History:
The first stud poker in the history was
Five card stud. The game appeared during the American Civil War and quickly became very popular. The next stud poker variation was
Seven card stud, which appeared several years later and immediately became common in many casinos and home games. Today there are much more stud poker variations, but all of them descend from these two games.
Variations:
Stud poker games can be played with different betting structures. The less betting rounds the game contains, the more betting structures can be applied to it. Games as
Five card stud or
Mississippi have four betting rounds or less, and therefore can be played with any betting structure and even become more interesting played with no limit and pot limit, while games with more rounds, such as
Seven card stud, are more suited to fixed and spread limit, and do not go well with pot and no limit. Such games are more commonly played with fixed limit that increases in later rounds. Sometimes there is a fixed bet for the first two rounds and a higher bet for subsequent rounds, and sometimes there is another fixed for the final round. For example, a 5/10/20 7 card poker game, common in Nevada casinos, is played with 5 dollars bet in first two rounds, 10 dollars bet in the next two and 20 dollars bet in the final round. Another variant of fixed limit betting structure allows a higher bet, when one of the players has an open pair, viz. a pair in his up-cards. Californian casinos define lower bet for the first three rounds instead of the first two in other casinos.
The Betting:
Betting rounds in stud poker are commonly name after the number of cards dealt to each player until the round. For example, the first betting round of 7 card stud, when each player has three cards is called third card, or more commonly, third street. When a player has five cards, the round is called fifth street, and so on until the final round, which, regardless of the number of the cards is caller river or the end.
Cards dealt face-down in Seven Card Stud are called hole cards, therefore there is a common expression an
ace in the hole, which means something that can be saved from others and be used as an advantage later.