Can you see the problem?

Ed's difficulty is that most of the cards that can improve his hand are not available. He can see one Eight and two Aces in other players' hands, which means there is only one Eight left and only one Ace left.

A pair of Eights, by itself, is unlikely to win the hand, and Ed's chances of improving are very poor. If Ed is the kind of player who looks only at his own cards, he might be very happy with his hand. If he is the kind of player who takes note of what his opponents hold (in other words, a good player), he will understand that his chances of winning are poor.

Frank's hand is also not good. He has no good straight or flush possibilities; even though his three cards could all eventually form part of the same straight, the double gap between the Ace and the Four makes a straight unlikely. Even though Frank holds an Ace, there is only one possible Ace left to help him-and for all he knows, one of his opponents might already have it.

About the best thing Frank can say for his hand is that he doesn't see any Fours or Fives on the board. But small pairs like Fours and Fives almost never win at low-limit seven stud, by themselves. Even if Frank made a pair of each, he could very easily lose to a higher two pair.

Greg's hand looks attractive. Although he is unlikely to catch an Ace to pair his up card, for the same reasons, he opponents aren't likely to have a pair of Aces either. He sees no Queens or Kings on board and so quite reasonably assumes that he has a good chance to pair one or the other-he doesn't know about Bob's pair of Queens in the hole, of course.

Greg even has some small chance of a straight, because his three cards could all fit in a straight. It is only a small chance, because his straight draw is not "open-ended," like Andy's or Chuck's. Their hands could make a straight in either direction (that is, Andy's 6-7-8 could become a 6-7-8-9-10, or a 4-5-6-7-8, or even a 5-6-7-8-9; Chuck has the same three-way possibility), while Greg can only go one way: he specifically needs both a Jack and a Ten. Every extra possibility helps, but the value of Greg's hand lies mainly in the three high cards.

Greg

Frank

Compare Greg's hand to Frank's. Each holds an Ace, and each has the same remote chance of making a straight. But because Greg's cards are high, while Frank's are low, Greg's hand is playable. Frank's is not.

Hal will be forced to open the betting, because his Two of clubs is the lowest possible card, and so he has the option of opening for €1 or €4. He will definitely want to open for the minimum. Even though he has a pair, it is the lowest possible pair, and he can see one of the Sixes that could help him is in Chuck's hand.

Another problem for Hal is that his pair is "split." By that I mean, half of the pair is in the hole, and half of the pair is visible. If Hal catches another Two, people will consider the possibility that he might have three Twos, and be cautious. By comparison, look at Bob's hand. No one would worry much if Bob caught a Queen, but it would give Bob a very powerful hand. So Hal is in the unhappy position of holding a hand that isn't very likely to improve, and even if it does improve, people will be cautious about calling his bets.