Blind Poker Rules

Blind Stud is a sort of combination of draw poker and stud poker. It’s played with the same rules as normal Seven Card Stud Poker except every card is dealt face down. It combines the structure of Seven Card Stud with the lack of information found in Five Card Draw.

Blind Stud can actually be played with either five cards or seven cards. We’ll explain the rules today for seven cards but if you want to play with five cards, all you do is pass out fewer cards either at the beginning or at the end.

This is an extremely difficult game to play but everyone has to play it with the same limitations. Blind Stud offers even less information than Five Card Draw because in Five Card Draw, you can at least see how many cards your opponents are drawing. In Blind Stud, the only thing you have to go by is how much your opponents are betting.

Antes

Each player must pay an ante at the beginning of each hand. The ante is mandatory but it’s a small bet of just 10% the size of the lower betting limit. So if you are playing in a $5/$10 game, the antes would be $0.50 each round.

Third Street

Each player is dealt three cards face down. One card is dealt at a time, beginning with the player to the left of the dealer and moving clockwise around the table until every player has three cards.

Now a round of betting begins with the player to the left of the dealer. In this first round of betting, this player must pay a bring-in, which is a bet equal to half the lower betting limit.

After the bring-in is paid, that player may raise the bring-in to the full minimum bet amount or leave it as is. The betting then continues clockwise around the table with each player having the option to call, raise, or fold. If any player raises, the other players at the table must match that raise or fold.

Fourth Street

Each player is dealt one card face down and another round of betting begins with the player to the left of the dealer. This player may check, bet, or fold. The betting then continues to the left around the table.

Fifth Street

Each player receives one card face down. There is another round of betting just like the last round. From this point on, all bets must be made using the upper betting limit. So in a $5/$10 game, all bets would be placed in increments of $10.

Sixth Street

Each player receives another card face down. There is another round of betting identical to the previous round.

Seventh Street

Each player is dealt one last card face down. There is one more round of betting just like the previous round.

Showdown

If there is more than one person left in the hand at this point, the players reveal their cards. The players may use any five of their seven cards to create the best possible five card poker hand. The player with the best hand wins the pot.

If there is only one player left at this point, there is no showdown. That player may take the pot without showing his cards.

Optional Rules

Some variants of Blind Stud poker deal only one card at a time and have a betting round after every card is dealt. That creates quite a bit of betting when playing with seven cards so players usually deal the first three cards in one batch. This rule is more commonly found when playing with only five cards per hand.