I am writing a short story, set circa 1979, about a home game of 7-card stud. I am familiar with the game and the rules, but I do not know how to state the limited bet structure. This is to be a big game, with stakes of around $1000. So I put the ante at $100, right? But what would the minimum and maximum bets be? I am going nuts trying to figure that out. Thank you so much. Maxie
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How many players are involved?– PaulJun 11, 2014 at 21:14
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2 Answers
Stud Hi and Stud 8 are usually played as limit games. In these games there are four types of bets: the ante, the bring-in, the small bet and the big bet. To refer to the stakes of a stud game you would at least name the small and the big bet, so for instance: a $500/$1000 game.
The ante is paid before any cards are dealt and is usually very small, between 1/4th and 1/6th of the small bet. Higher antes should encourage looser and more aggressive play if the players are knowledgeable (which would be rare in 1979).
The bring-in is the opening bet after the first three cards are dealt and is a forced bet by the player with the lowest door card showing. The bring-in would normally be around 40% of the small bet. However, a home game like this would probably play without a bring-in.
Then there are 2 rounds of betting with the small bet (3rd and 4th st), and 3 more rounds of betting with the big bet (5th, 6th and 7th or the river). Sometimes the betting is capped at 4 bets. (This means that you can't raise anymore when it is already raised to 4 bets in a round). But I don't believe this is a rule that was used often in those days.
If there is a door pair showing on 4th, the first player to take this opportunity is allowed to bet or raise 2 small bets instead of one (only in Stud Hi).
The betting round always begins with the person that has the highest board showing, and continues clock-wise.
If you're playing a 500/1000 game, a small heads up pot that got to the river would be about $9,000 (~1 bet per round). A big pot would be something like $40,000.
A stack of $5,000 should be considered a short, but playable stack, and a stack of $50,000 should be considered a comfortable stack. A stack of $500,000 at such a game would be ridiculously big. Someone who had a stack like that would probably be made fun of, because they would show off their money, without actually risking it (because it is a limit game).
In a game of 500/1000, typically the Ante would be $50 and the bring in would be $100. One might consider doubling these to liven up the game some and doing just that may not have been unusual.
