Seeing a Lot of Cards for a Little Amount of Money

Although all decisions are important at all times in poker, those moments when you can see multiple cards for the least money are particularly important, because you can get out of a hand relatively inexpensively at these times. In stud, you see the "most cards for the least money" on your first three cards (three cards for one betting round). In hold'em, you see the "most cards for the least money" after the flop (five cards for one betting round), although the moment when you see two cards for free (pre-flop) is extremely important also. If you make good decisions about calling, raising, or folding at these times, you will have a better than average chance of winning.

The last big difference between hold'em and stud is that the final card in stud is dealt face down, instead of face-up. The game thus goes:
First round: two cards face down and one up. Second round: one card up. Third round: one card up. Fourth round: one card up. Fifth round: one card down.

With these preliminaries out of the way, let's take a look at a hypothetical hand. Each player's face down cards (his "hole cards") are grayed. So, for example,


means that this player has the Six of hearts and the Seven of hearts in the hole, and the Eight of spades face up.