Poker Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Getting back to the reader (whom we might as well call the player), let us assume he has been dealt a hole card and his first upcard. This is the most important part in any Stud game. The player must decide the value of those two cards, which is done by considering the value of his two cards and the value of every other player's upcard. To give you a general rule to cover this situation is impossible; so instead I am going to discuss what one of the smartest gamblers in the business does under any conditions.
First, if his hole card is lower than a ten-spot, he folds up (provided he does not hold a pair back to back), regardless of the value of his upcard. If it is an ace or a high card and he is compelled to make the opening bet, he bets the minimum amount permitted.