Five Card Stud

Five Card Stud is played very similar to Seven Card Stud. The obvious difference is that each player receives; you guessed it, 5 cards. The first is dealt face down with the four following cards dealt face up

An ‘ante’ (a nominal amount) must be posted before a game of Five Card Stud starts. The ante seeds the pot and ‘buys’ each player a hand. Each player receives one ‘hole cards’ face down and one card face up. The player with the lowest exposed card must ‘bring-in’ (a forced bet) either half a small bet or a full small bet ($5 or $10 in a $10/$20 game) to initiate the betting. In the event of a tie of card rank for the bring-in, the cards suits are used in descending order - spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. Action continues clockwise around the table.

After betting is complete, the ‘Third Street’ is dealt face up to each player. The player with the highest ranked hand showing initiates the action and can either ‘check’ or ‘bet’. The bet amount for this round and all subsequent rounds is of the small bet amount ($10 in a $10/$20 game).

The ‘Fourth Street’ is the next exposed card each player is dealt. Again, the first player to act is the one whose exposed cards have the highest rank. The bet amount for this round and the following round is of the big bet amount ($20 in a $10/$20 game).

The fifth and final card is dealt to each player face up. The player with the highest hand exposed (4 cards are showing for each active player) initiates the betting for this 4th and final round.

Assuming that more than one player remains active in the hand after the completion of the last betting round, the ‘showdown’ now takes place to declare the winner. The last bet or raise of the last betting round must show their hand first. If there was not bet, the player who has the highest ranked exposed hand shows first.

In the event of identically ranked hands, the pot will be divided equally.

Now that the pot has been awarded, the hand is complete and a new hand is ready to begin.

Noteworthy: The betting action of the first two rounds is set at the lower limit of the table structure. The exception of this rule is when a player shows a pair after the 3rd street. All players have the option to bet the higher limit for the second round of betting. If a player does bet the higher limit, subsequent bets must also be at the higher limit. The last two rounds of betting are at the higher limit.