Over the years I’ve been amazed to see so many disciplined seven-card stud players lose consistently. With some, the problem is easy to identify. They play very tight, which can win against loose opponents, but they play tight at the wrong times.
Here’s what I mean. These players are very disciplined about the hands they enter pots with. They’re very conservative about risking their money. And that’s fine. But once they’re involved in a pot, they think themselves out of it. How? They consider each subsequent betting round as a bright new opportunity to fold and they use their extra-tight calling criteria all over again. When they do this, they give an aggressive opponent four more chances (betting rounds after the first one) to make them lay down a hand. And if they lay down a hand when the pot is already very large relative to the cost of the call, they’re frequently making a grave mistake.
Sure, you should lay down sometimes late in the action when the pots are large, but not routinely. It’s fine to be selective about pots you enter, but once you’re involved, make sure your opponents don’t bet you out of your money too easily.
