7 stud: Hidden cards: Stars or Full Tilt

[Pentahouve]

I've been learning stud at Poker Stars. Today I was on Full Tilt and, as there weren't any decent tables free for Limit HE at my level, I thought I'd try and clear some of the $75 bonus FT have given me by playing stud.

I'm only playing 4c/8c on Stars but felt I could try the 25c/50c and if it went horribly wrong I could put it down to experience. Things were going OK when I was dealt JJJ which held up against 2 players at showdown. I was checking the hand history to see what they'd been playing when I saw that my hidden cards were jumbled. I asked about it and was told this was how they do it at FT.

As I'm only starting out I decided that I need as much info on my opponents as possible until I start getting a better feel for the game, so I decided to leave the table. What are people's thoughts on the 2 sites' Hand Histories for stud? The player who spoke to me said it could get funny when someone exploded at someone for sucking out when they'd actually hit their hand early on and said it kept your play disguised, the latter being the advantage to balance the disadvantage concerning your opponents hidden cards. How are the cards exposed in a live game? I got the impression from the little bit of stud I've seen on ESPN that the cards are shown in the order they're dealt.

Which do you prefer and why?

[niin]

In live games, it's often difficult to tell the order of the down cards, since on the river, some people will pick up all three of their down cards before turning them over.

I personally would rather see the order of the cards in the hand history.

[chillrob]

I think most online sites jumble the stud down cards, not only in the hand history, but in an open showdown. It can be confusing if you're not used to it, but it really is fair as you can jumble them when playing live and a lot of live players do that. I can't recall now if Stars jumbles or not though.

Rob