What is Stud Poker
The main conception of stud poker games can be described as follows: Players are dealt a number of face-down and a number of face-up cards. The cards are not dealt all at once, but one or more at a time and a betting round follows each new dealing.
The number and the order of face-up and face-down cards can vary from game to game. However, the most popular stud poker games that serve as the base for most other stud poker variations are seven card stud and five card stud. In traditional seven card stud poker cards are dealt in the following sequence: two down, four up, one down. Two down and one up card are dealt at once and are followed by a betting round. Other three up cards and the final down card are dealt one by one and are followed by betting rounds. Traditional five card stud uses one down, four up structure, while the dealing sequence is 1 down + 1 up, betting round, 1 up, betting round, 1 up, betting round, 1 up, betting round.
There are a lot of variations of Stud poker. Many of them use standard seven-card or five-card stud poker rules, but add stipulations like wild cards, high/low, lowball, kitty, guts or others. However, there are some games that have specific unique features. Follow the Queen, for example is a stud poker with wild cards, but wild cards are not defined beforehand, but become wild when dealt face-up after a face-up queen. If a queen is dealt face-up more than once during the game, the last queen defines the wild card. In Roll Your Own (Mexican Stud) and its variations, players select what cards to flip face up and what to keep face-down.
Stud poker games are very popular among players first of all because of the ability to implement strategies and to decrease the influence of luck. Seeing cards of other players, one can base his betting decisions not only on his own hand, but on the global situation at the table.