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Brains Before Nuts.

Seven card stud has antes for every player instead of blinds for two players. In this game you will receive three cards at first, two face down and one face up. Whoever has the lowest face up card on the table HAS to 'act' first with a small wager called the 'bring in' and everyone else follows in clockwise order. Now this is after you have already anted and even after you have your blinds in. So technically if the game has blinds AND antes you might have to put in your big blind, ante up, and do a 'bring in' ALL by force. But the norm would be that you ante and sometimes get the low card and bring in, which isn't bad at all. Now after the first three cards there is a 'BET SESSION'. From here everyone will receive a fourth card face up and another betting round will follow. This round is called "Fourth Street", and the others 5th, 6th, and 7th street accordingly. Two more face up cards will follow, each with a round of betting. Your last and seventh card will be face down followed by the final bet session. After this your final hand will be shown by turning over all your face down cards and making the best five out of seven cards. This will constitute your Seven Card Stud poker hand. Sometimes you might have your hand made perfect in the first five or six cards with no other cards that can help you, but you must always receive ALL seven cards and go through each bet session unless you fold your hand during any session.

This player came in with a pair of nines, almost got a straight, almost a flush, and almost a straight flush, but ended up with two pair queens and nines. (This example was used since two pair with queens, or 'Queens Up' is also the average hand in this game). So obviously the best first three cards or 'starting hand' you can get are three of a kind. The poker term for this is 'Rolled Up', with the best starting being "Rolled Up Aces".