In Texas hold’em, memory is not the most crucial element. You can look at your hole cards as often as you need to, and the rest of the exposed cards remain in the middle of the table for all to see during the length of the hand. In seven card stud, the situation is a little bit different.

What Upcards to Remember in Seven Card Stud

The simple answer is all of them. You don’t have to remember the upcards that are still in play, but you can never be sure when a hand will be folded. You will need to have committed the cards to memory before this happens.

Why It’s Important to Remember the Upcards in Seven Card Stud

In stud, a tremendous amount of information is provided by the upcards. If many cards of a certain suit are out, it will be hard for you to make a flush in that suit.

If an opponent represents having more than one of a certain card, it is important to know how many of that type of card have already appeared in the hands of others. If a card is out but has been folded and you fail to remember it, you may be giving a big edge to your opponents.

How to Remember the Upcards in Seven Card Stud

It may be easier if you pair the ranks and suits separately. For example, if the following cards come out: 7c 8h 3h 7d Kc Ks 2h, it might be easier for you to remember one two, one three, two sevens, one eight, two kings, two clubs, three hearts, one spade and one diamond.

You may also choose to watch carefully and focus only on the cards that you expect are about to be folded, while not worrying about the upcards of players who seem clearly interested in remaining in the hand. You will have to learn what works for you. However, if you cannot remember upcards that have been folded in some way, your opponents will have a serious advantage over you.

When the Texas Hold’em wave swept the world a decade back, it brought quite a few casualties with it. One of the games that unfortunately ended up on a distant shore, with only a few loyal players visiting it, was my beloved Seven-Card Stud.

Luckily, more and more people are getting fed up with “holdem this” and “holdem that” and want to try this century-old game that started the first poker boom a 100 years or so back.

Stud is played in the WSOP, plays an essential role in popular mixed-games like H.O.R.S.E and there are nowadays many active Stud players on the Net. Therefore, Stud is no longer just a historic game. Its future actually looks brighter than it has for many years.

In this blog, I will keep you updated on the world of Stud including Seven-Card, Five-Card, Razz, Eight-or-Better, Mississippi Stud and more. I’ll provide strategy tips, post results from stud tournaments around the world and give you my view of the game; what it was, what it has become, and naturally, how you should do to beat your opponents.

Testing my new blog…