Winning 7 Stud Play:
Remembering Cards in 7-Card Stud

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

I was chatting with a relatively new Stud player a while back. He was the studious type, trying to read and study as much as he could to improve his game.

He said that he was getting discouraged because, try though he might, he just couldn't keep track of all the cards which had been dealt in a 7-Card Stud game. He had read, in one of the many books he was studying, that to be an excellent Stud player you needed perfect card memory. If you couldn't remember all of the cards which had been dealt, you were giving up something to those who had perfect recall.

He asked me for some help.

Well, I confessed to him, and I'll confess to you that I don't have perfect card recall. Even so, I've been beating the low and mid limit stud games for well over 6 years. I did have some suggestions for him, however, which have helped me remember cards. Perhaps you'll find them useful as well.

First off, you don't need to memorize all of the cards that are dealt. You only need to remember the cards that are folded. The other cards are staring you right in the face. So why worry about them? Just concentrate on the folded cards.

I've found that it is much easier, and more important, to remember the rank of the card rather than the rank and suit of each card. What I do is keep track of the rank of each card as it is folded and then, to make it easier to remember, I rearrange them in order of rank. So, for example, if the 8 of Clubs, the 4 of Diamonds, the 5 of Diamonds, the 2 of Spades and the Queen of Clubs are folded, I say to myself, 8,4,5,2,Queen and then, quickly rearrange them into 2,4,5,8,Queen.

I repeat this to myself over and over again, like a mantra. If, on the next round, a player folds his two up cards, I just add them into the list in order.

Let's say my opponent folds the Jack Clubs and the 6 of Spades. I'll just meld them in and make my mantra 2,4,5,6,8,Jack, Queen. Now, as far as suits are concerned, I don't worry about memorizing the specific number of cards in every suit which have been folded. Instead, I note the number of my suit which are out and if there are many of any other suit. I mention it to myself on the deal, rather than specifically committing it to memory. I find that this is sufficient for me to recall whether few or many of a suit have been played if another player seems to be going for a Flush.

In Stud, unlike what some "experts" may opine, you don't have to have perfect recall. But a solid memory of the rank of the cards which have been folded, and a general recollection of how many of a suit have been played will help you. Focus on that skill and you will gain a useful edge in your 7-Stud game.

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