A few months ago now my local club started running a $5/10/15 (5/5/10/10/15) stud 8 game on Friday nights. To their - and my - surprise they've had a full table every week. It's turned out to be a great, fun game for a lot of people who had not previously played much, if any, stud.
As is the cast with most great, fun games, it's very loose-passive. People are in there with most anything because they think most anything is worth the $2 bring-in (which is completed to $5 probably half the time). And because so many people see 4th street and because 4th street is only $5 they continue on way too much and then $10 on 5th street seems like bargain with all that money in the pot. And then with so many people in there, how could they not pay $10 to see the last card? And of course now it's only $15 to see if your hand is good, so what the hell, they'll throw it in.
So goes the logic of the majority of players in the game. They'll even call 2 or 3 bets sometimes on one of the above streets if you can squeeze them in between the right players. One giant difference between this and every single other stud 8 game I've played: this game has no ante. Which seems crazy. It should have at least a $1 ante (and I like higher ante games, so I'd prefer $2).
What does that mean for our strategy? I don't enter pots unless I'm at least 3 to a low, straight, or flush, or if I have a pair (size of the pair bringing me into the pot depends on other players' upcards, but generally 10s or higher). There are two reasons I've narrowed my opening range: (1) the no ante structure allows us to see as many hands as we'd like without playing a pot and (2) pots are going to be multi-way the vast majority of the time, so we want to have a hand we can confidently bet and raise with.
I have maybe 40 or so hours of experience in the game and to this point I've run very well playing a very snug 3rd street game, but that sample size is obviously far too small to allow us to extrapolate anything meaningful.
Obviously there are plenty of general stud 8 and general split pot strategies to employ in this and all other stud 8 games, but apart from more-snug-than-usual opening ranges, can anyone think of any other general strategy guidelines that would benefit a player in a game like this? Of course, I'd also welcome criticism of my thoughts as to narrow opening ranges.
As is the cast with most great, fun games, it's very loose-passive. People are in there with most anything because they think most anything is worth the $2 bring-in (which is completed to $5 probably half the time). And because so many people see 4th street and because 4th street is only $5 they continue on way too much and then $10 on 5th street seems like bargain with all that money in the pot. And then with so many people in there, how could they not pay $10 to see the last card? And of course now it's only $15 to see if your hand is good, so what the hell, they'll throw it in.
So goes the logic of the majority of players in the game. They'll even call 2 or 3 bets sometimes on one of the above streets if you can squeeze them in between the right players. One giant difference between this and every single other stud 8 game I've played: this game has no ante. Which seems crazy. It should have at least a $1 ante (and I like higher ante games, so I'd prefer $2).
What does that mean for our strategy? I don't enter pots unless I'm at least 3 to a low, straight, or flush, or if I have a pair (size of the pair bringing me into the pot depends on other players' upcards, but generally 10s or higher). There are two reasons I've narrowed my opening range: (1) the no ante structure allows us to see as many hands as we'd like without playing a pot and (2) pots are going to be multi-way the vast majority of the time, so we want to have a hand we can confidently bet and raise with.
I have maybe 40 or so hours of experience in the game and to this point I've run very well playing a very snug 3rd street game, but that sample size is obviously far too small to allow us to extrapolate anything meaningful.
Obviously there are plenty of general stud 8 and general split pot strategies to employ in this and all other stud 8 games, but apart from more-snug-than-usual opening ranges, can anyone think of any other general strategy guidelines that would benefit a player in a game like this? Of course, I'd also welcome criticism of my thoughts as to narrow opening ranges.
