In a nutshell, the key to winning money at Seven-Card Stud is to start with the best three-card starting hand. That sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? And in most circumstances it is pretty simple, although in many others an alert player will spot situations that make effective selection of a starting hand not quite so black-and-white.

Sometimes starting with the best hand means realizing that you should throw away a pair of kings. At other times it may mean making it three bets with a pair of nines! If you can always start with the best hand - whatever's best for the circumstances of the moment—then you'll do well at Seven-Card Stud. But what is the best hand? Is it (9-9) 4 or is it (J-Q) K. Most experts would quickly say that the second hand (three high cards in an open-end straight-flush draw) is far more desirable, even though a pair of nines is stronger at the moment. You need to keep in mind that we are examining Seven-Card Stud, not Three-Card Stud. You must, in analyzing the strength of starting hands, consider not merely their strength at the starting gate but their potential for developing into a strong hand later.

So you can't simply look at starting Stud hands in a vacuum. You need to take a look around at the other cards in sight (each of your opponents has one faceup), to gain a better idea of how good or bad your chances of improving are. (Perhaps your three-card starting flush is weak because a bunch of your flush cards are faceup on board.)

To build on the principle of the best starting hand, let's add the idea that you need to jam with it (put in some raises) in order to give yourself the best chance for this hand to win the pot. Jamming the pot with the best hand in Stud is a time-honored tradition! Jamming will often clear the field right away (because you've made it so expensive to call), giving you fewer opponents and therefore a better chance to win the pot.  

The Most Powerful Starting Hands in Stud.
The most powerful starting hand in Seven-Card Stud is three aces  (A-A) A, followed by (K-K) K, (Q-Q) Q, (J-J) J, and so on; when you start with three of a kind in Stud, you are said, in poker slang, to be "rolled-up".

The next most powerful hand is a pair of concealed aces, such as (A-A) 5, followed by one concealed ace and one unconcealed ace, such as (A-5) A. The reason that the concealed aces (or indeed any concealed pairs) are more powerful than the unconcealed aces is that the concealed pair is more deceptive: no one will think you have a hand as powerful as aces.

Next on the list of powerful hands is a pair of kings - first concealed, followed by unconcealed. Then we have a pair of queens, pair of jacks, pair of tens, and (A-K) Q suited ("suited" means that all three of your cards are in the same suit). The poker legend John Bonetti ranks (A-K) Q suited ahead of (J-J) 10. So our list of powerful starting hands begins with rolled-up trips (three of a kind), moves on to high pairs, and then moves on to high suited connectors like J-Q-K. All these are premium starting hands in Seven-Card Stud.

The premium starting hands, then, are:

1. Three of a kind or "rolled-up" trips, beginning with (A-A) A, then (K-K) K, and so on.

2. High pairs, concealed or unconcealed, starting with aces and moving down to jacks.

3. High suited connectors, such as (A-K) Q and (J-Q) K.

Strong and medium strength starting hands are:

4. Medium-rank pairs like 8-8 through 10-10 and medium suited connectors, such as 10-J-Q.

5. High suited semiconnectors, such as 10-J-K or 9-J-K.

Now that you understand what the most powerful Stud hands look like, let's move on down the list and compare a couple of the more modest hands to help you think about which hands are more powerful. Which would you rather have (10-J} Q, or (8-8) Q?  That's close, but give me (10-J) Q.

The hand (10-J) Q contains three overcards above the eights of the other hand. By contrast, the hand (8-8) Q has an equal chance to catch one of the three remaining queens, and a chance to catch one of the two remaining eights to make trips.

The contrast between the two doesn't end there, though. Although much of the strength of the hand (10-J) Q does come from the high cards that can make high pairs, you could also catch cards that could make you a flush or a straight or even a straight flush. If you look around the table and don't see many nines or kings (the cards that would give you an open-end straight draw), the hand's potential grows stronger. It grows stronger still if you don't see many eights or aces (the cards that would complete the straight if you caught a nine or king). There are 10 clubs left in the deck after we take the three out of consideration. If no one else has a club for a door card, our chances of making a flush have improved. But if you see four other players who show a club, you can consider the chance of making a flush rather remote.

All this might seem tedious or technical, but if you're not prepared to analyze hands to this extent, you won't ever be serious about Stud. Besides, it will take only a dozen seconds to assimilate all this information.

Although you may feel that when it comes to getting good starting cards, you're more or less at the mercy of Lady Luck, you should realize that you can make your starting hand seem a bit more powerful than it actually is through aggression, or weaken it through passivity. The hand that's doing the betting always has the edge, because the other hand may fold rather than contest its bet.