What this seven-card stud odds calculator does
Stud has no community cards, so a stud calculator has a different job from a Hold'em one: every player's hand is private, each has a different number of cards at any moment, and the single most important input is the pile of cards you have already seen folded. This calculator takes three to seven cards per player, removes every dead card you give it from the deck, deals the rest at random or enumerates them when the count allows, and scores the best five of seven for everyone.
On sixth street and the river the number is exact: with two cards to come for two players there are 1,560 ways to finish, every one of which is evaluated. On third and fourth street the run-outs are in the millions, so those run Monte Carlo for about a second and a half with the margin of error shown; Run longer tightens it.
Entering a stud hand
Put each live player's cards together in one block, hole cards and upcards in any order, with a space between players: AsAd7c KsKd7h is split aces with a seven against split kings with a seven on third street. Add cards as the streets go by. Up to eight players. Anything you have seen that belongs to nobody still in the hand goes in Dead cards: every folded door card, every upcard of a player who mucked on fourth street, any card accidentally exposed. Cards in a live opponent's hole that you cannot see are left out and dealt at random, which is exactly what they are from your point of view.
Worked examples, computed by this engine
| Match-up | Equity | Method | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rolled-up aces vs kings, third streetAsAd7c vs KsKd7h | 66.30% / 33.70% | Monte Carlo · 6.0M trials | Load → |
| Split aces vs three-flush, third streetAsAd7c vs KhQh9h | 64.36% / 35.64% | Monte Carlo · 6.0M trials | Load → |
| Trips vs four-flush, fourth street9s9d9c2h vs AhKh7h4h | 70.66% / 29.34% | Exact · 141.2M deals | Load → |
| Aces up vs flush draw, sixth streetAsAd7c7hKd2c vs KhQh9h4h8s3d | 81.99% / 18.01% | Exact · 1,560 deals | Load → |
Aces against kings on third street is a two-to-one favourite, not the four-to-one of Hold'em, because four more cards are coming and either hand can make two pair, trips or better. A three-flush on third street is only a 36% dog to a pair of aces, which is why good stud players play them aggressively early and why the dead cards matter: with three of its suit already folded, the same three-flush drops to about 30%. Load the example and type three hearts into Dead cards to see it move.
Rolled-up trips against a four-flush on fourth street is the classic committed spot, and it is exact: 141 million combinations of the remaining six cards, all evaluated, 70.7% for the trips. Aces up against a flush draw on sixth street, one card to come, is the easy one: nine outs from a reduced deck, and the calculator counts them for you.
Why dead cards decide stud
In Hold'em the only cards you ever see are your own and the board. In stud you see up to seven door cards on third street and a steady trickle after that, so by fifth street you often know the location of a third of the deck. A draw to a flush with two of its suit dead is a different hand from one with none dead; a pair of queens with the other two queens folded is a hand that cannot improve to trips. No calculator can know any of this unless you type it in, which is why the Dead cards field is on this page and why the hint above it is not a formality. Enter them and the numbers change; the change is the information.
Reading the results
Equity is your share of the pot over all run-outs. The Hand distribution button shows how each player's seven cards end up: pair, two pair, trips, straight, flush, full house, and how often each of those actually won. It is especially useful for draws in stud, where a hand with a flush draw and a pair has two ways to win that an outs count does not capture.
For eight-or-better the Stud Hi/Lo calculator adds the split pot; for the lowball version there is the Razz calculator, where the same dead-card logic applies with even more force.
Frequently asked questions
Because in stud you see a lot of them. At a full table on third street you see seven other door cards, and by fifth street a couple of folded hands have shown you three or four more. A flush draw with three of its suit already dead is a different hand from one with none dead, and the only way a calculator can know is if you type them in. This one removes every dead card from the deck before dealing.
Hands gets every card in a live player's hand, hole cards and upcards together in any order. Dead cards gets everything you can see that belongs to nobody still in the pot: folded upcards and any card accidentally exposed. Cards in a live opponent's hand that you cannot see are simply left out; they are dealt at random.
On the river, and usually on sixth street, yes: with two cards to come for two players there are about 1,000 ways to finish the hand, all of which are evaluated. Third and fourth street have millions of possible run-outs, so those use Monte Carlo and show the margin of error. Run longer tightens it.
Yes, up to eight hands, which is a full stud table. Each hand can have a different number of known cards, so a three-card hand and a six-card hand can sit in the same calculation.
For each final hand type, how often you end with it and how often that hand type actually won the pot. Making trips 20% of the time is meaningless if they lose to a flush most of the time; the second number tells you that.
