Wall Street Rules

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Wall Street is a 7-Card Stud variation in which players have the chance to ‘buy’ cards from the board of community cards instead of being dealt cards. Players must make their hand from five of the seven cards they will eventually be dealt (four face-up and three face-down).

The final pot is shared between high and low hands.

Low Hands A low hand meeting certain requirements wins half of the pot (otherwise the highest hand wins the entire pot). A qualifying low hand: must contain five cards of 8 or lower (counting aces as 1) must not contain a pair does not rank as a straight or flush for low hand purposes The winning low hand (if there is one) is the one with the lowest high card. If two have the same high card, the second-highest is used to determine the best hand. So [A-2-4-6-8] beats [A-2-4-7-8]. The best possible low hand is [A-2-3-4-5]. Note that this is also a good high hand (a straight), but for low hand purposes, it is a 5-high low hand, not a straight. If you have this hand, you could very easily win the full pot.

The DealEach player is dealt two cards face down and one card face up. Then four cards are dealt to the board, called ‘Wall Street’ plus four cards face up on the table. The leftmost card is marked with a chip.

A round of betting occurs, following the standard poker betting rules (bet/raise/check/fold).

2nd Deal Players receive another face-up card. Players choose to be dealt a card from the deck or to ‘buy’ their card from Wall Street. The ‘price’ for each card is as follows (in multiples of the standard bet amount): First (marked) card – one bet Second card – two bets Third card – three bets Fourth card – four bets

Buying from Wall Street is available whenever the players receive a face-up card (which occurs in the following two stages). Before each stage, Wall Street is ‘restocked’ by the dealer if any cards were bought in the previous round.

Another round of betting takes place.

3rd Deal Players receive another face-up card, and can again choose to buy their card from Wall Street.

Another round of betting takes place.

4th Deal Players receive another face-up card, and can again choose to buy their card from Wall Street.

The dealer now removes the Wall Street cards, then another round of betting takes place.

The Final Card Each player is dealt a face-down card, which completes their seven-card hand.

A round of betting takes place.

Last Betting Round Now players must declare if they are playing for high hand or low hand. Then one final round of betting takes place.

The Showdown The remaining players show their hands, and the winners take their share of the pot.