Stud Hi-Lo Starting Hands: Looking Beyond Three Low Cards

Ask three questions in order: can this hand win the high half, can it win the low half, and do the cards on the table help or hurt either plan? A hand that answers yes to the first two is a scoop hand, and scoop hands are worth more than anything else because they play for the whole pot while most opponents play for half of it.

High potential

High potential is what the hand would be worth in Seven Card Stud: three of a kind, a big pair, three suited cards, three connected cards. In Stud 8 that value gets a discount, because whenever a low qualifies, the best high hand only collects half. The discount is smallest when nobody is going low, which is why a pure high hand is best played when the door cards around you are high too.

Low potential

Low potential means three different ranks of 8 or lower, with the ace counting as the lowest card. The lower the three ranks, the better, and three cards that can also make a wheel (A-2-3-4-5) carry the most value because the wheel is a straight for high as well. Low potential on its own buys you half the pot at most, and when two players make the same low that half is split again. Low hand rankings explains how 8-or-better lows are compared.

What the exposed cards say

The door cards tell you two things before you put in any action: whether the cards you need are still live, and who is competing for which half. Three low door cards around you mean more competition for the low and fewer low cards left in the deck. Three high door cards mean your low draw may be the only one at the table. Reading exposed cards in stud covers the counting routine; this page applies it to the starting-hand decision.

The table rates ten common starts. "Strong" means the hand often wins that half on its own, "Some" means it needs help, and "Weak" means it realistically plays for the other half only. The verdicts assume a 6-max table with a mix of door cards; the next sections show how exposed cards move them.

What the table shows

The top three hands share one feature: they can win both halves. Rolled-up trips do it by brute force on the high side; the A-2-3 and A-2-4 hands do it by pairing a nut low draw with an ace, a wheel draw and (when suited) a flush draw.

The two high hands, (A-K) K and (Q-Q) 5, are good or bad depending entirely on the company. Against kings, queens and tens they are the favorites and play for the whole pot. Against three low door cards they have become half-pot hands with no second way to win.

The four low-looking traps (8-8-4, 6-7-8, 2-2-5 and 8-7-4) all look like reasons to play from a distance. Up close, each one is missing an axis: the eights and deuces have a pair where a third low rank should be, the 6-7-8 has an 8 at the top of both its low and its straight, and the 8-7-4 has almost nothing for high.

Two hands with three cards 8 or lower can be worlds apart. These four pairs isolate one difference at a time.

The ace's double duty: (A-2) 3 vs (6-7) 8

A♠ 2♦ 3♣

6♣ 7♥ 8♠

Both are three-card lows with no pair, and both are three to a straight. The difference is the ace. A-2-3 is the best possible three-card low, it is three to the wheel (the one straight that also counts as the nut low), and if the hand pairs its ace it has the best one-pair hand for high. The 6-7-8 is the worst possible three-card qualifying low, its straights are small ones, and pairing any of its cards makes a weak high and kills a low rank at the same time. One hand is a scoop hand; the other is a hand that hopes.

Suitedness: (A-4) 5 suited vs (A-4) 5 offsuit

A♥ 4♥ 5♥

A♣ 4♦ 5♠

Same ranks, same low draw, same wheel draw, same ace. The suited version adds a second high route, the nut flush, and that route doesn't depend on the low cards you need. When a low card you need arrives in your suit, both plans advance at once. The offsuit version is a fine hand; the suited version is a clearly better one, and it deserves more aggression on third street.

Connectedness: (4-5) 6 vs (2-4) 6

4♠ 5♥ 6♦

2♦ 4♣ 6♥

Both are 6-high three-card lows with no ace. The 4-5-6 can make a straight with three different pairs of cards (2-3, 3-7 or 7-8). The 2-4-6 makes a straight only by catching exactly a 3 and a 5. Low potential is close to equal; high potential is not. Without an ace, these hands seldom win high with one small pair, so straight chances carry much of their high value, and the connected version has more of them. That makes it the one worth a call behind a raise.

An ace when low cards are everywhere: (A-3) 5 vs (4-5) 7

A♦ 3♣ 5♥

4♠ 5♦ 7♣

Now put either hand at a 6-max table where the five other door cards are these.

Other door cards

2♥ 3♠ 6♠ 8♥ J♦

Four of the five door cards are 8 or lower, so you are likely up against two or three other low draws and the low cards you need are leaving the deck. The 4-5-7 is in trouble: it is low-only, its low is 7-high, and if it makes a low someone with an ace or a deuce in the hole often makes a better one. The A-3-5 is still playable: the ace gives it a chance at high against opponents who are all chasing low, and if it makes a low it is usually the best one at the table. Same crowded board, two very different decisions.

The same starting hand can be a raise at one table and a careful call at another. Take this hand in Seat 1 of a 6-max table.

A♠ 2♥ 5♣

You hold three ranks toward a low (A, 2, 5) and need two more from the ranks 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8. The deck holds 20 cards of those ranks. A 3 and a 4 would also make the wheel, and the three other aces would make a high pair.

Table one: low cards everywhere

Seat 2 door card

3♦

Seat 3 door card

3♣

Seat 4 door card

4♥

Seat 5 door card

7♠

Seat 6 door card

A♦

Every one of the five door cards is 8 or lower, and one of the threes posts the bring-in (aces count high for the bring-in). Count what is left of the cards you need: threes 2, fours 3, sixes 4, sevens 3, eights 4. That is 16 of the 20 low cards you need still live (not seen anywhere), out of 44 unseen cards (52 minus your 3 minus the 5 door cards). Only 5 of the 8 wheel cards remain, and only 2 aces.

The counts are not terrible, but the competition is. Seat 6 shows an ace, and an ace door card at a table full of low cards often means a low draw as good as yours plus the same high card you were counting on. Seats 2, 3 and 4 are all live for low. Your hand is still playable, because A-2-5 is a better low draw than most of what they can hold, but it is a call, not a raise, and it should be ready to fold if it catches a brick on fourth street while two low boards improve.

Table two: high cards everywhere

Seat 2 door card

K♦

Seat 3 door card

Q♠

Seat 4 door card

J♥

Seat 5 door card

10♣

Seat 6 door card

9♦

Your 5♣ is the lowest door card, so you post the bring-in. The counts are now perfect: threes 4, fours 4, sixes 4, sevens 4, eights 4. All 20 low cards are live out of 44 unseen, all 8 wheel cards are available and all 3 remaining aces are unaccounted for.

More important than the counts is the competition: nobody else is drawing to a low. Any qualifying low you make very likely wins that half, and your ace is live against players who are mostly chasing high pairs. When a king or queen completes the bet, call or even reraise. This is the same three cards as table one, with a much bigger share of the pot waiting at the end.

When a player showing a low door card completes the bet, your own low draw is no longer the only one in the pot, and the two ways it goes wrong are getting quartered and being freerolled. Getting quartered is explained in split pots explained, and a freeroll is defined in the glossary; the short version is this.

2♦ 4♣ 5♥

Seat 4 door card

3♠

If Seat 4 holds something like A-2 behind that three, you are drawing to the same low with worse high prospects. When you both make the same low and Seat 4 also wins high, you get a quarter and Seat 4 three-quarters; when Seat 4 makes a better low, Seat 4 can scoop. Once Seat 4 has the same low locked, they are freerolling you: nothing to lose on the low side, everything to gain on the high side. Against a low door card that completes, a low-only hand without an ace needs to be very cheap to continue, and a low-only hand with an 8 in it should fold.

Third street is a judgment; fourth street is the first test of it. Re-rate the hand the same way, on both halves and against the boards, before the big bets arrive on fifth.

A good start getting worse

A♣ 2♠ 3♥ K♦

Seat 3 upcards

6♣ 4♠

Seat 5 upcards

Q♥ 8♥

The three players who folded on third street showed 8♠, 5♦ and 7♣. The king is a brick for the low. You now need two low cards of different ranks (4, 5, 6, 7 or 8) from your last three cards, and the live count is thin: fours 3, fives 3, sixes 3, sevens 3, eights 2, for 14 of 41 unseen cards. Meanwhile Seat 3 caught a perfect low card and Seat 5, who looked like a high hand, picked up an eight. A premium start has become a hand that wants to see fifth street cheaply or not at all.

A good start getting better

A♥ 4♦ 5♠ 2♣

Seat 2 upcards

K♠ 9♦

Seat 4 upcards

7♥ J♣

The three players who folded on third street showed 9♣, T♦ and Q♠. You now have four cards to the nut low and the wheel. Any one of the four live threes makes a wheel, the nut low and a straight for high; any 6, 7 or 8 makes a qualifying low; and the three remaining aces make a high pair. Fifteen cards out of 41 unseen make a low on fifth street alone, and your opponents have both moved the wrong way: Seat 2 is a high hand with almost no low chance, and Seat 4 just bricked its low draw with a jack. This is a hand to bet and raise with, because you are drawing to the whole pot against two players who are unlikely to win more than half.