When to play on the first round. The average winning hand is two kings or two aces. Many pots are won on less (such as ace-high) and many pots require more, as the upcards will reveal; but it is a basic principle to stay only when the odds against making two kings or better are lower than the odds offered by the pot. The following are minimum plays on the first round.

1. Any pair.
2. Ace in the hole; but if another ace is showing, the upcard should be a nine or higher.
3. King in the hole, when no ace is showing. If an ace or another king is showing, the upcard must be jack or queen, and no more than one other player can show a queen or jack (as the case may be).

The great fallacy is in staying on a hole card such as a jack simply because it is high-that is, in the occasional deals when all the original upcards are low. For example, the first upcards in an eight-handed game are 2, 8, 7, 10, 8, 5, 10, 6. You have the seven-up and a jack in the hole. You can "beat the board" but it is a bad play. The odds are 13 to I that another player has you beaten.

Raising in five-card stud. There are two arguments against raising early in a stud game. Once you have raised, you will get only minimum calls from the other players-unless one of them knows he has you beaten and raises back, in which case you are stuck with the odds against you and much of your money in the pot. The second argument against an early raise is that in most stud games the limit is higher on the last card, and if you can only raise once you might as well wait until the raise will win you the most money.