Five-Card Stud

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order and hand ranking
3. Betting in short
4. Setup
5. A deal, step by step
6. All-in and side pots
7. Winning the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Five-Card Stud is the oldest form of stud poker: each player gets five cards of their own – the first face down, the other four face up for everyone to see. After each card there is a betting round, in which players put chips into a shared pot or give up. The pot goes to the last player left in, or to whoever holds the best five-card poker hand at the end. With four of every player's five cards on the table, reading your opponents' upcards – and guessing their one hidden card – is the whole game.

• Players: 2–10, each for themselves; best with 5–8.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and chips (or counters, matches, buttons) – the same amount for everyone at the start, e.g. 200 each. You play for chips, not money.

Card order and hand ranking

Cards rank A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2; the Ace can also be low in the straight 5-4-3-2-A. Suits are all equal when comparing hands.

Your five cards are your hand. From best to worst:

Any hand of a higher kind beats any hand of a lower kind. Between hands of the same kind, the higher cards win: first compare the most important cards (the four, the three, the higher pair …), then the remaining cards one after another from the top. A straight is ranked by its top card, so 5-4-3-2-A is the lowest straight. If all five cards are equal in rank, the hands tie and share the pot – suits never break ties.

With only five cards and no exchange, big hands are rare: a single pair often wins, and a pair of Aces is a strong hand.

Betting in short

All chips bet go into the pot in the middle. Before each deal, every player puts a small ante – a fixed stake – into the pot. When it is your turn in a betting round, you can:

• Check – bet nothing, if nobody has bet yet in this round.
• Bet – put in chips.
• Call – put in just enough to match the highest bet so far.
• Raise – match the highest bet and add more.
• Fold – give up: turn all your cards face down and put them away. You lose what you have already put in and take no further part in this deal.

A betting round ends when everyone still in has put in the same amount (or is all-in) and has had a chance to act.

Five-Card Stud is usually played with fixed limits: every bet and raise is exactly a small bet in the first two rounds and a big bet (double) in the last two. At most one bet and three raises are allowed per round. A good start: ante 2, small bet 5, big bet 10.

Setup

1. Everyone gets the same number of chips. Pick a first dealer (e.g. highest card cut); the deal passes to the left after each hand.
2. Everyone puts their ante into the pot.
3. The dealer shuffles and deals, one at a time clockwise starting on the left, one card face down and then one card face up to each player. The face-down card is your hole card – look at it, but show it to no one. The face-up card is your first upcard.

A deal, step by step

1. First betting round (two cards): the player with the highest upcard starts (Ace is highest); if two show the same rank, the one nearer the dealer's left starts. This player may check or bet; then play goes clockwise. Small bets only.

2. Third card: everyone still in gets another card face up. Second betting round. From now on, the player whose upcards make the best poker hand showing starts – only pairs, three and four of a kind count; incomplete straights and flushes don't (A-K beats K-Q, a pair of 2s beats A-K). Equal hands: the one nearer the dealer's left starts. The first player may check. Bets are still small bets, but if anyone shows a pair, any player may bet or raise the big bet instead.

3. Fourth card: another card face up for each. Third betting round – from now on, big bets.

4. Fifth card: a last card face up. Fourth and last betting round. Everyone still in now has one hole card and four upcards.

5. Showdown: if two or more players are still in, they turn their hole cards face up – the player who made the last bet or raise shows first; if everyone checked, the player who started the last betting round shows first. The best hand wins the pot; equal hands share it.

If at any time all but one player fold, the remaining player wins the pot at once without showing the hole card.

Example: Four players ante 2 (pot 8). Upcards: Anna K♠, Ben 7♦, Carla A♣, Dan 4♥. Carla's Ace is highest, so she starts: she bets 5. Dan folds, Anna calls, Ben calls: pot 23. Third cards: Anna K♥, Ben 9♦, Carla 6♠. Anna now shows a pair of Kings, the best hand showing, so she acts first – and because a pair is showing, she may bet 10 instead of 5.

All-in and side pots

If you want to call but don't have enough chips, you go all-in: you put in all your remaining chips and stay in until the showdown without betting further. You can only win as much from each opponent as you put in yourself. Whatever the others bet beyond your amount goes into a separate side pot, which only they can win. Anyone who has no chips left is out of the game.

Winning the game

Play until only one player has chips left, or stop at an agreed time – then the player with the most chips wins.

Tips for beginners

• Fold most starting hands. A pair (hole card matching your upcard) or an Ace or King – ideally in the hole – is worth playing; small unpaired cards rarely are.
• If an opponent's upcards already beat everything you could show, fold – don't hope for miracles.
• Watch every upcard: if the cards you need have already gone to other players or been folded, your chances drop.
• A high card in the hole is valuable because nobody can see it: your opponents can't tell whether you have paired it.
• Don't call just because you have already put chips in. Chips in the pot are no longer yours.

Variants

All optional – agree beforehand.

• Bring-in (casino style): a smaller ante (e.g. 1). In the first round the player with the lowest upcard must open with a forced bet, the bring-in (e.g. 2); ties are broken by suit, ♣ lowest, then ♦, ♥, ♠. That player may instead bet a full small bet. Others may fold, call the bring-in or complete it to a small bet; only then may later players raise. From the second round on, the best hand showing starts, as above.
• Ties by suit: if two upcard hands are equal, the one with the higher suit (♠ over ♥ over ♦ over ♣, compared on their highest cards) acts first.
• Last card down: the fifth card is dealt face down; the last betting round is started by the same player as the round before.
• Lowball: the lowest hand wins (usually counted ace-to-five: 5-4-3-2-A is best, straights and flushes don't count). The best low hand showing starts each round.
• High-low: the pot is split between the best and the worst hand; in home games players declare "high" or "low" after the last betting round.
• Sökö (Finland): two extra hands rank just above one pair: a 4-straight (four cards in sequence) and, above it, a 4-flush (four of one suit).