GUIDELINES AND TACTICS
The important factor for winning five-card stud is skill because the clever poker player will always keep an eye on the opponents’ cards and gauge his poker odds. You must always keep track of the cards which of the players that have quit. (For more about assessing your chances for improving hand, see page 91 on ‘outs’.)
One very important factor that a player should know about five-card stud or should I say about poker: If a player has cards that aren’t so good then it would be advantageous to quit even if it is only the first round. Although you could get lucky and get a good set of cards making your game better it would be to your advantage to quit. The odds are against you so the earlier you pack the better.
If you have a small pair with the first two cards you should exercise caution and quit early, this is especially so if you don’t get a three of a kind when you are dealt the third card. Another point to consider is, if your opponent has a high card showing and he is playing an aggressive game there is a possibility he has a pair of high cards.
Let’s say you have cards of two suits and you are hoping to get a flush, be careful. Hoping to get a flush is dicey in five-card stud even when you have cards of three to four suits. And if you have low cards then the risk is greater. (You could hope to make a pair if one of the cards is high). Let’s say another player has cards of the same suit then it would lessen your odds of getting the flush.
Obviously you can’t have the cards that the other players have to improvise your game. Watch out that one of the opponents doesn’t have a card that you need to make a straight or flush. If such is the case then the odds are against you. Let us say you have K-Q-J and you see that one of the other players has a pair of 10s and another player has an ace, the odds are against you. You must always keep an eye and gauge to see whether the odds are in your favor or against in five-card stud.
Another thing that a player should do is to check to see how good a chance the other players have of winning the game by watching their open cards. Let’s say you have three 3’s (two open and one which is concealed) and another player has two 2’s in his open cards then you should check to see if another player has a 2 showing in his cards. If you do find a 2 then it is quite possible to win the game.
You shouldn’t think you are the only smart one. It would be wise to remember that the other players are also out to win while you are trying to get a better hands in poker. Let’s illustrate this. One player has an ace and you have an 8 card showing. If you think you might get a pair it would serve you well to remember that the other player also stands a chance of making a pair with his ace.
If the other player increases the wager later on in the game there is a possibility that the player has a pair, so be careful. A player must keep a close watch on the cards of the other players in stud poker games. The player can continue to gauge his chances of winning if he knows which cards have been dealt. Let us use the same situation but we give yet another player an ace, then the odds of any of the two players getting a pair of aces is much lesser.