The first thing that you should learn about 7-stud is that it is different from Hold Em. If there is only one thing you take from this article, make sure that it is the understanding that playing good 7-stud is quite a bit different from playing good Hold Em. Some of the general principles are the same, but the detailed strategies that make you a good player are different between the different games. Hold Em strategy should remain firmly in Hold Em territory and when you sit down at a table to play 7-stud, you should understand right away that your Hold Em strategy will not help you here.
The second tip that is worth taking away from this discourse would be to understand the difference in importance of position. The main reason for this is that position is not fixed in 7-stud as it would be in Hold Em. The position changes on each street depending on the cards the players are holding. For this reason, you are not going to have the opportunity to check-call with the intention of using position to bluff on the next street because you truly have no idea what position you will be in on that street. Keep this in mind when playing, as it is easy for a Hold Em player to easily forget that and lose a few bets as a result that they would not otherwise have lost.
The third tip that is worth following has to do with the idea of the bring in. The bring in is a bet that the worst up card makes on third street when they have the opportunity of either bringing in a bet smaller than the small bet or alternatively betting the small bet. Most novice 7-stud players will play it by the book and bring in with hands they intend to fold and bet the small bet amount with hands they intend to keep. However, it would not hurt to change this up every once in awhile. Occasionally bring in with a stronger hand that you can re-raise with and occasionally bet the small bet with a hand you intend to fold. This will misdirect your opponents if you show that hand later and is one of the principle ways you can let your opponents know that you change gears in a game of 7-stud.
Lastly, learn to pay attention to the up cards of your opponents. You end up seeing far more cards face up in 7-stud than you do in Hold Em and those cards will tell you a lot about where you are in the hand. Remember the cards that were folded as they are important to your drawing hands. It is not an easy skill to master, but it is one worth developing if you want to be a good 7-stud player.
