Stud Hi (also called Seven Card Stud) is a classic and possibly the most well-known poker game in the world. In Seven Card Stud, players are dealt seven cards throughout the course of the hand (four face up and three face down) and the player holding the best hand using any five of their cards wins the pot. To view the rankings of Seven Card Stud poker hands, visit the poker hand rankings page.

Seven Card Stud is played with a pot limit or a limit betting structure. And the betting rules vary depending upon whether the game is Pot Limit or Limit.

• Pot Limit Stud: A player can bet what is in the pot.
• Limit Stud: There is a specified betting limit in each game and on each round of betting.

Each new hand begins with every player putting an ante into the pot. For example, in a $20/$40 limit game, each player would ante $4. The ante is not like a blind, and does not count toward any future bets.

Now each player is dealt two hidden hole cards and one exposed card.

The player with the lowest exposed card is the "bring-in", and is forced to make a specified minimum bet (called the bring-in). In a $20/$40 game, the bring-in would be $6. Each player can then fold, call the bring-in, or complete the bet. Once the bring-in bet has been completed, each player now has the option to play his or her hand by calling or raising the completed bet. Action continues clockwise around the table until betting is complete for the round.

For the purposes of determining the bring-in, if two or more players have the same lowest card, the card rank is determined by suit in alphabetical order. The raking of suits from lowest to highest is clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades.

Fourth Street
Each player now receives an exposed card, called "Fourth Street". On fourth and all successive streets, the betting always starts with the player showing the highest board. If two or more players have the same high board, the betting begins with the player closest to the left of the Stud button.

In Limit Stud Hi, if no player shows a pair amongst his or her exposed cards, the bet will be a small bet ($20 in a $20/$40 game). If any player shows a pair, the betting can be opened for a big bet ($20 in a $20/$40 game).

Fifth Street
Each player now receives another exposed card, called "Fifth Street". Again the betting starts with the player showing the highest board.

Sixth Street
Each poker player now receives another exposed card, called "Sixth Street. Again the betting starts with the player showing the highest board.

Seventh Street
Each player now receives a seventh and final card, which is dealt face-down. The betting starts with the player showing the highest board.

When the last round of betting is complete, the player with the best five-card poker hand wins the pot.

Betting Limits

Pot Limit Stud

• Minimum raise: In Pot Limit game, a raise must either equal or exceed the previous bet or raise. As an example, if the first player to act bets $10 then the second player must raise a minimum of $10 (total bet of $20).
• Maximum raise: The size of the pot, which is defined as the total of the active pot plus all bets on the table plus the amount the active player must first call before raising.

As an example, in a $10/20 Pot Limit game, the maximum pot-sized raise for the first player to act would be $70(($10 small blind + $20 big blind + $20 call + $20 raise), which would make the total pot $100. If the next player wants into the hand, he or she must call $70. If the next player wants to raise the maximum, he or she would bet $240, which equals the size of the pot ($100) plus a $140 raise ($70 call + $70 raise)

Limit Stud
In Limit game, each betting round has a fixed bet. In $5/$10, the first two rounds of betting are in increments of $5, and the last three rounds of betting are in increments of $10. There is a maximum of four bets allowed per player during any betting round. This includes a bet, raise, re-raise, and cap (final raise), but in Pot Limit Stud there is no limit to the number of raises that a player can make.