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After last week's look at the basics of Seven Card Stud. We run through some of those vital calculations,

Here is a list of the number of ways all the different ranking hands can be dealt with seven cards:

Straight Flush 41,584

Four of a Kind 224,848

Full House 3,473,184

Flush 4,047,644

Straight 6,180,020

Three of a Kind 6,461,620

Two Pair 31,433,400

One Pair 58,627,800

High Card 23,294,460

There is a massive difference between ways that a four-of-a kind hand and a full house can be dealt with seven cards and there is another large gap between three-of-a-kind and two pair.

You don't want to be playing hands that are far too common and can be easily beaten and you can see the vast differences when you get to two pair and lower.

Of course the chances of catching three of a kind or better depends on how many players are at a table and how many players continue on to later betting rounds.

Here is a list of the odds for flushes and straights:

Four cards to a flush: one in 4.5 or 22%

Double open-ended straight: one in 5 or 20%

Open-ended straight (one end): one in 11 or 9%

Inside Straight: one in 11 or 9%

Double open-ended straight flush: one in 23 or 4%

Open-ended straight flush (one end): one in 46 or 2%

Inside straight flush: one in 46 or 2%

Rolled up with three-of-a-kind: 40% chance of improvement to a full house by the river.

So if you have one card to draw to a flush, your best odds to catch your flush is to have four or five people calling bets.

Straights happen most often at stud Hi/Low tables because there are so many people in the hand at a time, more closely matching the odds needed to catch that particular hand.

Here is a list of the odds for winning hand types:

Two Pair; No Low - 33%

One Pair; Eight Low - 27%

Straight; Seven Low - 23%

Flush; Six Low - 14%

Trips; Wheel - 3%

Full House

You should also note that a pair of Aces with six to eight kicker will take the pot a quarter of the time and if the paired aces catch a low, it will split the pot a third of the time.

Two thirds of the time a pair of Aces with a low draw will be counterfeited on fifth street by trips, a straight or a flush if the hand misses catching it's second pair.

While a wheel (Ace through to five) is likely only 3% of the time, other straights that contain a low for a scoop such as two through to six, three through to seven and four through to eight are amongst the top three winning hands.

In Seven Card Stud you are making a small profit when your statistics show a win percentage of 20% while your showdown win percentage needs to be 50% and above if you are to make a profit.

Angus MacKenzie / Eurosport