[AlanBostick]

I've read through this thread, and while there are valuable suggestions scattered throughout, I think the responses are overlooking an important issue.

One of the chief features of seven-card stud, in my opinion, is the opportunity it presents for reading opponents' hands. The five betting rounds present a kind of narrative of the development of players' hands. Skilled players understand these narratives and use them to guide the play of their own hands.

Now here we have a table full of loose players and one loose cannon. The loose cannon is playing -- and raising on third street -- every hand, and if our hero reraises as an attempt to isolate, the other players stick around for the ride.

The problem here is that the loose cannon can be playing anything and that the loose chasers, too, can be playing almost anything. The opening of the narrative is no longer something like "In the beginning, there was a split pair of tens," but instead "Once upon a time, there was a guy who had two random hole cards with the ten of diamonds up."

It's a lot harder to read, and to play against, a hand based on random starters than it is against a player whose play makes sense. And competent stud players' play has a solid basis on making those reads.

In a game like the one stonekiller2 describes, an important part of your usual edge has gone away.

This can be an argument for game selection: stick to games where your edge is best. But you can also have a significant edge over the other players in this game by means of other basic stud skills: starting-hand selection; awareness of the liveness of the cards one needs, and so on. Often it's going to come down to playing your own hand and regarding the other hands strictly as information about dead cards and betting order.

Another thing to remember is that when most pots are multiway, every hand is a drawing hand. That pair of aces with a suited king kicker may well be the very best hand on third street, but unless it catches a second pair or improves in some other way, the guy in seat two wearing the green fright wig, white greasepaint and bulbous red rubber nose is going to beat you with his fives and threes.

The point here is that you need to play better, more live draws than your opponents. And remember that, in a 1-5 game with no double bet on later streets, implied odds are cut, just as Lin Sherman points out, and your investment in the pot is front-loaded when the loose cannon raises and reraises. Your draw to aces up or trip aces with an (As Ah) Kh starter is a lot better than Clueless the Clown's (or even Patrick DiCaprio's) rainbow (4 5) 3

Games like this are extremely beatable, but they involve bigger swings than tighter or more passive games. You need to be prepared to take that heat, and you need to be prepared to trade off the fact that good starters will win far less often against the much larger pots you drag when they do win.