Stud Low Stakes Profitability

[RobNottsUk]

Due to 'contributory' bonus on a poker site, and me doing a touch of Bonus W-ing, I decided to try 7Stud to clock up points (as the ante's count as a contrib).

Armed just with Dave Scharf's book, 11 pages on 7stud (57 on Hold'em)I started, not expecting very much....

But though the edge of pair's on 3rd isn't so great, and 'suckouts' are frequent, sensible play seems to consistently win,despite getting rivered frequently.

Is this common experience at low stakes online (say 25c/50 & 50c/$1), or likely "Beginner's" luck running super hot. I've only had 1 losing session, and still see plenty of errors (and passive play) stepping up a level.

I'm used to much wilder swings, playing Hold'em or Omaha Hi/Lo. But 7 Stud seems to punish poor play, offering as good win rate with much less variance.

So good start, am I likely to have just been lucky?

[mmctrab]

In my limited experience (no pun intended) , the variance seems to be lower in Stud and Stud/8 than with limit hold 'em, and bad play by your opponents, if you're following the hands well, seems to be easier to pick up on. So, I don't think that your experience so far is out of the ordinary.

[Andy B]

Don't know who Dave Scharf is. Get 7CS4AP.

Stud high certainly has much lower variance for me than hold'em, and it probably has in general. But there can be big swings especially if you move up to levels where there are bigger antes and better players.

I would guess that if you're having huge swings in O/8, you don't play O/8 very well. Presumably, your opponents play worse.

[RobNottsUk]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't know who Dave Scharf is. Get 7CS4AP.


[/ QUOTE ]
He's an author who wrote a pretty good beginner's primer, and has appeared in WSoP on TV, won some tourneys. Had to think but figured out 7CS4AP, is the 2+2 Stud book by Mason, David and Ray.

[ QUOTE ]

Stud high certainly has much lower variance for me than hold'em, and it probably has in general. But there can be big swings especially if you move up to levels where there are bigger antes and better players.


[/ QUOTE ]
Certainly had some tasty outdraws to lower my win rate from "stratospheric" to more reasonable figures.

But I'd have lost more in HE, because I had a better idea of the loose players hand, who loved to semi-bluff into me on 6th street, hoping to scare me into a fold. Hard to spot runner-runner gutshot in HE [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[ QUOTE ]

I would guess that if you're having huge swings in O/8, you don't play O/8 very well. Presumably, your opponents play worse.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think it's actually that Omaha generates large pots and on a session basis, you can get caned if you run bad, or make a huge score depending on result of 1 or 2 critical pots. In long run it evens out, though on net you see tighter play than the reputed 'Zoo' games live, so you have IMO do a bit more than nut peddle in 3-4 way pots.

This is based on what I see happen to 'skilled' opponents, who frequently play hands very well, but loose a huge number of bets to a Fish, with no biz in pot who backdoors something.

Thanks for the responses, I did wonder why 7CS4AP wasn't recommended in my copy of "Psychology of Poker" (Elements of 7card Stud is)possibly it wasn't written at time of authorship and subsequent editions have overlooked that book. So thanks for suggesting it (and answering a question I had but didn't ask).