Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better in a Nutshell
If you're going to play this game, or even read updates about it, you'd better know the rules for Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better. In the event that you don't, we've done our best to give you a tutorial.
Seven Card Stud 8 of Better, also known as Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, is played with two to eight players. Unlike Texas Hold’em and Omaha, Seven Card Stud 8 or Better is a forced-bet game that features antes instead of blinds. As in regular Seven Card Stud, every player is dealt a total of seven cards over the course of a hand beginning with two hole cards and one up card. A round of betting occurs and then three more cards are placed face up, each followed by a round of betting. The seventh and final card is then dealt facedown to each player, giving him or her three down cards. A final round of betting ensues.
The objective of Seven Card Stud 8 or Better is to make both your best five-card high hand and your best five-card low hand using any combination of the seven cards you are dealt. Do so and you will win a part, if not all, of the pot as the player with the best high hand wins half the pot and the player with the best low hand wins the other half. If you have both, then you win both halves of the pot. If there is no qualifying low hand, the player with the best high hand wins the entire pot.
In order for a low hand to be applicable, there is a qualification—a player must contain five non-paired cards of eight or lower in order to have a low. That means a low hand must be 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 or lower. That's why this game is oftentimes called "8 or better", or simply "Stud 8". Straight and flushes don’t count in a low hand but may be used to make a high hand. The lowest possible hand is 
while the highest possible qualifying low hand is 
. Winning both the high and the low hand, which is ideal, is called "scooping the pot".
Whoever wins the high hand wins half the pot, and whoever wins the low (when there is one) wins the other half. If you win both, you’ve “scooped” the pot. While Omaha Hi/Lo is a split-pot game, but that doesn’t mean things are always split 50/50. If you share the same high or low with more than one player, you could get quartered. For example, if three players are in a hand and one of them has the best high while two share the same low, the two on the low end will only get 25% of the pot, which means they lost money on the hand. Players getting quartered happens often, but they can lose even more if multiple players share the high and low.