When the betting is over, players who have not folded reveal their hands in the showdown, and the player with the high hand wins the pot. The most popular form of stud poker in the United States is seven-card stud. It is best played by two to eight persons. Each player is dealt two cards face down, called the hole cards, and one card face up. The players then bet.
Players continue to bet as each new round is dealt.
In the showdown each player selects the best five cards of the seven held. Poker hands are listed here in descending order of value. A royal flush is the ace, king, queen, jack, and 10 of the same suit. A straight flush is any sequence of five cards in the same suit. Four of a kind is any four cards of the same denomination.