Stud Strategy – Playing Rolled Up Sets on Third Street

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We will wrap up our discussion this week about starting hands in Seven Card Stud looking at the top starting hand in the game. Rolled up sets are the predominant starting hand in Seven Card Stud. It doesn’t get any better than this in the game and when you get them, you want to try and maximize your profits.

Today we will take a look at how to play these hands when you’re lucky enough to get them. While it may seem obvious how to proceed, many fail to properly take advantage of this top hand.

To Raise or Not to Raise With Your Set

The big question when you’re rolled up in Stud is how to proceed on Third Street. The average player will consider just calling along and not risk showing the strength of their hand. This is not a profitable play in all situations.

For starters, you have to evaluate the other players at the table and your position. If you’re in early position with a lower rolled up set, such as sixes, you’re going to want to call along and let the other players do the betting on Third Street.

If you’re in late position and only facing the bring-in with a low set, it is ok to raise here provided there are other players with cards higher than yours. At worst, your opponents are going to assume you are raising with a big pair. Big pairs will call. If someone else completes, it is a good idea to just call along.

If you are starting off with a high set, such as a set of queens, then you will want to play according to what makes sense and the strength of other players. If you’re the high card at the table, it is ok to complete a bet. If someone else completes the bet, you can consider raising. You’re only going to be given credit for a single pair here instead of being rolled up.

Don’t Go Crazy With Raising

If you are facing a completion, it is ok in some instances to go ahead and raise. If an ace completes when you’re holding three eights, feel free to put in a raise. The same is true if you complete you have three queens and a king raises.

However, if you’re facing a completion and a raise, consider whether or not your opponents will fold to additional bets. It is possible that multiple opponents will call a single raise, but only strong hands will call three bets on Third Street in the majority of circumstances. You want to keep players in to try and pay off your big hand, so be careful of driving them out on Third Street.

Strong Hand But Not Invulnerable

One major piece of advice I will give to you with rolled up sets is to properly evaluate your hand following Third Street. While a rolled up set will win a large percentage of the time without improving, that’s not always the case. As such, don’t go nuts with this hand on later street.

Also, make sure to pay attention to player outs. If you notice a player come into a hand with a king door card and two other players folded a king, they don’t have a pair of kings. Pay more attention to their play relative to future cards.

Now that we have gone over starting hands in Stud poker, we can begin looking at strategy on later streets. Next week, we will look at playing Fourth Street in Seven Card Stud, covering the most common scenarios that occur during that round of play.