Finding the Wilds in Dirty Schultz Poker

Dirty Schultz Poker is a variant of Stud Poker. The basic rules that define the Stud Poker category are that the player’s cards are individual and unique; with no pool cards in play, and the player may not discard any cards to draw new ones. Dirty Schultz Poker hands consist of seven cards, from which the player must make the best five-card Poker combination, and bet accordingly.

Where Dirty Schultz Poker differs from versions like Follow the Queen or Follow the King, which it closely resembles, is in the way its wild cards are triggered. The number of hole cards and the number of visible cards on each hand is another way in which this version differs from other Stud games.

Outline of Dirty Schultz Play                                                                       

Players place an ante to be dealt in, and each player is dealt two cards face down, and one card face up, AKA Third Street. Players must call, raise or fold, and at the conclusion of the betting round, players are dealt another card face up, or Fourth Street.

The players’ fifth and sixth cards, Fifth Street and Sixth Street, are dealt face up as well, and there are betting rounds between each card. Seventh Street is dealt face down, giving the player three hole cards in total, and the final betting round starts. When all bets are called or folded, the showdown commences.

Turning Pairs into Three of a Kind

During a deal, if the livebetting.nz player gets a natural pair on two of the face up cards, the next card dealt to the player will be wild, so it turns the pair into three of a kind, no matter what its face value. However, if a second natural pair is dealt, the new card becomes wild and the old wild reverts to its original value.

If the seventh card, when turned over, completes a natural pair, then nothing is wild. However, as Seventh Street is a hole card, a player with a hand that appears strong, but will be devalued at the showdown, can use this knowledge for effective bluffing.

Community Card Variation ups the Stakes

There is an intriguing variation of Dirty Schultz Poker that may not impress anyone dealt a face up pair, but will delight the other players. This is the Community Card variant; if a player is dealt a natural pair face up, the next card value dealt to that player becomes wild for the whole table. So if the card following a pair is a deuce, anyone holding a deuce in their hands can use it as a wild card.

There are one or two other versions of Dirty Schultz Poker, but the secret to playing it well, is understanding the power of that final hole card. In the Community Card variation, for instance, opponents can get very confident when wilds suddenly appear in their hands. If the player who triggered the wild is still betting aggressively, however, it could be that their final hole card will complete a pair, and thus cancel all wilds at a stroke.