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Gutshot Poker Dictionary – Door Card

This Poker term is formed by commonly used set of words but has two different contexts. We get you ‘Door Card’ this time! In Texas Hold’em and Omaha, the door card is the first card that is visible when dealing the flop. In stud games, Door card is used to describe a player’s upcard on third street (the first betting round). In the initial Stud deal, players are dealt three cards – two face down and one face up card, which is visible to everyone.

The upcard gives clues regarding the strength of a player’s overall holding and is referred to as the door card or simply the door. The door card also determines who acts first in regular Stud games; the player with the lowest ranked door card acts first on third street.

This first up-card definitely has an influence throughout the game. For example, in Stud, the player with the lowest ranked door card “brings in” the action on third street (i.e acts first). In lowball Stud games such as Razz poker, the player with the highest (worst) ranked door card is first to act on third street. It’s also common for players to be referred to by the value of their door card.

How to Use Door Card

• It gives us an idea and strength of our opponent’s holdings. 
• Our door card could also give us clues regarding how our opponent perceives our own hand strength.
• Stronger ranked door cards buy us position on third street.

Since stud games are primarily played as part of a fixed-limit structure, increments of either the small-bet or big-bet are used depending on the street. Ordinarily, the small-bet is used for both third-street and fourth-street. However, there is an exception that occurs in situations where players “pair their door card”. Generally players who pair their door card should be given a lot of respect. The chance that they already have three-of-a-kind is high, and even if this is not the case, they might easily make trips or a full-house by the river. 

To learn more such poker terms from our Poker dictionary, keep reading GutshotMagazine.com

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