7 Card Stud Hi-Lo

7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, also known as eights or better, is a split pot game that can be played with as little as 2 players and no more than 8 players.  As in the rules of 7 Card Stud, each player is dealt from a 52 standard deck 7 cards, 3 face up and 4 face down.  

The object of the game is for a player to make his or her best 5 card high and low hand by using any combination of their 7 cards.   The player who achieves the best high hand will win half the pot, and the player with the best low hand will win the other half.  If, however, no other qualifying hand exists, the player with the best high hand will win the whole pot.  Although rare, it is also possible for a single player to win both the low and high hand.  This is known as “scooping the pot”, because this player will receive all of the winnings.

In order for a player to have a qualifying low hand, he or she must have a hand rank that is in a sequence of cards such as a straight or a flush that cannot exceed 8.  That means that no pairs count within a low hand.  Therefore, the lowest possible hand that a player can have consists of A-2-3-4-5, and the highest low hand is 4-5-6-7-8.

Other than these slight differences, the rest of 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo, follows the same guidelines that are listed above in the 7 Card Stud Poker Rules section.