Stud8 Qualifier?

[Al Mirpuri]

When did Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo start being played with a qualifier? What was the point of the qualifier? Has anyone played Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo with a qualifier for the high end as well? What is the point of that?

[Runner Runner]

The qualifier is used to promote action. Without the qualifier the low hands have too much of a freeroll against the high hands and high hands become unplayable. There is no need for a qualifier for the high hands though as they are already at a disadvantage. This same qualifier is used in Omaha hi-low 8 or better for the same reason.

[Cooling Heels]

I've played stud/8 at the Palms in Vegas where there is a two pair
qualifier for high in addition to the 8 qualifier for low. Lows occasionally scooped pots, but usually the low starting hands bet it up, and nobody
played one way high hands; the high hands were lows that backed into st8's, flushes, or two pair. Another difference is that the high board card
brings it in, unlike the more common low card bring-in.

In my mind, high starting hands are nearly unplayable with a high qualifier, the exception being rolled up or two aces with a baby. There is a $1 ante in the game,
so you can raise it up with a big pair against the right opponent door cards, but how often does that situation occur? The game is very aggressive, unlike the Canterbury 4/8 game stud/8 where nobody jams until 6th or the
river, if then. I doubt the high qualifier causes the aggressive play, most likely that's the style of the regular players there and they would raise it up
without a high qualifier. Not a game for the timid.

[Andy B]

As for when they started using the Eight-or-better qualifier, I don't know. Super/System discusses the game without the qualifier, and Ray's book discusses the game with, so it was somewhere between 1978 and 1988, I think.

The purpose of the qualifier is to give the live ones a chance. In the no-qualifier game, big pairs are completely unplayable, but the live ones would play them all the time. They had absolutely no chance. In stud/8, high pairs have some scoop potential when the low hands bust out, so they become a lot more playable. Most players still lose money with them, but not so quickly and surely as when there is no low qualifier.