Poker Room at Getminted.com

SEVEN CARD STUD POKER HI LO

The objective of 7-Card Stud Hi Lo is to win money from other players either by having the highest hand or the lowest hand at the showdown, or by forcing all the other to fold before the showdown. Each pot is split evenly between the high hand winner and low hand winner. The low hand must be 8 low or better to qualify and cannot contain a pair or better-ranked card combination.

Joining a Table

To begin playing, join the table by clicking any available seat. If you are already logged in to the poker room, you will be prompted to log in with your casino username and password. If you have not logged in yet, you will be prompted to log in twice: once with your poker username and password, and once with your casino username and password. Your casino account must be active in order to play poker (if you can't log in to the casino site, you won't be able to log in to the poker room). After you login, click your seat to buy-in. You will be prompted to specify how much you want to buy in for.

The "buy-in" is the amount of money you want to bring to the table, and the minimum buy in in a Limit game is typically ten times the minimum bet for the table. Different tables may have different minimum and maximum buy-in amounts. You can choose to buy-in with any amount you like within the minimum and maximum. When you submit your buy-in, the buy-in amount is transferred from your casino account to the poker room. When you finish playing poker, your remaining poker funds are automatically transferred back to the casino.

If you need more poker chips, you can buy-in with more money at any time by clicking the Get Chips button on the bottom right-hand corner of the poker table window. Your total chips on the table cannot exceed the maximum buy in amount.

Playing 7-Card Stud Hi Lo

After you've taken a seat at a table and bought in, as long as there is at least one other player sitting in at the table, the game will begin (unless you are playing in a tournament, in which case you will wait until the designated start time). All players must place a small bet before receiving any cards, called an ante.

After the ante, each player is dealt three cards: two hole cards dealt face down, and one up card dealt face up. Seven Card Stud Hi Lo is played with a single deck of cards, shuffled every game. The deal starts with the player sitting to the left of the dealer button. The up card is referred to as the door card or Third Street.

Bring In

The player with the lowest up card must begin the game by placing the first bet - this bet is mandatory. If more than one player has a low card of the same value, the player nearest the dealer button is first to act.

The size of the mandatory bet or forced bet is specified by the table rules. For example, on a £1/£2 table, the forced bet is 50p. The player required to place the forced bet may optionally raise it up to the bet limit. (The ante amount, forced bet amount, and bet limit are all clearly displayed at the top of the poker table screen.)

The betting proceeds clockwise around the table. Each player can:

  • Call by contributing the same amount of money as the preceding player to the pot
  • Raise by staking more money to the pot than the preceding player
  • Fold signifying that he is abandoning the hand

Play continues clockwise around the table with each player given the same set of options. When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round. Bets and raises are restricted to one bet and three subsequent raises per round. Of course, if a player raises and no one calls him, then he wins the pot and the hand is over.

Fourth Street

After the first betting round completes, each player is dealt another card face up. This card is called Fourth Street. Play proceeds with the player with the best hand showing leading off the betting round. Similar to standard 7-Card Stud, bets and raises may be made at the upper betting limit during the Fourth Street betting round if there is an exposed pair.

In this and all subsequent betting rounds, the first player to act has the option to check or bet. By checking the player remains in the hand without adding money to the pot. If the first player checks, the following player can also check. If a player bets by adding additional money to the pot, the players to the left must fold, call or raise as on the first betting round.

When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round.

Fifth Street

After Fourth Street betting completes, each player is dealt another card face up. The player with the best hand showing starts another round of betting. All bets and raises must be made at the lower betting limit from this point forward, even if bets and raises were made at the higher betting limit on Fourth Street.

When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round.

Sixth Street

After Fifth Street betting completes, each player is dealt another card face up. The player with the best hand showing starts another round of betting.

After the player the best hand showing starts by either checking or betting, play continues clockwise around the table with each player given the same set of options. When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round.

Seventh Street/The River

After Sixth Street betting completes, the last card is dealt to each player, face down. The player who began the Sixth Street betting begins betting in this round.

Play continues clockwise around the table with each player given the same set of options. When all players have either folded, called the last raiser, or put all of their chips in the pot, the betting round is complete and the cards are dealt for the next round.

Showdown

After Seventh Street betting completes, the last player to bet or raise shows his best 5-card hand first. There are three possible ways to win: winning the high hand, winning the low hand, and winning both the high hand and the low hand.

Half of the pot goes to the high hand winner, unless there is no qualifying low hand, in which case the high hand winner wins the entire pot. A winning high hand is the best traditional poker hand.

If a qualifying low hand exists, the low hand winner receives half of the pot. To qualify, a low hand cannot contain a pair or any higher card combination, and all cards in the hand must be lower than an 8. When making a low hand Aces count low and straights and flushes don't count as high ranking card combinations.

A single player can win both the high hand and low hand. A player winning both the high hand and low hand can use a different set of five cards from his seven card deal to make the high and low hands.

Any player who wins a part of the pot must reveal his two hole cards to the rest of the players. The last winning player who raised displays his cards first - if no players have raised, then the first active player to the left of the dealer displays his cards first. All losing players have the option of choosing whether or not to display their hole cards.

The winning player or players receive the entire pot, less a small fee charged by the poker room, called a rake. Rake is charged as a small percentage of each pot and is based on the pot size and the number of players at the table. The amount of rake taken from each pot is displayed in the middle of the board, along with the pot size. For more information on rake, see the Rake page.

Last update 19 May, 2004