The Most Common Seven-Card Stud Mistakes

• Playing a pot on third street while holding only a small pair and a small kicker. Small pairs win a game of seven-card stud very often. If you fortunate enough to pair your side card, you will have a small two pair. This hand also doesn't beat much in seven-card stud. The best you can hope for is three of a kind.
• Folding on seventh street without being 100% sure that you are beaten. There is an old adage in seven-card stud that says you should not fold it your opponent does not have you beat with the cards they are showing. If you have played this far with your hand, you should just go ahead and call the final bet on seventh street. The worst that can happen if you call is that you lose one additional bet, while the worst that can happen if you fold is that you could lose an entire pot. In other words, there is inherent value in calling down the last bet.
• Making macho raises. Okay, this is actually a problem in all live poker games. Sometimes there are people at our table that we don't take a liking to. Perhaps they are loud, obnoxious, crass, or drunk. Maybe they are all of the above. What happens is that players will make a raise not because they have good cards, but because they don't like the other player. This is a stupid way to lose money at the poker table. Keep your ego and emotions out of your poker game.
• Drawing to a dream flush. Many players, when they have four cards to a flush will try to draw the fifth card even when they know that too many cards of their needed suit are already out on the board. It's almost as though players are in denial about their chances of making a flush. If, for example, you have four cards of a particular suit and you have already seen four more cards of that suit on the board, you only five outs to make your flush. You have to consider that there are at least one or two other cards of the suit in other players hole cards, making your odds of making a flush...not very good.
• Checking dark. There is a strange phenomenon in seven-card poker where players will check on seventh street without looking at their last hole card. This is done to scare your opponent into foregoing a bet on seventh street. It makes not sense to use this play. Think about it. Does it really make sense to act at the poker table without as much information as possible?
  
  Suppose that you are successful in stopping your opponent from betting because you made this check. Now what happens if you look at that card and it was the one that turned your trips or full house into four of a kind? At the minimum, you would have missed a bet, or maybe a raise, or even a capped raise. If you are playing somebody who knows how to play a good game of seven-card stud, he is going to bet anyway, leaving you in a position where you are trying to guess whether he has a better hand than you, or if he bet because you showed weakness.
• Folding too soon. Folding too soon is subjective. It is a fine line between folding too late and too early. Folding on third street is generally too early. Of course, if you have three bad cards, are out of position and have two raises behind you, it is a good idea to fold. If, on the other hand, you make a forced come out bet and everybody calls, then everybody check on the next round, you could luck into a decent hand for relatively little risk.
• Playing a hand with only overcards from early position is very important in poker. The earlier you are to act, the better your cards should be. If you call in early position with only overcards, you will have many other players in the pot with you, most of whom will likely have you beat. If you must play this way, you're better off raising the pot in an attempt to get players with drawing hands to fold.