7 Card Stud Terms and Definitions

As with other Poker variants, 7 Card Stud has its own set of terms and jargon that the players use. If you are a newcomer to the game, it is important that you become quickly acquainted with these expressions as they will help you make sense of the strategies and articles on the subject that you will run across.

Among the 7 Card Stud terms that you should learn immediately is that of the ante. If you are used to playing Texas Holdem No Limit, you would be accustomed to blinds, the forced bets at the commencement of the game.

In 7 Card Stud, the ante refers to the contribution that all the players make to build the initial pot. The ante is a concept that is also found in other 7 Card Stud variants.

Other 7 Card Stud terms that you should get familiar with are those used when dealing the cards. There are seven cards dealt after the initial hands are given out, and are called streets. Thus the fourth card is referred to as fourth street, the fifth card fifth street and so on. This term is something that is often used in online 7 Card Stud guides, so it is important that you understand it early.

Other 7 Card Stud terms that you will read include split pair, wherein one of the pairs is an up card and the other is in the hole; concealed pair, wherein both are down and the door card, which is used to connote the up cards that are dealt.

When the first three cards that are handed to you consists of a three of a kind, the 7 Card Stud term is that of trips, which are divided between high trips (999 and above) and low trips (999 and below); overcards are used to refer to the fact your hands are superior to any of your opponents' up cards.

In Texas Holdem this would be equivalent to your hole cards being superior to those on the flop.

Dead cards refer to those that are no longer part of the deck, and live cards, in 7 Card Stud, pertains to cards that you can still obtain.

Fast play means betting, raising and re raising in an attempt to get as many of our opponents to fold, and slow playing refers to a strategy of trying to get as much money into the pot as possible, usually because you have the nuts.

There are other 7 Card Stud terms and definitions that you will across, but these are the most basic and important ones. These will aid you in comprehending the game much better, and will help you, in the long run improve your skills and winning proficiency.