Seven-Card Stud has no community cards, no button and no blinds. Each player gets seven cards of their own, three face down and four face up, and the cards on the table decide who bets first. It was the main card-room game in the United States before Hold'em, and it is still the S in HORSE (Mixed games).
Stud is dealt from one 52-card deck to between two and eight players. Seven cards each for eight players would be 56 cards, so an eight-handed game counts on some players folding before seventh street; when they don't, the last card is shared (50.4). Nine players would run short a street earlier, so stud is normally dealt to eight at most, and pagat.com counts five to seven as the ideal number.
Stud is normally played fixed-limit (Betting structures). The small bet is used on third and fourth street and the big bet, twice as much, on fifth, sixth and seventh street. In $10/$20, every bet and raise on the first two rounds is $10 and every bet and raise on the last three is $20. The ante and the bring-in are separate amounts, both smaller than the small bet.
50.3 Two down and one up, three more up, the last one down
Each player gets two cards face down and one face up, and the first betting round follows. This is third street, named for the three cards each player holds, and the face-up card is the door card. Fourth, fifth and sixth street each bring one more face-up card, and seventh street ("the river") one more face-down card. A player who stays to the end holds three down cards and four up, and there are five betting rounds in all.
50.4 When the deck runs out, the last card is a common card
If there aren't enough cards left for every player still in the hand to get one, the dealer turns one card face up in the middle as a common card. It counts as every player's card for that street, and the player whose showing hand is now best, counting the common card, acts first.
Rulebooks differ on what the dealer tries first. Robert's Rules has the dealer hold back the last card of the stub, shuffle it together with the burn cards, and deal from that if it covers everyone; the common card is the fallback when it doesn't. pagat.com describes the same order for formal games and adds that cards from folded hands are never put back. Either way the folded cards stay dead. Example: eight players reach seventh street and 48 cards are out, plus four burns. No cards are left to deal, the four burns can't cover eight players, so the dealer turns one common card.
Before the deal, every player puts in the ante. There are no blinds. The house or the host sets the ante, usually a small fraction of the small bet, like the $1 in a $10/$20 game. A player who can't cover the full ante puts in what they have and is all-in (Pots).
On third street, the player showing the lowest door card must start the betting with a forced bet called the bring-in. For this the ace counts high, so a deuce is the lowest card. Play then goes clockwise from the bring-in. Some home games use the highest card instead, or have no bring-in and a larger ante, but the low card is the card-room rule. How bring-ins work in general is in Blinds, antes and bring-ins.
When two players show the same lowest rank, suit decides. In American play the suits rank, from lowest to highest, clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, so the deuce of clubs brings it in ahead of the deuce of diamonds. Suit is used only for this kind of decision and never makes one hand beat another.
Not everyone uses that order. pagat.com records other suit rankings in national traditions, among them hearts high in Italy, Austria and Sweden and clubs high in Germany. A home game with players from different traditions should agree on the order before the first deal.
50.8 The bring-in may come in for a full bet, and anyone may complete
The bring-in player chooses between posting just the bring-in ($3) or opening for a full small bet ($10). If they post only the bring-in, each player after them may fold, call the $3, or complete the bet to $10. Completing is not a raise: it turns the bring-in into the round's first full bet. Once someone has completed, every raise on third street is $10.
50.9 The bring-in doesn't count toward the raise cap
Where a round is capped at a bet and three raises, the bring-in is not counted. The completion is the first bet, and three raises may follow it. In $10/$20: bring-in $3, completed to $10, then raises to $20, $30 and $40.
A player dealt the low card who has only part of the bring-in posts what they have and is all-in. Everyone else must still come in for at least the normal bring-in. If the low card belongs to a player who went all-in on the ante, the action starts with the next player on their left.
50.11 From fourth street on, the best hand showing acts first
On fourth, fifth and sixth street, the player whose face-up cards make the best poker hand starts the betting, and may check. Only pairs, two pair, trips and four of a kind count; four cards to a straight or flush count as nothing more than high cards. A pair of 6s showing acts before A-K showing. On seventh street the new card is face down, so the player who started sixth street starts again.
When two players show equal hands, sources split. Robert's Rules breaks the tie by position: the tied player who was dealt cards first, meaning the one nearest the dealer's left, acts first. pagat.com describes the traditional rule as breaking it by the suit of the highest card, spades highest. Example: one player shows K-9 with the king of hearts, another K-9 with the king of spades, and the hearts player sits nearer the dealer's left. By position the hearts player acts first; by suit the spades player does.
50.13 If the best hand showing is all-in, the next player starts
A player who is all-in can't bet. When the best showing hand belongs to an all-in player, the action starts with the first player on their left who still has chips.
50.14 An open pair on fourth street allows the big bet
In most cash games, if any player shows a pair on fourth street, anyone may bet or raise either the small bet or the big bet that round. In $10/$20, the first bettor may bet $10 or $20. After a $10 bet, the next player may call, raise $10, or raise $20; once anyone has put in a $20 bet or raise, every raise after it that round is $20. The pair doesn't have to be the bettor's.
Tournaments have moved away from this. The TDA voted at its 2019 summit to drop the double bet, and the WSOP's 2021 tournament rules say a player with an open pair on fourth street bets the lower limit. A host should say which rule the game uses.
Your hand is the best five cards out of your seven, face-up and face-down alike, ranked as ordinary high poker hands (Hand rankings). A common card (50.4) counts as one of your seven.
Stud has no button, so when tied hands can't split the pot evenly, the odd chip goes to the hand holding the highest card by suit. Rulebooks differ on which cards count. The TDA's 2026 rules look only at the five cards that make each player's winning hand. Robert's Rules uses all of each player's cards, not just the five played. Example: two players split with the same straight, 9 high; neither 9 is a spade, but one player has the ace of spades among their two unused cards. By Robert's Rules that player gets the odd chip; by the TDA it goes to whichever 9 has the higher suit.
If the dealer names the wrong player as low and that player posts the bring-in, the mistake is fixed only if the next player hasn't acted yet: the wrong player takes the chips back and the real low card brings it in. Once the next player has acted, the bring-in stands, play continues, and the real low card owes nothing.
50.18 Picking up your up cards when facing a bet is a fold
When there's a bet to you, turning your face-up cards over or picking them up without calling is a fold, and the hand is dead. After the last bet, at showdown, the same gesture means nothing; the hand stays live until it is thrown away.
In a cash game, if one of your first two cards is turned up by mistake, your third card is dealt face down to make up for it. If both are turned up, your hand is dead and your ante comes back; if that dead hand's first up card would have been the low card, the action starts with the player on its left, who may fold, bring it in, or open for a full bet. In a tournament, Robert's Rules calls a misdeal instead. Misdeals in general are The deal and misdeals.
If the dealer turns a player's seventh card face up, the betting is started by the hand that is now best on the board. With three or more players left, everyone else still gets their last card face down, and the player whose card was exposed may declare all-in before the betting starts, so they put in no more chips. Heads-up, if the first player's last card is exposed, the second player's is dealt face up too and the betting goes on as normal.
Home games change stud in a few common ways. Some have the highest door card bring it in, or drop the bring-in and raise the ante instead. Many home games let any raise be small after a big bet, so a small raise can use up one of the three raises; card rooms make each raise at least the size of the last one. Wild-card games, such as low hole card wild, are home-game variants that card rooms don't deal. Stud Hi-Lo (7-Card Stud Hi-Lo (8 or better)) and Razz (Razz) are the two variants with their own card-room rules.