Play poker with strategy
I will be playing in a multi-game poker tournament in a couple of months, of which one of the games is Canadian Stud, which I have never played or even heard of before, though I understand it is a variant of 5CS. Can someone help me with some strategy?
Answer 1:
I only know of John Scarne who ever came up with this game. It’s your regular Stud, except that a fourflush (and maybe even an outside straight) beats a pair, but is beaten by two pair. Everything else is the same. As a Canadian, I assure you that nobody here plays Stud this way.
Answer 2:
I’ve heard of the game, which I believe also travels with the name “new York stud”. A four flush beats a four straight beats a pair, which is correct in ranking terms I think. It’s an attempt to introduce sequences/flushes into 5cs and it makes a lot of sense in some ways, though if it was taken to its logical conclusion a three-card straight flush would beat a pair (at least) and a 4-str8 flush would beat a full house, since there are only 1610 of them. Can’t help you with strategy though: presumably they are only worth going for if the cards are of sufficient size to make a pair worthwhile if you hit it. If it’s played with limit betting it would be a waste, because 5cs is all about bluff.
Answer 3:
If that is how the game is played, it is also called “soko”, and is regularly played at Casino Ray, Helsinki. The last major tournament there,
www.european-poker.com/tournaments/2000/midnight_sun.htm saw 107 entries with 242 re-buys in the FIM 1,000 ($160) Soko event. This was the largest field for any tournament that week, prize pool FIM 349,000 ($56,000)
