If you are in the mood for a variation of seven-card stud, then you are in luck. Mexican Sweat offers you the style of a stud game with the twist of a hand going south quickly for someone.
Mexican Sweat Strategy
As mentioned above, Mexican Sweat is a seven-card stud game. If you are not familiar with what that is, then this guide will answer that question. The top tips for Mexican Sweat are:
- Know the rules
- Understand the odds
- Watch your chip count
Know The Rules
For this game, everyone will be dealt seven cards face down. You are not, under any circumstances, allowed to look at your hand. These cards must all remain face down until it is your turn to flip over one at a time.
Once everyone is dealt seven cards, there will be two cards flipped up on the table. The first card is simply a dummy card for the first player to beat to begin the game.
If it is a 6, then the first player has to have a 7 or better to beat that card. Once beaten, then betting can begin.
Sometimes the first card can make someone run out of all their cards quickly, so watch how the action unfolds. The next card on the table is a dead card. If you or any other player flips this card over, you lose immediately.
The play keeps going on until everyone has either folded, drawn a dead card, or finished in a showdown. The goal is to make the best five cards out of seven.
This game also has some other variations to the rules.
It is recommended that everyone gets on the same page as to when to bet, how many dead cards are being used, and if there are wilds. The beauty of this game is that there are a lot of ways to change the play.
Understand The Odds
The odds for this game are about the same as any other poker game. You are still aiming to make the best five-card hand as possible with the seven you are dealt, even though you have dead cards.
With the inclusion of the dead cards, your hands are ultimately different now than a typical game. You are almost eight percent guaranteed to hit a dead card because four cards are now out of the equation. Technically, one dead card is on the table, and the other three are somewhere out there.
With that being said, the dead cards can mess up a straight, flush, or just about any hand. Since you hope to not have that card in your hand, you are really at the mercy of the cards that were dealt.
Watch Your Chip Count
If you are playing this game with at least seven people, using 49 cards out of 52, you are going to go through a lot of betting rounds. Any seven-card stud game is going to be a slower game, especially Mexican Sweat. So, you need to understand that the betting rounds might take a toll on your chip count.
If you are last to go in the game, you have a lot of poker since you can see what is going on. However, you will definitely pay a lot more money just to even look at your cards.
The point here is to make sure you are comfortable with the betting structure and the style of play. There is no need to bet money that you are not comfortable with losing because this game has the potential to do so if you are not careful.