Oxford Stud is a cool variant of Poker combining two game plays in one. This is because Oxford Stud plays like stud poker with community cards. If you want to add Oxford Stud in your poker game bank, we will discuss how the game is played here.
Rules of Oxford Stud
• As mentioned above, the game play is a combination of stud and community cards. Thus, players will have hole cards, individuals face up cards and community cards to play with.
• Players will have 2 hole cards, 2 individual face up cards and play the three community cards.
• This game can be played with or without ante. In this case, we will assume there is an ante of 1 chip from each player.
• There is a bring it in bet coming from the player with the lowest face up card in the first round. The lowest face up card is called the door card.
• There will be four betting rounds in Oxford Stud.
• The best 5-card hand made from the 7 cards available to each player wins the pot.
• Oxford Stud can be played High or Low.
How to Play Oxford Stud
1. Dealer shuffles the cards. If he is playing, he will have to ask the player to his left to cut the deck somewhere in the middle. If he is not playing, then there is no problem if he cuts the deck himself.
2. Each player will post the ante before the dealer draws the cards to the players.
3. After posting the ante, the dealer will now deal three cards to each player starting from the player seated on his left. The three cards to be dealt will be 2 face down cards and 1 face up card.
4. The lowest face up card will determine the player to post the bring it in bet. The lowest face up card is called the door card. It is called the door card because this card that will open the door for betting.
5. After the bring it in bet is paid, the player on the left of the bring it in bettor will make his action either to call, raise or fold. Please note that this player cannot check because of the bring it in bet. Checking however is possible on the second round before any bet is posted for that round.
6. After the first betting round, the dealer will draw two community cards. This is going to be followed by a betting round starting from the player with the highest partial hand combining the face up card and the community cards.
7. After the second betting round, the dealer will draw the second individual face up card. This is again followed by the third betting round starting from the player with the highest partial hand showing on the table.
8. The third community card will now be dealt, followed by the fourth betting round.
9. The showdown will happen when there are two of more players active in the field. The best 5-card hand made from the 7 cards available to each player wins the pot.
This is how Oxford Stud is played. Please note that this game can be played with high and low variation. It is best to try playing both variations to understand the game play better.
Next, we will discuss another cool draw poker variation called the Countdown.
