top corner

5 Things that Annoy Stud 8 or Better Players

All poker players have things that annoy them about the game. Just as any Texas Hold’em player about the things that annoy them and they can give you a laundry list. However, the same holds true for all games. Today, we will take a look at some of the things that annoy Stud 8 or Better poker players. This applies to both the live and online versions of the poker game.

Dealer’s Trying to Deal a Flop

If you have played Stud 8 or Better, or any Seven Card Stud variant in a live poker setting, you’ve likely had a dealer try and deal a flop in the game. There are a couple of reasons for this. The most common is that the dealer is new to the game and they got confused. You’ll have dealers that will be dealing Stud for the first time in their career, so try and have a little patience.

The other common reason that a flop is dealt is that the dealer was dealing on autopilot. Their mind wasn’t on the game and they are so pre-programmed to deal a flop, they went with comes naturally. Generally, a dealer will be too embarrassed to make the same mistake again. However, if they continue to screw up and deal flops, let a floor know.

Dealers that Pull in the Pot on Obvious Chopping Situations

In many hands, it will be obvious that one player is going high and the other is going low. In these cases, some dealers will leave the bets in front of players after Third Street. This makes it easy to split the pot. All they have to split are the antes and any Third Street bets.

However, you’ll have some dealers that automatically pull in all bets despite the fact it will slow down the game. Sometimes you can convince the dealer to leave bets along, but sometimes they won’t listen. Also, there are some casinos that require that dealers pull in the pot, even on split pot games.

High Players That Back Into Low

Generally, players will start with low starting hands and either back into high or a scooping hand. However, there are some players that do the opposite. They start with a high hand or a junk hand and back into a low or a scooping hand.

While this seems like the same concept but in reverse, it is much more annoying because it generally means that someone played poorly and got lucky. Often, a player that played a junky low hand that gets outdrawn will get mad at someone that also played junk and got lucky.

Staff That Don’t Understand the Rules

Going back to dealers who have never dealt the game before, you’ll occasionally run into floor staff that doesn’t know the rules. For example, you cannot make a double bet on a Fourth Street open pair. Also, opening rules are the same as regular Stud, but some think that it’s the same as Razz.

If you have a staff member that is making improper rulings or dealers that don’t know the rules, ask that someone higher up come and make a ruling. I had to do this many years ago when the floor man made a bad ruling. The floor man? Jack Effel. He had never run a Stud 8 tourney before and thought you could double bet on Fourth. Johnny Groomes was in charge of the tournament series and came over and made the right ruling. We all have to start somewhere, including staff.

Bad Tournament Structures

You can quickly spot a bad tournament structure for a Stud 8 tournament. Generally, the antes will be much lower than is necessary for the bring-in. You’ll see this in lower-quality online poker sites and live poker rooms. Then there is the opposite where the structure is way too fast and the game becomes a complete crap shoot late.

For example, I was once in a tournament where the bets got so high in later levels that the overall chip leader at the final table only had 8 big bets. We ended up chopping six-handed. Poor structures will push dedicated players away, eventually resulting in the poorly structured games being dropped by the venue.

bottom corner