Winning 7 Card Stud

by Ashley Adams

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Reviewer:  Datlore001

While 7-card stud has taken a back seat to hold 'em in recent years, it is still played in casinos and card rooms across the country. Stud enthusiasts argue that the game is much more intricate than hold 'em, while hold 'em advocates often pan stud as a boring game. Regardless of which viewpoint you hold, the literature and study of 7-card stud is somewhat lacking. There are sections pertaining to stud high and hi/lo in Super System and Super System II, and 7-Card Stud for Advanced Players is indispensable, but the vast amount of hold 'em printings far exceeds what is printed about 7-card stud. However, Ashley Adams's Winning 7-Card Stud, published in 2003, is one of the exceptions.

Adams's book covers the gamut of 7-card stud play, from how to play the game up to some ideas on pot odds. The book is well-organized, beginning with the basics and progressing fairly slowly. Adams's writing style is conversational and flows well, with examples and theory complemented by his anecdotes.

In addition, Adams discusses some aspects of the psychology of poker. While other writers may do a better job, I feel that Adams did well to include these sections in his book. Besides the basic table selection and fish-spotting, he also covers when you should stop playing; issues of ego and tilt; table image; and deception. These are very important for new players to consider, and sometimes important for seasoned veterans to rediscover.

While Adams's book is not designed to be an in-depth and mathematical study of 7-card stud, I feel that the book would have been considerably better had he expanded it with more discussion of pot odds. He simply does not delve far enough; but we should not forget that the intended audience of this book will likely not be well-versed in this subject, so only a rudimentary discussion is appropriate. The average reader will be well-served to understand that folding out of a big pot is often incorrect, as Adams explains in the section 'Dealing with Losses,' on page 96. His section 'Odds and Ends,' which directly addresses pot odds, is less than eight pages long. More importantly, Adams does not give the reader any examples by street in this section. His statistics are very useful, but I feel that the beginning reader would benefit especially from sample hands discussed street-by-street, with associated odds.

Overall, Adams's book serves its purpose: it is a very good introduction to 7-card stud, with some discussion of advanced play. It is a good starting point for players who have very little knowledge of the game. Players experienced in other forms of poker may find some of the sections tedious and unnecessary. For those players, I would recommend 7-Card Stud for Advanced Players by Sklansky, Malmuth, and Zee. However, as in Theory of Poker, many of those concepts may simply be too advanced for the average or casual player, and Winning 7-Card Stud may be the perfect book.

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