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When you have nothing get out. Never play with nothing, although attempting to "steal" with nothing is fine as long as the steal has a decent chance of succeeding.

Stealing should be exercised against tight players with many hands. As long as you don't steal against that player every single time, he won't try to find an excuse to play as is commonly the case with weak players. Therefore, if you are last to act and you have a live face card up, raise with almost any hand if you are up against a conservative, tight player who is capable of laying down a small pair and who won't reraise you even if he does have a better hand than you.

Against weak players, you know you won't get away with it easilly. You're risking your money when you've got nothing and you don't quite know at what point your opponent does catch something. You should therefore raise on third street as a "steal" only when you have at least two live broadway cards or better.

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If you have an ace or a king in your hand, that does not make it playable. The primary value of such a hand is intimidation when the ace or the king is the door card. Good players will often throw away straight and flush draws, refusing to play these hands heads-up against an opponent who may have aces or kings, and even if he doesn't he still has the better hand with an A/K high.

If the ace or king is in the hole, then this hand has almost no value since -unlike in hold'em- you can't expect to win a showdown with an ace/king high. So although in theory you may have the best hand at the moment, since it has no intimidation value, it has no practical value. It should almost allways be folded in early-mid position. Even in a steal position, go ahead and call if you feel like it and see what you catch on fourth street. If you catch good and the bring-in catches bad, bet and expect to take it down without a fight; otherwise and check and fold.

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A three straight ought to be played cautiously. Realize that against many opponents, there are likely to be some flush draws and perhaps bigger straight draws. Even if they don't have such draws right now, they may develop a draw on a later street. You should therefore be prepared to abandon your draw if things start to look scary, even if the fourth street card helps you. For instance, if you go in with 789 and catch a ten on fourth street while one of your opponents (who has just called on third, suggesting that he may be on a draw) catches a live, suited big card and is now showing QAs and he now bets ou or raises, you should fold. He has you beat soundly, and is likely to have a live flush draw. Don't play against him; you could be drawing dead very soon.

Do not play small straight draws. Anything up to 567 should be thrown out. Those are too risky. Even if you are lucky enough to hit the straight, you still often loose to a better hand. Also, this hand doesn't havd enough ways to develop into a winner by catching pairs. The only time when it is correct to play this hand is in a very loose game where your opponents go in with nothing AND you cards are completely live. Also, if you are the bring-in, it is okay to call a raise with this hand in a multi-way pot, especially when there's doubt as to whether the raiser really has a a made hand (such as a big pair).

Even a hand like JQT should only be played when your cards are live and you should not usually enter a raise pot if you can't beat the raiser's door card. For example, if there are two queens and a jack out and a king raises, don't play. Not only are your cards dead but your straight cards might be semi-dead too assuming that the guy with the king has got another king in the hole.

If your opponent routinely raises with a medium pair, you should sometimes reraise when you have three big cards to a straight and your cards are live. Note, that this hand is NOT the kind of hand that you want to play multiway, since you can easilly beat the raiser by pairing any of your big cards, and you can reasonably win without any further improvement IF it remains heads up. You should therefore usually reraise if there's no more than one overcard ahead of you and all your cards are live. This play is even more correct if there's a good chance that your opponent will lay down his pair right then and there or on fourth street if he catches a blank.

If your three-straight also contains a two-flush, that is a considerable advantage, especially when the two suited cards are in the hole and the suit is live. This, in essence, gives you a well-concealed draw that your opponents won't put you on easilly.

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A three flush is a playable starting hand only because it has the potential to become a powerful hand that will very likely win the pot. Therefore, the value of your draw is directly related to the probability that you will complete your draw, that is: catch two more cards of the same suit.

Ideally, you want to play your flush draw when your suit is completely live. This maximizes your chance of making a flush. If one or even two of your suit are out, you can still play. However, you should be alot more cautious and selective. Specifically, if two of your suit are out, you're really trying to see foruth street cheaply and hope to catch a miracle card; your hand is simply not worth a raise. Do NOT enter a raised pot if two of your suit are out unless you have two overcards to the raiser's likely pair. If only one of your suit is out, you can be a bit more lenient and play any medium-sized flush (Q/J high) as long as it's a multi-way pot.

If you haven't seen any of your suit out, you can play any flush even a small one (T/9 high); it's just too tempting. The liveliness of your draw compensates for its relative weakness: the fact that it's only a T/9 high and you don't have as much a chance of winning by pairing up. Also, realize that other opponents may have weaker 5-hand draws, such as QJ9o, a lower flush or even 543o. These players are likely to fold if there are no callers. When you call, you are encoraging them to call too and give it a shot and you want them to. They are in a sense chasing you since they are entering the pot with a weaker draw and they are giving you the pot odds to justify playing your flush against a big pair. They are "subsidizing" your draw.

This brings us to an important play good players often make. If you have something like AQ6s and the ace, queen and your suit are relatively live you should play this draw hand aggressively. If there has been a raise and a couple of callers, you should reraise. Note that if you catch a blank on fourth street, you are likely to buy a "free card" after everyone checks to you. On the other hand, if you do catch help on fourth street, your average opponents will have a very hard time reading your hand and will thus give you plenty of action, even if you complete the flush on fifth/sixth street. In addition, you should reraise with this hand against anyone raising in the steal position and you should raise yourself heads-up if your opponent is likely to check to you on fourth street thinking that you have a big pair in the hole.

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A straight flush draw is strong in the sense that it can turn into various winning hands. You might catch a pair and a straight draw and a flush draw. If that happens, you will often feel that it's impossible to miss completely and you will therefore play it somewhat aggressively which is okay.

But you must realize, that as a draw hand, its value depends largely on it's liveliness and what you catch on fourth street. If you catch an utter blank on fourth street while the cards you need are being splattered all over the table, don't be persistent; fold. The hand will come around again.

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Three big cards, means three broadway cards, the bigger the better. The strongest of these hands is AKQ when all the cards are live. Such a hand is very strong on third street even if you currently don't have any pair. You can easilly catch a big pair on fourth street and virtually half the deck will give you something good enough to continue playing beyond third street if noone pairs their door card. You should always raise with this hand (when it's live); you are unlikely to be reraised by a smaller door card and good opponents will throw away small or even medium pairs. If you want to be fancy, you could go ahead and reraise with this hand. Again, the point of this reraise is to get the game heads-up so that you maximize your chance of winning the pot with one big pair or two pair. Also, by reraising, you are repesenting a bigger pair and are encouraging your opponent to throw away his medium pair, sooner or later. Do not play this hand for a raise when your hand is dead and your broadway cards are not the best (such as AJT). This is the kind of hand that you should frequently either reraise or fold.

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From an early position a small pair (2-4) should not be played if your kicker is not big or if the pair's rank is not live. You should normally play only if both the pair rank and the kicker rank is live. If and when you do play such a holding (small pair, big kicker), you should frequently come in for a raise if the kicker is your door card. Note, that you should raise even if there's been a caller already and you suspect that he may have a bigger pair, since not raising will often reveal weakness in your hand and you will not have the ability to get your opponent to fold, possibly with a abetter hand.

From middle/late position, you can be more lenient. If the door cards ahead of you are duplicted or you have a big kicker as the door card, raise if you decide to play and no one is in yet. If the small card is your door card, usually call if you decide to play, and hope that no one ahead of you has a bigger pair, or that you catch immediate help on fourth street. If you are raised, consider laying your hand down right then and there, depending on whether you think your opponent really has the goods and on whether you have a straight/flush kicker or an over card kicker.

In a steal position, raise all the time. If the bring-in does have a pair, it is likely the rank of his door card and he will thus be chasing you.

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Medium pairs are usually the best hand on third street unless ther's reason to believe otherwise. Therefore, if your pair's rank is live you should atleast call the bring-in from early position.

If there are no more than 1-2 overcards ahead of you, consider raising and if your kicker is an overcard to those overcards you should be even more inclined to raise since you can easilly call a reraise and you will likely go to atleast fifth street hoping to hit your kicker or improve otherwise.

Virtually allways raise from late position, even if you have no kicker and your pair's rank is dead. You are, in such cases, hoping to win right then and there and you don't want to slowplay.

If you have pocket queens, pocket kings, or pocket aces, you are very likely to have the best hand on third street. This likelihood is increased if noone is showing a doorcard whose rank is higher than your pocket pair. You should usually play a big pocket pair quickly; don't slowplay or checkraise with it unless the table is very tight or your image is tight and your opponents know that you'll never raise with split sevens and they will thus throw out pairs bigger than your door card.

However, it is advisable that you sometimes just call if you are in early position. Opponents tend to respect an early position raise, especially from a small door card. This means that you will likely get no callers at all and that's not really what you want. You want to play a big pocket pair heads up against a weak draw or against a smaller pair. Neither one of your opponents holding such hand will call an early position raise; you are therefore a big enough favorite to slowplay.

If you do limp in with a big pocket pair in early position and raised from a late position player after there have been a couple of callers, reraise if your pair's rank is bigger than his upcard; this will put pressure on the other players to drop. If they do call your reraise, they are, in most circumstances, making a mistake and you welcome that. By making it obvious that you have big pocket pair, there is a slim chance that even the raiser will fold and the pot is big enough by then for you to be content with your winning.

If you are raised and got many callers or if you limped in and someone immediately behind you raised and mnay players called his raise, a tricky situation develops. The problem here is that it becomes correct for people holding small pairs or questionable draws to continue playing. Although, you are probably are still the favorite, they would be correct to chase you down and call your reraise if you would choose to make one. It is therefore frequently recommended to just call on third street; this way you can make some tricky move on a later street that will cut down the pot odds for anyone else who wishes to stay in and beat you.

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A big split pair (A-J) should be played quickly just like a big pocket pair. You don't want many callers. It is important to raise almost all the time since it is likely to be the best hand at the moment and you want to make it expensive for others to try to beat you. Don't worry about not getting any customers, since you will be raising with big door cards in some other situations as well and your observant opponents know that. This will force them to guess and sometimes make mistakes (such as reraising you when you do have the big pair) which is exactly what you want.

This is not a game for the fearfull. It is important to understand simple mathematical concepts. Split jacks is a strong hand even when you see a queen and a king behind you; they are unlikely to have queens or kings. It is therefore important that you always raise with your jacks when there's no more than one overcard behind you. Even when there's two overcards, you should still raise if one or both are duplicated on board. By raising you are taking control of the game. Your opponents are unlikely to reraise if they can't beat jacks; you are therefore clarifying your hand to others and assuring yourself that noone can beat jacks just yet.

If a doorcard bigger than your pair's rank has raised ahead of you, careful analysis is now mandated. This is one of the sticky points in seven stud poker and many players do not know how to respond. Clearly, you don't want to throw away a winner. One the other hand, you don't
want to be chasing a bigger pair when there's nothing in the pot; that's clearly wrong as well. Your action should therefore be based on the following factors. 1) raiser's character 2) raiser's position 3) "liveliness" of the raiser's upcard 4) liveliness of your pair 5) whether you have live kicker bigger than the raiser's upcard. Let's go through these items one by one.

1) Some players are easilly readable; they will never raise with an ace without having aces (or a pocket pair jacks or better that beats all other doorcards). In that case, your action is pretty straightforward; it does not matter how live your kings are or how dead his aces are, you must fold immediately. Don't enter a pot on third street for a raise when you know that you are beaten by a bigger pair; this will cost you a ton of money in the long run. Against a good player, who will frequently raise with an ace without having aces, your kings queens or even jacks are probably worth playing, at least to fourth street. You simply can't fold when you know there's a decent chance that you have the raiser beat.

2) An early position raise by an upcard bigger than yours, is always significantly more credible than a late position raise. Against most, relratively conservative, opponents, fold your split jacks if a live queen raises in early position and you don't have an overcard kicker. A late position raise requires more analysis, especially if his queen is live and your jack is duplicated elsewhere. This is a situation where most players will attempt a steal in late position where you are the only one left to act. Since it is more likely that the player doesn't even have a pair, it is vital that you punish him for his attempt to steal by reraising. You do this to encourage him to fold and to make him pay to try to beat your jacks. If you are now reraised, call if there's a chance that he is sophisticated enough to reraise without having jacks beat; otherwise, fold if there's a jack out or if you don't have a live overcard kicker.

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split aces should almost NEVER be slowplayed. This is for two reasons: 1) it's an easilly beatable hand. Anyone who stays in with a smaller pair can easilly catch two pair on fourth or fifth street and then you will be the one chasing him. And players will certainly stay in with a
medium pair if there's no raise. 2) since you will sometimes be raising with an ace showing, when you have a small pair in the hole or a three flush or a three-straight and you will not want callers in those cases, you therefore must raise with the real aces as well so that your opponents respect your raise and you thus give them a chance to fold their (better) hand.

Pocket aces are different, especialy when you have a small door card. People don't expect you to raise and "mixing up your play" isn't a consideration here. You should still raise most of the time, especially if there has been a caller or two ahead of you or if there has been a raise already. The time to slowplay this holding is in early position when there have been no callers yet. A raise by a small door card will scare many players, especially if you project a conservative image. Good players ahead of you will likely fold medium pairs and you will end up having no oppostition. You really want some customers to hang in there for a couple of betting rounds and you therefore want to lure some players into the pot.

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being dealt three of a kind as a starting hand is very exciting and usually makes your heart skip a beat. The exciting thing about this hand is that you feel that are far ahead of everyone else and that everyone who plays is a "sucker" destined to pay you off. In reality, while it certainly is not advisable for anyone to play against a three of a kind starting hand without having a bigger three of akind, it is not that hard to beat the hand. You should therefore not feel like you're flying in the sky. You are strong but your strength can be overcome easilly.

if you are in early position, it is almost never advisable to raise. In a conservative game, you are likely to get few if any callers. Even someone who has a bigger pair then what your door card represents, is likely to only call and possibly fold later on if you your board becomes even slighlty threatening. Of course, if someone has big pair (kings or aces) he will likely reraise and stay in all the way, but you don't know that. The exception to this advice is a very loose game where everyone stays in on third street and noone respects your raise. In such a game it is vital to raise, in order to thin the field and so that your opponents pay a heave price to try to beat you.

If you are in middle position and there have been a couple of callers, you should still consider just calling so as to not to raise your opponents attention. They might not have much and will fold if you catch a scary card or cards on fourth and/or fifth street. However, if your trips are small, you should raise right on third street if there have been a couple of callers and play aggressively right from the beginning. It is very possible that some of the callers and/or players yet to act have a bigger pair than your trip rank and they can thus easilly beat you. Make it as obvious as you possibly can that you have them beat and make them pay heavilly to try to beat you.

If there has been a raise and/or reraise, you should always raise again or cap it. A three flush will call anyway if he thinks you guys are just "wild" or if he is willing to gamble. On the other hand, a small or medium pair is likely to fold if the initial raise and/or reraise is by a higher ranked door card; you will thus not be able to lure him in anyway. In addition, since it is quit obvious that some players have strong hands, probably a bigger pair, and they will alnost certainly play against you, possibly even raise back, you should make them pay a heavy price for their attempt to beat you.

In late position, if there have lots callers, raise. You might even get a reraise by someone who is slowplaying a big pair in early position.

If there has been a raise already, if it's by someone to your immediate right, call so as to trap all the others. If it was by an early position player and there have been several callers of the raise, raise again.

Never assume that someone else is rolled up with higher trips. this is very unlikely and shouldn't normally be a considered by you when contemplating your action.

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