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Mexican Stud is five-card stud in which every card is dealt face down and each player chooses which card to turn face up. After four rolls and four betting rounds, each player has four cards showing and one hidden, and the best five-card hand wins.
The game is played with a standard 52-card deck with no jokers, by two to ten players. There are no wild cards unless the dealer announces them before the deal.
Each player ends with five cards, four face up and one face down, and the highest five-card hand under the standard hand rankings wins the pot.
The game follows five-card stud except that players, not the dealer, decide which cards are exposed. This choice is called rolling.
Each player pays an agreed ante before the deal.
The dealer deals two cards face down to each player, one at a time, clockwise from the dealer's left.
Each later card is dealt face down, one to each active player, after the previous betting round ends.
There are four betting rounds. Before each one, every active player holds exactly two face-down cards and turns one of them face up.
| Round | Before the betting | Cards held after the roll |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Two cards dealt face down; each player rolls one | 1 up, 1 down |
| 2 | A third card dealt face down; each player rolls one of their two hidden cards | 2 up, 1 down |
| 3 | A fourth card dealt face down; each player rolls one of their two hidden cards | 3 up, 1 down |
| 4 | A fifth card dealt face down; each player rolls one of their two hidden cards | 4 up, 1 down |
Rolls shall be made either simultaneously on the dealer's signal or one player at a time. The dealer shall announce which before the deal.
The sources do not fix who bets first. The usual practice, as in five-card stud, is that the player with the best exposed cards acts first on each round. The dealer shall announce the method.
The fourth round is the last. There is no further card after it, so each player's remaining face-down card is their hole card for the showdown.
Players still in after the fourth round show their hole cards. The highest five-card hand wins. Identical hands split the pot.
If all but one player folds, the remaining player wins without showing.
Hiding the third seven
A player shows 7♥7♦K♠2♣ and has 7♠ as their hole card.
Their hand is three sevens with king and two kickers. The table could see only a pair of sevens, because the player chose to roll the king and the two and keep a seven hidden.
In five-card stud the dealer deals the up cards face up. In Mexican Stud every card is dealt face down and you choose which one to turn up each round, so you control which card stays hidden.
Four, one after each roll. Each player finishes with four cards face up and one face down.
Where any doubt remains in the application of this document, Rob is right.
Hand rankings, high to low: royal flush · straight flush · four of a kind · full house · flush · straight · three of a kind · two pair · one pair · high card. Suits never break ties.
Mexican Stud Rules · OPR-689 · officialpokerrules.com/mexican-stud/