Seven-Card Stud High-Low-Split

This is how Seven-Card Stud High-Low-Split works, also called High-Low Split 8 Or Better To Qualify For Low.

This is the same as Seven-Card Stud (High Stud). Aces count for either high or low in this variation poker game. Straights and Flushes do not harm the low hand, but can play for a high hand, too.

The player having the lowest card (tie by suit) starts the action. For this function the Ace counts as high. On the following betting rounds, the player with the highest hand acts first. With a tied high hand, the first player to the left (clockwise) of the dealer acts first.

The difference is that at showdown the pot is split between the highest and the lowest hands.

A player generally needs to have an eight or better in order to qualify for low. This means the player's highest low card has to be under nine.

If no player qualifies for a low hand, then the player with the highest hand wins the whole pot.

Another name for this game is Stud Eight or Better.

Here with an open pair on fourth street, a player does not have the choice to bet the upper limit.

With an odd chip in this pot (high-low split), the player with the highest hand gets the chip.

If there is a tie between two players for both the high and low hand, then the player with the highest card by suit gets the odd chip. To decide this, all seven cards are used here.

If there is an odd chip in the high cut of the pot and two players tie for splitting that half of the pot, the player with the highest card by suit gets the chip.

If two players tie for splitting the low cut (the other half) of the pot, the player with the lowest card by suit gets the chip.

In a high-low-split poker game, winning both the high and low pot is called "Scooping the pot" or "Hogging the pot".

The perfect poker hand a player can get in this kind of a game is 5-4-3-2-Ace of the same suit, called a "Steel Wheel". The hand plays as a Perfect Low, but also as a Straight Flush High. You can still lose money having this kind of a hand.

Example:

You have a "Steel Wheel".
Player B has a "Wheel", not a "Flush" (same suit).
Player C has a Q-J-10-9-8 from the same suit, a higher "Straight Flush" than your "Steel Wheel".
Player C wins the high end split (half) of the pot, and
player B and you have to split the low end of the pot.

So you only won one fourth of the entire pot. This is very, very unlikely, but it can happen.