Written by In the early days of Five Card Stud the rules differed greatly from the standardised version we play now. Although it has now been overtaken by the ubiquitous Texas Hold’em, for many years, in fact most of the nineteenth century, Five Card Stud was the poker game of choice.
As with most poker variants it worked its way across the Atlantic from Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century but the version played by, for example, miners during the gold rush was a little different. Only twenty cards were used – tens to aces – restricting both the winning hands available and the number of players.
With the introduction of the whole pack in the 1920s, the draw was also introduced and this, as in Texas Hold’em an Seven Card Stud, added the element of luck which makes all draw games so popular. By the turn of the 20th century it had been barged to one side by Hold’em and has never appeared at a World Series of Poker tournament for example, but the popularity of online poker rooms has given it something of a new lease of life.
This is not a complicated game and it’s ideal for beginners. To start with each player is dealt one card face up and one face down. The player with the lowest ranking face up card must bet the bring-in if the game requires it. This is a mandatory bet usually smaller than the minimum bet for a fixed-limit game. If there is no bring-in the player with the highest ranked face up card begins.
After this round of betting, another face-up card is dealt to each player (after the burn card has been discarded) and another round of betting commences. At the beginning of each round the player with the best face-up hand starts the betting. In total there are four rounds of betting followed by the showdown to determine who has the best ranked hand. In practice there will usually be a winner before the showdown.
The third, fourth and fifth rounds are variously called Third Street, Fourth Street and Fifth Street.
As you can see a fairly simple game as long as you understand the hand rankings and one ideal for beginners.
