done lots of recent reading on 7CS...........

two things i'm curious about,

does 7CS stud play looser to final card than hold-em?...... i realize it's pretty generic question. limit vs. no-limit on hold-em?

while i read all kinds of different subjects and learned alot, it seems one huge difference is lack of shared cards......... if there are only 2 suited cards with 5 cards on the board in hold-em, there is no flush possibility...... a bit more complex to model, but the same with straights. and you often make an assumption that opponent doesn't have 75 as hole cards. arguably a dangerous assumption

am i right that knowing a flush is possible or not, vs. not knowing that is a big issue in 7CS?

and depending on how cards flow, i don't think the assumption of little chance of opponent having straight is as strong in 7CS...

my interest would be playing 7CS at WSOP....... i'm guessing most WSOP tourneys have reasonably tight players. i.e. players know that loose (passive) play is bad.
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thx in advance...... a bit of a "thinking out loud" post

A few things:

1. The lower limit stud that can be found in CT casinos (1-3, 1-5) are the loosest games you can find anywhere. It isn't uncommon to be 6 or 7 handed to the river. The regular games I'm used to (20-40) the river is usually heads up, sometimes 3 handed, rarely more. In stud there are checkpoints where people usually commit to stay in or fold (if you play on 3rd, you usually stay to see 5th, and if you play past 5th you usually see 7th. Unless an open pair is made on 4th, or cards fall good/bad on 6th, folds on 4th and 6th are less common). I don't have experience with WSOP tourneys, so I couldnt personally speak about those.

2. While it is true that you can usually rule out a straight in HE, in stud it is probably harder to rule out. A player making "plan b" and completing a straight when they were trying to pick up a 2nd pair or trips is common. Ex. Starting with (A5) 5, a player could hang around until until 7th depending on a lot of factors (who is in the hand, live cards, action, not the least of which is catching some unsuspecting straight cards). If they catch a deuce and three on 5th and 6th, they would have a lot of outs going into 7th.

3. A flush is almost always possible. Not taking into account the dead cards, a player needs only two of a suit on their board to make a flush possible. Usually when looking out for a flush you would pay attention to your opponent's door card, but it isn't uncommon for a player to have suited cards in the hole with an offsuit door card and catching flush cards on 5th, 6th, and 7th when their range seems to be a high pair. Ex. (KcQc)Qd looking for a second pair or another Q catches 3c on 5th and 7c on 6th - looking like bricks. in short, you can almost never rule out a flush completely, but think more in terms of ranges of likely hands.

Lastly, stud is a really complex game. I know that I'm stealing this from somewhere but it is a game of high pairs, high cards, and best draws. Totally unlike HE, an additional betting round, position changes, and dead cards make huge differences. It takes some getting used to, but a smart player can do really well in it.