Mississippi
Stud Poker

It is a five-card stud poker game played against a paytable rather than against a dealer or other players. You get two hole cards, three community cards are dealt, and you decide three times whether to keep paying to see the next card.

If your final five-card hand is a pair of 6s or better you get paid; anything worse loses everything you wagered.

Before each community card is revealed you must either fold or raise. The raise can be 1x, 2x or 3x your original ante.

Every chip you put out is paid at the same odds as the ante, so a straight with three 3x raises pays 4 to 1 on ten units, not one. That is why the raise decisions matter far more than the ante size.

Count high cards as 2 points (J through A), middle cards as 1 point (6 through 10) and low cards as zero. On your first two cards, raise 3x with any pair — even deuces — raise 1x with two or more points, and fold everything else.

From there, raise 3x with any made paying hand or a big draw, raise 1x to keep a live draw alive, and fold the rest. Correct play never uses the 2x raise.

Yes — the table on this page is free, needs no signup, and uses play money. It also has a built-in strategy trainer that outlines the correct action before you act, so you can practise until the decisions become automatic.

Not in the long run. With perfect play the house edge is 4.91% of your ante, which works out to roughly 1.37% of the total money you put at risk. That is competitive with other table games, but it is still an edge in the house’s favour.

What strategy does buy you is a much smaller loss rate than guessing, and far more hands played per hour of bankroll.