Stud Poker Strategy

Stud Poker basic strategy summary

To maximise your chances of winning, follow these simple rules of basic Stud Poker strategy:

• Bet when you hold a pair or better.
• Bet when you hold an ace/king if your hand contains the same card as the dealer's up card.
• Otherwise fold.

Also remember to avoid betting on the progressive bonus. It would be awful to take that option, get a good hand only to find the dealer fails to qualify.

It should be noted that even using basic strategy, casinos using the typical Stud Poker rules still have a 5.22% advantage, this certainly does not help the popularity of Stud Poker. However to throw mud into water, we have found casinos offering significantly better payout structures more .

Stud Poker strategy explained

Players should always play pairs regardless of the dealer's upcard. As Pairs are dealt out only 42% of the time. Of the 13 possible pairs, 7 of them have a positive expectation, meaning they should win more times than they lose in the long run. 3 of the possible pairs have a positive expectation when the dealer's upcard is equal to or lower than the player's pair. Lastly, there are only 3 pairs that are expected to lose in the long run (2's, 3's and 4's). Therefore, ten of the thirteen possible pair combinations should show a profit and three should not.

The reason why you should play the small pairs, is that you would lose your ante otherwise and the house advantage would jump to 7%!  Remember, pairs are only dealt just over over 42% of the time, so the odds are the dealer won't have a paired hand. Also the dealer will actually qualify with an Ace-King hand around 6 percent of the time. During these times, the player will win both their ante bet and their raise bet.

Players should raise when under the following conditions:

(The reason the dealer's upcard must match one of the player's cards is to reduce the chance of the dealer having a pair).

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