Seven Card Stud Poker Reading Hands Strategy - The Small Things

A very large portion of Seven Card Stud reading hands strategy is about the little details, the small things that may reveal you what your opponent holds as hole cards. The "small things" can be so minute that most players would not give them any thought, but a serious Seven Card Stud player that wants to boost his reading hands strategy must give them his full attention.

For example, a manual organization of your opponent's cards might mean that he have a Flush, a Straight or some kind of combination that "calls" card players to fix. Most novice Seven Stud Card players would be eager to organize their cards, to shift one card to the middle of their hand or something like that. They won't be aware of it but you must be. Organization of cards clearly points of some kind of "order" in cards, as in a Straight (3-4-5-6) and so on.

A manual organization of cards indicates that those cards are important to your opponent, if so these cards are likely to "take part" in the Showdown. Do the math – 1 1 – and read your opponent's hand. The small things reveal hands easily. And not just about the essence of hidden cards but also on players themselves.

A player that arrange his chips before the game is an organized player. It is very important to adjust between your hand reading strategy and players types. An unorganized show of chips may indicate that your opponent is the loose poker player type. Again – the small things reveal more than most Seven Card Stud players would imagine.

More about chips: What does it mean when a player is organizing his chips when he doesn't play? Does this means he is a loose player or a tight player?? Well, what it really tells you is that he is A) not paying attention to the game, he doesn’t learn his opponents nor does he care about their starting requirements. B) he doesn't use reading hands strategy, if he was – he was paying attention to other players as they play.

As your reading hands strategy progress you can put more efforts on learning the "small things". It is a skill that takes time to evolve, but as you probably seen in the above examples – it worth the efforts and the time.

Daniel Jenkins, Editorial Staff. 2006-01–22