Stud Hi-Low isn't a game you will normally find outside the confines of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Online at Full Tilt or PokerStars, or the World Series of Poker. But, to some this split seven card Stud game which half the pot goes the person with the best non-repeating five cards under eight and best high hand, is a wealth of beginners dropping in to try their chosen game and leave with nothing more then a poker lesson.

Howard "The Professor" Lederer has been known to give a few lessons at the poker table while collecting sizable pots. Courtesy of Full Tilt Poker he recently published an article along its popular "Tips from the Pros" series to show that sometimes calling down with a low to medium strength hand due to the possibilities of splitting the pot.

Here's Howard's article from FullTiltPoker.com if you're looking to widen your poker repertoire "A Calling Hand in Stud Hi-Lo:

In split-pot games, beginners are often cautioned against playing hands that have them drawing to half the pot. But in Seven-card stud Hi/Lo, a situation sometimes arises where drawing with a modest chance at the whole pot and an even smaller chance at half the pot is clearly the correct play.

Say you're playing eight-handed, $4/$8 Stud Hi/Lo, with a $1 ante and a $1 low card bring in. You're dealt 2s-5d-5c and, with the low card showing, you bring it in for $1. It's folded to a player showing a King, who completes to $4. Everyone else folds; you call and head to Fourth Street.

Both you and your opponent pick up a 7. He bets $4 and you call. On Fifth Street, you pick up a Jack and he gets a 4. You have [2s]-[5d]-5c-7h-Jc and your opponent shows [x]-[x]-Kd-7s-4c. At this point, you're pretty convinced that your opponent has a pair of Kings. You look at your hand and see that you don't have much-a low pair and three to a low. You might be tempted to fold if your opponent bets, but that would be a mistake.

The action so far has already created a significant pot. There's $8 in antes, and another $16 from the betting on Third and Fourth Streets. You'll need to call bets of $8 on Fifth and Sixth Street to try to make your hand, so it will cost you $16. If you manage to make two pair and it holds up, you'd win about $50. That's a pretty good price.
The odds here are so compelling that even if you were playing Seven-Card Stud Hi only, you'd have to consider calling your opponent down. You'd have a 30 percent chance of cracking the Kings, which isn't quite enough to justify calling against an over-pair. However, if there was a chance that your opponent was bluffing, then calling would be okay.

However, Stud-Hi/Lo gives you an additional way of getting money out of the pot. You'll go runner-runner to a low often enough so that your pot equity increases to about 37 percent. Those odds are way too good to consider folding.
Stud-Hi/Lo is a complex game that presents players with decisions that they're not going to encounter in Hold 'em or in any other high-only game. If you're looking to improve your Stud-Hi/Lo game, play some hands online, and then try running some computer simulations to see if you're making the best mathematical decisions.

Howard Lederer