sense in this game. You either hit or miss, and when you hit you sometimes take the pot, and sometimes you get beat.

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I played for about an hour! To hard to win! Ill stay with hold um!

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Hello, i discovered 7 stud here this week, a big thank you very much to replay poker for that !!! :blush:

First day i played i was frustrated, second day i had to give up in second position with many all in until i bust and finally finished 3 after 2h20 because i had to cook for my daughter :wink:, the four day i finished 9, then i finished 4 and the last i played with hi lo i finished 20…

I love this game, but we must have enought time to play it until the end, infortunaly for me, even they adjust the stack, 7000 first day, 6000 and 5000, and i think antes and bet too perhaps…

I love to select nice hands, to watch cards to other players, to look, to count, to compare all i can, and to select very nice and good hand with all that, and i tried to bluff few times too, but at the end of hand, when all the cards are on board…

I agree with you, for the time needed to finished it, but it s a great game.
Sorry for my english

Gl and see you on tables.

Pascal

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When i say all in, i talk about the system characteristic of bet and call of stud, when no one wants to give up, that s funny to watch if you re not in the hand… lol we were just 3 players when i did that all hands… thks for all.

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I’ve played the 7 stud games 10 to 12 times so far. My best observation would be that’s it’s a nice departure from hold em in that you avoid the unavoidable river beats. Also, once you have folded you won’t lament the hand after watching running cards give you the winner. The one thing that I have noticed the most is that players do not seem to check other players cards to determine whether the cards they are after is showing on the table. I would like to see some games with higher stakes. Overall, a nice addition.

Bee

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played it and enjoyed it. hard to find a game
in lobby. will keep looking. it is a nice departure
from hold em

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Well, if you can count cards then this game is for you !

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Hi everyone

Please keep the observations and suggestions coming.
The present schedule of 7 Card Stud will stay constant through to the New Year

  • A 100K Freeroll every 4th hour, alternating 7 Card high and 7 Card Hi/Lo
  • 6 max and 8 max Ring tables from 25/50+3 to 500/1000+50 for 7 Card high and 7 Card Hi/Lo
  • 6 max SnG from 2,500 entry for 7 Card high and 7 Card Hi/Lo
  • HUSNG for 500,000 entry for 7 Card high and 7 Card Hi/Lo

Rob

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I played my first freeroll today. The game is much more interesting, fun, and more difficult than I imagined.

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This is the best game to play especially high low…it is also great training ground for team play practice…you weed out donk players fast, they spoiled Omaha with bringing Hold em rules with them…gooses, everyone has 4 cards you ■■■■■…odds change dramatically, so clever betting not donk betting will win you the hand and you learn which hands are going to double/triple your chances of the pot win…donkeys who do the Omaha all in bully dance just ruin the game and the skills you can learn from it.
Stud…well than takes some skill and it has clear street rules…when you have other players at the table you can signal with your betting and drag the donkeys into hands you know one of you will win…you can’t take any chances in stud, if you start yelling your head off on 4th street better watch out dudes…3 cards to go…it’s the only legal game you play by counting cards. Get skills game for donk slaying.
Wait til you learn how to play Razz and you put all those skills together at a Hold em tourney…oooh aahhh pots and rainbows.

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The gantry of thousands on Full Tilt for the play for 24 hours V girl…me in the same seat with a 5K buy in…netted me millions, I owned that table at the end of it. The thousands of donkeys who came and went was astounding and hysterical…gantry banter was on fire. So the method works.
At one stage the donks got together and did a planned attack…they all changed their avatars to the same as me - but in the crystal ball they all had skull faces…like dudes…don’t even. They got slammed off the table fast…all their chippies in my stack. :stuck_out_tongue:
Tip for learning how to use your jacks and playing poker with a joker it helps to have 500 and Euchre skills too…team play poker.