Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo No Qualifier

It’s like Stud 8, except the low half has no entrance exam

You know Stud Hi-Lo: seven cards, half the pot to the best high, half to the best low, and the low has to be 8-or-better. This is the original version, with the qualifier removed. Somebody always wins the low half. A ten-low can win it. A king-low can win it. If everybody’s hand is a disaster, a pair can win it.

The other change is who goes first. Stud 8 gives the first move to the best high board. Here, the order of action is copied from Razz: the high card brings it in on third street, and the lowest hand showing acts first on every later street.

30-second cheat sheet

• Antes, no blinds. Two cards down, one up, then three more up, then one last down. Five streets, best five of seven.
• Half the pot goes to the best high. Half goes to the best A-5 low. You pick five cards for each from your seven.
• Low: ace is low, straights and flushes are harmless, pairs hurt. Best low is A-2-3-4-5.
• No qualifier. The low half is always awarded, even for a pair of aces if that’s all anyone has.
• Third street: the highest door card brings it in. K♠ is the automatic bring-in, ace low.
• Later streets: the lowest board acts first.
• Limit: small bet on third and fourth, big bet on fifth, sixth and seventh. No big bet for an open pair on fourth street.

Full rules

The deal

Everyone antes. Two cards face down, one face up. The player showing the highest door card has to post the bring-in, a forced partial bet. Aces are low here, so the king is the highest card. If there’s a tie, suits decide: spades beat hearts, hearts beat diamonds, diamonds beat clubs, so K♠ always brings it in. The bring-in player may instead complete to a full small bet.

Street by street

1. Third street. Bring-in, then action clockwise. Small bet.
2. Fourth street. Everyone still in gets another up card. The player whose up cards make the best (lowest) low acts first, with pairs counting against a board just like in Razz. Small bet. Even if there’s a pair on board, the bet stays small (BARGE is explicit; WSOP imports the Stud 8 rule, which says the same).
3. Fifth street. Another up card, lowest board acts first. Big bet from here.
4. Sixth street. Another up card, lowest board acts first. Big bet.
5. Seventh street. The last card comes down. The lowest board among the four up cards acts first. Big bet. Then showdown. Up to eight can play, with a face-up community card for seventh street if the deck runs out.

Making your two hands

Choose five cards for high and five for low from your seven. They can be the same five or different.

• High: normal poker ranking.
• Low: the ace-to-five ranking, as in Razz. Aces are low. Straights and flushes don’t count against you. Pairs do. Five different ranks always beats a hand with a pair, and you compare from the highest card down, so K-9-4-3-2 beats K-9-5-3-2.

Who wins

There is no qualifier. Both halves are always awarded. One player can win both and scoop. If nobody has five different ranks, the low goes to the best hand with a pair.

Ties and quartering

Ties split the half they’re competing for. If two players tie for low, they get a quarter each, assuming someone else won high. The odd chip in the total pot goes to the high hand. Within a tied half, WSOP and TDA give it to the highest card by suit among the five cards; Robert’s gives a tied low half’s chip to the low card by suit. This page follows the WSOP. You can’t agree to chop a pot a different way: the cards decide.

Rooms disagree

• The name. WSOP and PokerNews: “Stud Hi-Lo Regular”. BARGE and the Resorts World mix list: “Stud High-Low No Qualifier”. Haney: “Stud NQ”. Wikipedia: “Q”.
• Who acts first. WSOP rule 249 and BARGE both say the lowest hand showing acts first, Razz-style. Stud 8 and most online descriptions of generic stud hi-lo let the highest hand go first. I found no source giving a different rule for the no-qualifier game, so this page uses the Razz-style order.
• Odd chip for a tied low half. WSOP and TDA: highest card by suit. Robert’s: lowest card by suit.
• Raise cap. WSOP: bet and four raises. Robert’s, Pagat and PokerNews: bet and three.
• How common it is. Wikipedia says it’s “much less common than stud eight, and is generally played at higher limits.” Haney says it was the original kitchen-table version and is now only in some mixes. The WSOP Dealer’s Choice roster and Resorts World’s mix list both include it.
• “Three Cards Down.” Resorts World’s mix lists “Stud High-Low No Qualifier (Three Cards Down)”. It’s probably a three-hole-card, discard-one version, but I found no article spelling it out. [INFERENCE]

Worked examples

A ten-low wins half

A ten-low wins the low half because nobody needs to qualify

Alice

• High:Two pair, Kings and Queens✓ wins
• Low (A-5, no qualifier):K-Q-9-4-2 low

Bob

• High:Pair of Sixes
• Low (A-5, no qualifier):T-9-7-6-A low✓ wins

Alice takes half · Bob takes half

Alice has kings and queens, the best high. Her best low is K-Q-9-4-2, which is awful. Bob has Ace-Jack-Ten-Nine-Seven-Six-Six and plays T-9-7-6-A for low, ten-high. In Stud 8 that’s no low at all. Here it’s better than Alice’s king-low, so he wins half.

Wheel, but not a scoop

A wheel takes low but a full house takes high

Alice

• High:Five-high straight
• Low (A-5, no qualifier):5-4-3-2-A low✓ wins

Bob

• High:Full house, Queens full of Eights✓ wins
• Low (A-5, no qualifier):Pair of Eights (paired low)

Alice takes half · Bob takes half

Alice has A-2-3-4-5, the best possible low, and a five-high straight. But Bob has queens full of eights, and a full house beats a straight. Alice takes low, Bob takes high.

A pair wins low

A one-pair low beats a two-pair low

Alice

• High:Full house, Kings full of Jacks✓ wins
• Low (A-5, no qualifier):Two pair, Jacks and Fours (paired low)

Bob

• High:Full house, Nines full of Sixes
• Low (A-5, no qualifier):Pair of Sixes (paired low)✓ wins

Alice takes half · Bob takes half

Neither player has five different ranks, so both lows contain a pair. Alice’s best low is two pair, since all she has is kings, jacks and fours. Bob has A-2-6-9 plus another nine, a single pair, so his low wins. Alice’s kings full beats Bob’s nines full for the high half.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Assuming you need an 8-or-better low. You don’t. A pair or a ten-high low wins half if everyone else’s is worse. Haney: a ten-low, a small pair, or even worse “could drag half the pot.”
• Playing it like Stud 8. Haney calls high pairs “mostly unplayable” here: a low card on board scares off opponents, and half the pot goes to the best low no matter what. Even rolled-up trips can be a money loser unless the pot is multiway or you’re showing a low card.
• Expecting the best high to speak first. It’s the lowest board here.
• Forgetting the high bring-in. Hold the king and you’re in for the bring-in, like in Razz.
• Assuming the high hand gets everything when there’s no low. There is always a low, so the low half still gets paid.

Lore and reputation

Haney (Card Player, 2025) calls this “one of the original kitchen table home games.” The eight-or-better qualifier came later “to provide balance and make high hands more playable.” He rates it 3 out of 10 for action, compared with 4 for Stud 8. That’s his opinion, not a fact.

Wikipedia says it’s generally played at higher limits. It has its own page in the WSOP rules, and it’s on the WSOP Dealer’s Choice event roster as “Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo (Regular)”.