5 Card Stud Poker Rooms

Five Card Stud is believed to have originated at some point during the American Civil War, and is the earliest version of the class of games known as Stud Poker, of which other versions include Seven Card Stud, and Razz.

Today Five Card Stud is less popular than the seven-card version, and other poker game-types like Omaha and Texas Hold’em. Versions of the game are still popular in certain countries though, particularly Sökö, also known as Canadian Stud or Scandinavian Stud, which is especially popular in Finland.

Beginning with the player to the dealers left, each player is dealt one card face down, followed by one card face up. If the game is played using the “bring in” rule, the player with the lowest ranked face-up card must pay a fixed amount into the pot.

Following the deal, the first round of betting takes place, starting with the player with the highest face-up card, once this is over, a second face-up card is dealt to each player. The second round of betting takes place, starting again with the place with the highest scoring face-up cards, who may choose to raise the bet up to the games limit.

After the second round of betting, a third face-up card is dealt, followed by a third round of betting, then a fourth face-up card and a final round of betting before, if necessary, the showdown.

Five Card Stud is a relatively simple game, where most of a players cards are on show, and there is only a small element of uncertainty about which player has the stronger hand. To compensate for this, there are a large number of popular variants, such as High-Low, where the pot is split equally between the highest and lowest scoring hands, and Two Down Three Up (2-3), in which two hole cards are dealt face down to each player, rather than one.

Other popular variants include Three Down, Two Up (3-2) and One Down, Three Up, One Down (1-3-1), as well as Mexican Stud in which every player chooses a face-down card to reveal each round, always leaving one card face-down.