Five-Card Stud

One card hidden, four on show. Fold when you can’t beat the board. 2–8 players.

Who To Play With

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How to play Five-Card Stud

  1. 1The oldest kind of stud: no blinds, no shared cards and no draw. Everyone puts in a small ante, then gets one card face down (your hole card) and one face up (second street). Your face-up cards sit in front of you for everyone to see.
  2. 2The lowest card showing must open the betting with a forced bring-in. Aces count high here, and between equal ranks the lower suit brings it in: clubs are lowest, then diamonds, hearts and spades. Betting carries on with the next player, who may fold, call the bring-in, or complete it to a full small bet.
  3. 3Then come three more face-up cards, one at a time (third, fourth and fifth street), with a round of betting after each. From third street on, whoever shows the best face-up cards acts first (ties go to the first of them after the dealer).
  4. 4This is fixed limit: every bet and raise is exactly one unit, and each betting round allows a bet and up to 3 raises. On second and third street the unit is the small bet; on fourth and fifth street it's the big bet, twice as much. At the first stakes that's an ante of 4, a bring-in of 10 and bets of 20/40.
  5. 5Only your hole card is secret, so watch what everyone shows: if you can't beat a hand that's already showing, it's usually time to fold. At the showdown, your five cards are your hand. Players who fold leave their face-up cards showing, dimmed, so everyone can see which cards are gone.
  6. 6Play chips only — never real money. Everyone starts with 1000 chips; run out and you're out of the game.
  7. 7To keep games a sensible length, the stakes rise every 5 hands and the game ends after 50 hands (or as soon as one player has every chip). Most chips wins.
  8. 8If you're all in, you can only win as much from each opponent as you put in; the rest goes to side pots that the others play for.
  9. 9At a showdown everyone still in shows their hand. Equal hands split the pot.
  10. 10Hands rank, high to low: straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. Aces are high, but A-2-3-4-5 counts as the lowest straight.

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