The rulebook

How to play Seven-Card Stud

No shared board and no dealer button — seven cards each, four of them face up, and five rounds of betting decide who takes the pot.

Step 1

The ante and third street

Before any cards go out, every seat posts the 20-chip ante — there are no blinds in this game. Each seat is then dealt three cards: two face-down, seen by nobody else, and one face-up for the whole table to see. Stacks start at 100.

Step 2

The bring-in

Whoever is showing the single lowest up-card is forced to open the betting with a bring-in of 10 — half the table's small bet, rounded down. Ties break on suit. Betting then goes around from there: call the bring-in, raise it to 20, or fold.

Step 3

Fourth, fifth and sixth street

One more up-card each, one street at a time. Unlike third street, there is no forced bring-in here — whoever's hand looks best face up acts first, and that can be a different seat every street as the up-cards change. A full round of betting follows each card: check (pass, only while nobody has bet), bet, call, raise, or fold. Betting runs at 20 on fourth street and doubles to 40 from fifth street on.

Step 4

Seventh street

One final card, dealt face-DOWN this time — “the river.” Every seat still in now holds seven cards: three down, four up. One more round of betting at 40.

Step 5

Showdown

Two or more players still in once the betting closes means the best 5-card hand out of your seven wins the pot — the quick-reference drawer at the table has the full ranking, high card up to straight flush. If everyone else has folded, the last player left takes the pot without needing to show their hand at all.

Step 6

Winning the match

Chips carry from hand to hand. A seat that runs out sits out further hands but keeps its place at the table; play continues until one seat holds every chip, or — on the rare table that runs very long — 1000 hands are reached and the largest stack takes it. Betting is fixed-limit: 20 on third and fourth street, 40 from fifth on, capped at 4 raises a street, so it can never run away. No-limit betting is a real way to play this game — it just isn't offered here. Only a contested showdown reveals hands here — a hand nobody called stays face-down forever.