Q: With the popularity of televised Texas hold 'em poker, it
seems that most card rooms in Vegas that I have visited are
ignoring the other types of games. Although they list that
they spread other games, usually there are no tables open
when I arrive. Could you tell me what card rooms consistently
spread 7-card stud?
http://tinyurl.com/jsbv2
I was very disappointed by the LVA answer to the question, which was probably not answered by someone who actually played poker in the casinos. They suggested that the difficulty in finding 7 card stud games was due to the widespread popularity of no-limit Hold'em due to the television broadcasts. In fact, this very question (excluding the suggestion that TV was the cause of the problem) could have been asked 7 years ago before the poker explosion. The fact is that 7 card stud has not always been a popular cardroom game, while it was a staple of many home games.
The most popular games in most cardrooms were Texas Hold'em, where 7 card stud could generally be found only at the lowest or highest limits (and at the high limits, usually in some mixed game). Even Omaha (both hi and hi-low) was more popular than 7 card stud. The exception for a while was on the east coast, where 7 card stud was the dominant game for a while when they started spreading poker, but even there Hold'em was pushing it out after a few years.
Hold'em is a better game for a cardroom to run, it accomodates more players at the table, and it plays faster than 7 card stud. It's also easier for players to deal with fewer cards, both in handling and in seeing - you only have to see to the middle of the table to see the board cards, you don't have to see across the table to see your opponent's cards. Now that didn't mean you couldn't find a stud game, but it was rare to find one that wasn't at the extremes of the limits.
In fact, with the current explosion of poker, there is probably more 7 card stud being played than ever before, it's just lost in the sea of Texas Hold'em games.
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