Stud poker is any of a number of poker variants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. Stud games are also typically non-positional games, meaning that the player who bets first on each round may change from round to round (it is usually the player whose face-up cards make the best hand for the game being played). The cards dealt face down to each individual player are called hole cards (which gave rise to the common English expression ace in the hole, which suggests that one has something valuable that is not apparent to others).

Stud poker variants using 3 cards were popular as of the American Revolutionary War. Five-card stud first appeared during the American Civil War, and became very popular. In recent years, Seven-card stud has become more common, both in online casino and in home games. These two games form the basis of most modern stud poker variations.

It is a common convention in stud poker to name the betting rounds after the number of cards each player holds when that betting round begins. So the bet that occurs when each player has three cards is called "third card" or "third street", while the bet that occurs when each player has five cards is "fifth street". The final round, regardless of the number of betting rounds, is commonly called the "river" or simply the "end".

The variations described below assume that you are already familiar with five-card stud and seven-card stud, and with the game play of poker in general.

General variations
Some rule variations can be applied to almost any game, and combinations of these variations can be used to create ad-hoc games. These include roll your own, rollouts, blind stud, and twist rounds.

Any game can also be changed by adding one or more jokers to the deck to act as wild cards, or by designating certain other cards as wild. Some specific common variations include Low hole card wild, in which each player's lowest-ranking downcard (and all other cards of that same rank) are wild in that player's hand only, and Follow the queen, in which each time a Q is dealt face up to anyone, the next face up card (and all others of that rank) become wild. The usual practice in the latter case is that if a second Q appears among the upcards, the previous wild card loses its status to the new one.

Variations can be made by eliminating betting rounds, dealing more than one upcard at a time for one or more rounds. For example, Mississippi stud (see below) is basically seven-card stud with the second betting round removed, and the last card dealt face up instead of face down. Further adding an extra hole card as above makes it Murrumbidgee stud.

Games that mix stud-like rounds with community cards are discussed on the Community card poker page. In general, one can mix upcard rounds with community card rounds in many ways. See in particular Oxford stud on the community card game page.

Specific variants
As mentioned above, seven-card stud is probably the most common form of the game, with most other games being variants of that, although five-card stud is also a basic pattern upon which many variations are built. These games are described on their own page. Most of the games described below started as ad-hoc variants, but they have either become popular enough to have a common name, or else have some unique feature to merit including them here.

Six-card stud
Six-card stud is usually played as identical to seven-card stud, except that the last face-up round is removed (Thus it is two down, three up, one down). It can also be played as 1-4-1, where the first betting round occurs after only two cards are dealt (one down and one up). This latter form more closely resembles five-card stud with an extra downcard.

Eight-or-better high-low stud
Also known as "seven eight" or "stud eight", eight or better is the most common form of high-low split stud. Played as seven-card stud, but the pot is split between the player with the highest hand and the player with the lowest hand (using the ace-to-five low values). An 8-high hand or lower is required to win low. Betting takes place as if playing standard high-hand stud; that is, low card pays the bring-in, if any, on the first round, and subsequent rounds start the betting with the highest showing poker hand. The showdown is cards speak, that is, there is no declaration for high and low. Each player may choose a different subset of five cards to play for high and low. For example, a player with A-A-8-6-6-4-3 can play a high hand of A-A-6-6-8, and a low hand of 8-6-4-3-A. A player with K-9-8-7-6-5-4 can play a 9-high straight for his high hand, and 8-7-6-5-4 for low (which is the worst possible qualifying low, but it does qualify). A player with K-9-8-7-7-6-5 can play the 9-high straight for high, but cannot play any low hand, because he cannot make an 8-high or lower. If there is no qualifying low hand, high hand takes the entire pot.

High-low stud, no qualifier
Another form of high-low split stud is played under the same rules as stud-8 with one major exception—there is no qualifier required for the low half of the pot. Often referred to as Q, it is much less common than stud-8, and is generally played at higher Limits.