Mississippi Stud Poker Strategy

 

Developed by Scientific Games, Mississippi stud has become a fairly popular table game. It may not carry the same prestige as blackjack or roulette, but it still manages to find a place on many gambling floors.

  1. Rules Of Mississippi Stud Poker Strategy
  2. Mississippi Stud Poker Strategy
  3. Mississippi Stud Poker Strategy

Almost everybody who plays Mississippi stud does so without an advantage. In fact, the vast majority of players don’t even realize that this game can offer an edge.

However, Mississippi stud is one of the best games for advantage players (APs). It can offer over a 50% edge with the right strategy.

This guide discusses the basics of Mississippi stud along with how you can beat it through hole carding. It also covers how to gain over a 50% advantage on the house.

  1. In any game where strategy makes a difference, there are fine points and there are players who struggle with small differences. One such game is Mississippi Stud Poker, in which players must ante to start, then may raise by betting one to three times their ante after seeing their first two cards, again after seeing the first of three community cards and a third time after the second community.
  2. Mississippi Stud Poker Odds and Strategy Advice Mississippi Stud Poker is an online casino game based on poker that’s similar to Let It Ride Poker played in reverse. Instead of decreasing the size of your wager as the game goes on, in Mississippi Stud Poker, you get the option of increasing the size of your wager as the game continues.
Mississippi stud poker strategy charts

Basics of Mississippi Stud

Mississippi stud seems like an average poker game on the surface. But beneath the surface lies one of the most-profitable opportunities that gambling has to offer. Assuming you find an inept dealer and spot some hole cards, you stand to gain a minimum 50% advantage.

The objective of Mississippi stud is to form a qualifying hand (jacks or better) using your two cards and three community cards.

The dealer doesn’t receive a hand, unlike with games such as Caribbean stud and three-card poker.

Each round begins with you and other players making an ante bet. The dealer then deals two face-down (hole) cards to each player and three-face-down community cards.

After reviewing your hole cards, you can either fold (forfeits ante) or make the third-street bet (worth 3x the ante). The dealer will turn over the first community card following this round.

You then have the option to fold or place the fourth-street bet. The second community card is flipped over after this round.

Finally, you can either fold or make the fifth-street wager. The third community card is turned over at this point and your hand is evaluated for a potential payout.

Common Mississippi stud pay tables are as follows:

  • Royal flush – 500:1 payout
  • Straight flush – 100:1
  • Four of a kind – 40:1
  • Full house – 10:1
  • Straight – 4:1
  • Three of a kind – 3:1
  • Two pair – 2:1
  • Pair of jacks or better – 1:1
  • All other hands – Loss

You Can Beat Mississippi Stud With Hole Carding

As described above, Mississippi stud features three face-down community cards. Neither you nor any other players are supposed to see these cards in the beginning.

Instead, you’re only supposed to see your two hole cards along with community cards following certain betting rounds. Of course, you must place a bet for each card that you hope to see.

But what if you were able to see these card values before betting? You’d certainly have a lot more information and be able to get a leg up on the house.

Hole carding involves trying to spot face-down card values before they’re flipped over. It’s a rather simple AP technique in theory. Used in any games with hole/face-down cards, hole carding requires you to find a dealer who’s sloppy when removing cards from the shoe or shuffling machine.

Dealers are supposed to be good at removing these cards without giving anybody a chance to see the values. However, some croupiers—whether due to inexperience or just being inept—aren’t great at keeping card values a secret.

These dealers are known as “flashers.” They flash face-down cards and give you a perfect opportunity to win profits.

Your first goal with this endeavor should involve finding a dealer who’s sloppy enough to reveal this information. Doing so can take countless hours, especially when considering that Mississippi stud tables aren’t as prevalent as baccarat or blackjack tables.

Secondly, you have to perfect your technique for spotting face-down cards. You need to sit in a manner that allows you to see community cards without being overly obvious.

The best way to pull this off is by leaning back slightly in what looks like a natural manner. This puts your eyes low enough to the table felt to where you can still see cards.

How Do You Gain a 50% Edge?

Given that Mississippi stud features three community cards, you have three different chances to see a hole card. Of course, you’re not going to see every card in every round no matter how bad the dealer is.

Even the worst croupiers will keep some face-down cards a secret. But if you can see even just one of the cards, you’ll gain a long term advantage.

You also need to know which hands are worth playing. After all, knowledge of the community cards won’t help out much if you’re holding low cards.

Basic Mississippi stud strategy helps out greatly in this regard. You can determine whether it’s worth betting to begin with by judging your hand’s value.

According to Dr. Eliot Jacobson, you’ll gain at least a 50% advantage just by seeing one face-down community card. You’ll enjoy an even larger advantage when identifying two or three of the cards before they’re flipped over.

Outside of rare circumstances, no other casino game allows you to gain this type of advantage. Even blackjack shuffle tracking, which can provide a considerable 5% edge, doesn’t come close.

Challenges to Beating This Game

The thought of winning over $50 in guaranteed profits for every $100 wagered is exciting. However, you also have to deal with the following challenges before making this dream a reality.

Finding a Flasher Is Difficult

Casinos do a great job at training their dealers. They want to ensure that each croupier can deal games in a fast manner without giving away any advantage.

The last thing that the house wants is for an inept dealer to help gamblers win big profits. Therefore, a very small percentage of croupiers accidentally flash card values with any consistency.

You may have to visit dozens of casinos on different shifts before spotting a bad dealer. Even then, you might only have a brief window of time to take advantage before the casino notices that they’re losing serious money.

Mississippi Stud Isn’t Available in Abundance

As mentioned earlier, Mississippi stud isn’t the most-prevalent game throughout the gambling world. While it does retain some popularity, it’s not quite on the level of real money blackjack, baccarat, Caribbean stud, craps, or roulette.

You’re not going to walk into a casino and have 10 Mississippi stud tables to choose from. In most cases, you’ll only have one option.

Of course, casinos have multiple shifts and dealers working these tables. But given the small percentage of flashers, you’ll still struggle to find a game that you can really profit from.

You Must Spot Hole Card Values Without Getting Caught

Mississippi stud hole carding is completely legal. You’re not hiding cards in your sleeve, colluding with a dealer, taking chips off the table, or doing anything else unlawful.

Instead, you’re merely using observational skills to make money. Nevertheless, casinos can kick you out all the same.

Gambling establishments are quite thorough when looking for APs. They like to hold the edge in every situation and don’t want somebody earning consistent profits off them.

Given that they’re private businesses, casinos have the right to kick you out for being an AP. They’re especially be quick to throw you out when you’re obviously leaning in an effort to see hole cards.

Strategy

Should You Still Try Beating Mississippi Stud through Hole Carding?

The biggest drawback to Mississippi stud hole carding is the frustration that you’ll deal with. You’ll find the process of going from casino to casino and table to table to be extremely tedious.

It’s very possible that you’ll give up on hole carding before even finding a dealer that you can take advantage of. Even when you do find a beatable game, you only have so much time to capitalize before the casino realizes what’s happening.

They may not specifically catch you hole carding. But if a casino sees that they’re losing serious money, they’ll looking closer into the matter and retrain or fire the dealer.

Bottom line: you won’t just walk into any random casino and start winning big. You must invest lots of time and effort into the matter.

You’ll also have travel cost wrapped up in this pursuit. After all, your best chances of successfully hole carding are in Las Vegas.

You may consider starting out with an easier AP technique, such as card counting. While counting cards doesn’t offer nearly the same edge as Mississippi stud, it provides a nice introduction to AP.

In the end, you’ll need to decide whether it’s truly worth hole carding in Mississippi stud. This path can result in huge profits, but it isn’t any get-rich-quick scheme.

Conclusion

Mississippi stud seems like an average poker game on the surface. But beneath the surface lies one of the most-profitable opportunities that gambling has to offer.

Assuming you find an inept dealer and spot some hole cards, you stand to gain a minimum 50% advantage. No other common AP method offers this kind of edge—let alone at a minimum.

Of course, you don’t just walk into the casino, throw down your money, and immediately start winning. You instead need to put serious work into the matter beforehand.

Mississippi stud hole carding feels like looking for a needle in a haystack at times. Once you find that needle, though, then you can use it to thread gold.

  • Mississippi Stud is a Poker-based game created by Scientific Games
  • The game was designed to appeal to a younger audience
  • You can play Mississippi Stud Poker online (and more) right on this page

Mississippi Stud is a modern Poker-based card game with an enormous fan-base. That’s because it offers better odds comparing to many other Casino card games.

The game is simple to learn, making it also a popular choice for beginners and players who are new to the world of Casino gambling.

Despite its simplicity, don't trust those who say you'll master the game of Mississippi Stud Poker in five minutes or who promise to make you a winning pro with just one YouTube tutorial.

Mastering some of the technicalities of the game and learning the best strategy to play Mississippi Stud Poker online takes time and dedication.

That's why I decided to create this comprehensive guide to Mississippi Stud where you, as a beginner, can learn everything about this table game.

Play Games of Mississippi Stud Online

Check out the best games of Mississippi Stud Poker online and use the welcome bonus to get started.

Find all the games with the best payouts and use our winning strategy tips to beat the house.

From the strategy to the payouts, from the best games of Mississippi Stud Poker online to the bonuses you can (should?) use to play for free — this article has you covered.

While the game starts with only two cards per player, seasoned Mississippi Stud fans find it very entertaining to play.

Before diving into the ins and outs of the best strategy to play Mississippi Stud Poker, let's cover the basics and learn how to play this exciting Casino Poker game.

Mississippi stud poker strategy charts

Did you know? Mississippi Stud has a theoretical house edge of 4.91 percent. However, it considers only your initial bet at the table. Taking into account three more bets you need to make to win, the practical house edge is as low as 1.37 percent - that beats Roulette, Slots, and many other Poker and card games.

How to Play Mississippi Stud: The Rules

At the start of a game of Mississippi Stud, each player places an 'Ante' bet to receive two cards each.

Rules Of Mississippi Stud Poker Strategy

The cards are placed face down so the players can't see what they've been dealt. The cards will continue to remain hidden until the dealer puts down three more cards, again face down, on the table.

That's when the players need to decide whether they want to continue to play or if they want to fold and quit the hand.

But keep this in mind:

You will need to place three more wagers to complete a single round of Mississippi Stud Poker. And only when you do so, you can get your payout.

Once each player has seen their cards, they have the option to continue playing or fold and leave the hand.

Mississippi Stud Poker Strategy

If the player continues playing, they make a bet within the prime circle labelled as '3rd street'.

3rd street bets can match, double, or triple the value of the Ante wager made earlier.

Once this is done, one of the community cards that has been placed on the table is revealed.

After all the players have seen the hidden cards, they have the option to fold and lose all the bets placed previously, or to continue playing and make one more bet.

Once again, the new bet can be equal to, double, or triple the original Ante bet, regardless of what bet was placed on '3rd street'. This bet goes to the circle labelled ‘4th street’.

After the round of 4th street bets, the dealer reveals the second community card.

Now what?

Once all the players have seen the second community card, they again have the option to quit the game and lose all they have bet so far. OR to place another bet equal to, double or three times their original bet in the circle labelled as ‘5th street’.

At this point, you probably get the gist of it.

The game has now reached a point where the players cannot place any more bets, and the final hidden community card on the table is revealed to the players.

How to Get More Chances to Win at Mississippi Stud: The Deciding Round

The player that has a set of five playing cards and at least a pair of 6s remain in the game.

This player will keep all the bets made throughout the game and will start another game by placing an initial bet.

Players left with Jacks or better will be at an advantage and will win at least even money on their bets.

When it comes to winning this game, there are quite a few Mississippi Stud tips that you can apply to your gameplay to boost your chances at success, which we'll be covering next.

Mississippi Stud Payouts: The Paytable

HandPayout
Royal Flush500 to 1
Straight Flush100 to 1
Four of a Kind40 to 1
Full House10 to 1
Flush6 to 1
Straight4 to 1
Three of a Kind3 to 1
Two Pairs2 to 1
Pair of Jacks or Better1 to 1
Pair of 6s - 10sPush
All otherLoss

Mississippi Stud: the Best Strategy

Now that you're familiar with the basics of the game, there are some strategic points to take into account that can make or break your chances of walking away as a winner when you play Mississippi Stud Poker online.

The Secret to a Winning Mississippi Stud Strategy

Mississippi Stud Poker players will always have three chances to decide if they should move chips from their chip stack or not.

When playing this game, you will always get a chance to look at the two cards you've been dealt before the dealer turns the hidden community cards on the table.

Mississippi Stud Poker Strategy

At this point, you must decide if you want to quit or if you want to make another bet.

In case you have a pair, take advantage of your hand and triple your bet.

If you have high cards (an Ace or a face card), raise your bet once. If you have cards ranging from 6s to 10s but not a pair, you are advised once again to increase your bet once.

Once the player has seen the first community card turned around by the dealer, they should triple their bet if they hold any cards with a continuous sequence, for example, a Flush, or have any pairs of 6s or higher.

Raise your bet only once if you:

  • have a small pair lower than 6's
  • hold at least two cards consisting of a Jack or higher
  • have any cards ranging between 6's and 10's
  • have three card flush
  • hold a pair of consecutive cards that need one more to make a flush

One more important Mississippi Stud basic strategy tip:

If you have none of these combinations, you should fold.

Once you see the second community card, you should only triple your bet if you have a four-card flush or a new combination from the list above.

If you have any other hands, you should either bet once (if you feel particularly confident and you can afford to lose) or fold.

At this point, the ideal hand would have a four-card flush or a pair of Aces.

Rules of mississippi stud poker strategy

Keep in mind that Mississippi Stud Poker works a bit differently compared to single bet games.

The trick of the game is to know how to play with the first two cards handed to you.

Any mistakes made when making the first bets will make the rest of the game more challenging to play.

As always, the best piece of advice as with any Casino game is that you should think carefully about your bets each round and make decisions that are both logical and intuitive.

Mississippi Stud Poker Strategy

Video Tutorial: Learn Mississippi Stud in Under 4 Minutes!

The Best Mississippi Stud Games to Play in 2019

Like all the newest games that make it to the gambling world, it can be hard to find a table to play at your local brick-and-mortar Casino.

That's why I decided to end this guide with a few suggestions to play Mississippi Stud Poker online for free and for real money.

If you want to practice the game and you still have to figure out if you like to play Mississippi Stud Poker, go for the free games.

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