Stud Poker Betting Structure and Strategy

Stud Poker combines a limit betting structure with a great deal of information in the form of showing cards. Correctly interpreting the betting patterns of your opponents as their boards ‘improve’ will give you a huge edge at the table. However, many players miss out on these simple ‘tells’ and continue to play only their own hand. This article will provide a straightforward guide to reading stud poker hands through betting patterns – and suggest some strategies to make the most of the information gained.
We will start by looking at the extremes – the hyper-aggressive and very passive opponents and see how their betting can give you extra information. Next we will look at the ways in which player’s boards can improve, and how their bets (and calls) can be used together with this information. Finally we will look at the inter-relation between the boards of different players in the hand.

Passive vs Aggressive

The key to determining useful information from betting patterns is to understand that these are often opponent-specific. An opponent who bets and raises every street of every hand is a completely different proposition to someone who will call you to the river with as little as a gut-shot straight draw.
Against a hyper-aggressive opponent a good strategy may be to re-raise or even check-raise on an early street. For example an opponent raises on 3rd
with a king showing, you do not know whether they are paired based on the fact that this opponent raises every time with a high up-card. A re-raise with a pair of queens here can give you important information early in the hand, and may have the added benefit of isolating the aggressive player.

Conversely a passive player will call and call and call! Here you should increase the frequency of your value bets and decrease the hand strength required to make these. A passive opponent can often lead to opportunities to take free cards. A check-raise or re-raise from a passive opponent on the end is usually strong, fold unless you can beat the hand that they are representing.
An example of how an ‘improving’ board can give you valuable information via betting patterns comes when a flush is possible. For example if an opponent raised with an ace showing on 3rd street and bet out again when a blank fell on 4th street it is far less likely that they have the flush they are trying to represent on 6th street. On the other hand if the same opponent called on 3rd and checked 4th – then started betting when a 2nd card of their suit hit them on 5th street the chances of a flush are increased. Having additional information about whether their flush was ‘live’ on 3rd street can also help in interpreting betting patterns here. An experienced player would not usually call here with a flush if 2 or 3 of their suit were showing in opponents hands.

Watch your Opponents

Combining the boards of opponents is another way to use betting pattern information. For example someone with a pair showing betting into an opponent showing 4 of a suit is representing a made full house. The probability of this being the case increases if they show a pair to their door-card. Conversely, a player who bet all the way then checks when an opponent shows a 4 flush is more likely to hold 2-pair or trips – their intention being to call the bet and try to fill up on 7th street.
To summarize, the reading of betting patterns in stud poker is all about combining the known tendencies of opponents with the information available in their hands, the hands of others and the folded cards you have seen.