Switching from Hold'em to Stud: Basic Strategy Considerations

Contributor | July 17th, 2013

Stud is a classic form of poker, requiring plenty of observation, patience and strategy. With the game more focused on individual hands than community cards, your approach to Stud Poker should be subtly different to that of the more mainstream versions of poker. This makes it a very different game to Texas Hold’em or Omaha, and there are a few points to consider before making the switch.

Community Cards

In Texas Hold’em Poker, you can tell the likelihood of someone having a stronger hand than you thanks to the community cards, which give you a greater idea of the strength of each hand. In Stud Poker, the best hand is more difficult to assess, with a mix of face-up and face-down cards making it much more difficult to confidently judge the situation. To compensate, you'll need to learn to recognise signals and rely on your instinct.

Starting Bets

In Texas Hold’em, the pot starts with the big blind and small blind, ensuring that the responsibility for building the pot is spread around the table as the game goes on. In Stud Poker, however, an ante (compulsory bet for all players) and a "bring-in" bet are used instead - although the rules in Stud Poker are not uniform, it is commonly the player with the lowest card showing that pays the bring-in.

Limits

The majority of modern Hold’em games are played as No Limit, whilst Stud is usually only available in Limit form. The bets are split into big and small bets, which will come into play in different rounds (for instance, in Seven Card Stud, big bets start in the fifth round). This makes it more important to play with the best hand, as progressing with weak cards and hoping for a lucky draw can prove costly.

Position

In Texas Hold’em, position relative to the dealer is very important for working out your strategy. This isn't the same for Stud Poker, though, and your position in a hand can change depending on the cards showing on the table. As you cannot count on a good position, your strategy must be based solely on the cards showing.

Bluffing

You can perform strong bluffs in Hold’em by making large, outlandish bets when faced with strong (or weak) community cards. In Stud, the regulated bet sizes don’t allow you to bully the table, and can rarely be used to force a player with a good hand to fold. Bluffing is not easy in Limit games, so you'll need to be much more protective over your stack.

As you can see, there are a number of subtle differences to Stud Poker that may not be suitable for everyone - the patience and strategy involved make it much slower, and it can take a while to master. Once you get the hang of it, though, it can be an incredibly enjoyable and profitable pastime, with plenty of the best UK casinos giving you the chance to get involved. If you want to practice before trying it out in a real world casino environment, head over to Gala Casino today.