7 Card Stud Hi/Lo

7-Card Stud Hi-Lo is a variant of 7-Card Stud, using a standard 52-card deck, with no wildcards. It is a fixed limit game, with doubled bets from third round (Fifth Street).

In 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo each player gets 3 face down hole cards and 4 face-up cards in 5 deals.

Each deal ends with a betting round.

The goal is to get the best five card hand combined from the 3 face-down and 4 face-up cards. In 7-Card stud Hi-Lo (in different from normal 7-Card stud) player also must use the 3 face-down and 4 face-up cards to combine the lowest five card hand.

The highest hand splits the pot with the lowest qualifying low hand To qualify for the low half of the pot, the low hand must be 8,7,6,5,4 or lower.

Game overview

Posting Ante
The Ante is a predefined amount posted by every player before any cards have been dealt.
The purpose of Ante is to encourage players to stay in the hand, and to increase pot size. Prior to the game every participating player posts the Ante.

First Round (Bring-In)

7-Cards Stud Hi-Lo starts with all players receives three initial hole cards, two face-down (only visible to receiver) and one face-up (visible to all players).

Bring-In
7-Card Stud Hi-Lo uses standard poker betting practices. See the section “Betting in poker” for details.
The player with the lowest exposed card pays bring-in. Other players follow clockwise around the table. If two players have exposed cards of the same rank, suits are used to assign the bring-in.

Second Round (Fourth Street)

All players receive a fourth hole card, face-up.

Betting round 2
The player with the highest exposed hand starts betting. Other players follow clockwise around the table.
If the player who starts betting has a pair, he is allowed to double the bet in this round instead of next.

Third Round (Fifth Street)

All players receive a fifth hole card, face-up.

Betting round 3
The player with the highest exposed hand starts betting. Other players follow clockwise around the table.
At this point, the minimum betting increments are doubled.

Fourth Round (Sixth Street)

All players receive a sixth hole card, face-up.

Betting round 4
The player with the highest exposed hand starts betting. Other players follow clockwise around the table.

Fifth Round (Seventh Street)

All players receive a seventh hole card, face-down.

Betting round 5
The player with the highest exposed hand starts betting. Other players follow clockwise around the table.

Please note that if there is 8 players, and no one folds before the fifth rounds, the deck is insufficient (8 players x 7 cards each = 56 cards). In this very rare case, fifth round Is played with a common community cards instead of the seventh hole card.

Showdown - High
Once the fifth betting round is completed, it's time for showdown. Player uses any of the 3 face-down card and the 4 face-up cards to create the highest and lowest ranked hand possible.

For high hands, 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo uses standard poker showdown practices. See the section “Standard showdown” for details.

Showdown - Low
For low hand, 7-Card Stud Hi-Lo uses the following showdown practices:

Not all hands are qualified as low hands:

To qualify, player needs to create a hand with all cards 8 or lower. Consequently, three of the community cards must be 8 or lower, to allow players to qualify for low hands.

Aces are played as either high or low, straights and flushes does not disqualify a hand for low.