If you haven't played 5-Card Stud before then there's one thing you should know straight away. To get the full experience from the 5-Card Stud it is best played as a Fixed Limit game.
It can still be a great No Limit or Pot Limit game but you will find that many hands will effectively end as soon as a player gets a pair and either moves all-in or bets their opponents out of the pot. That will all but put an end to the idea of somebody getting a straight or a flush and the game loses something as a result.
The game itself adheres to the standard poker hand rankings and is very easy to pick up. You will be dealt five cards and the idea is to make the best five-card hand possible. A Royal Flush is the highest hand and a High Card is the lowest.
The structure of the game means that 5-Card Stud offers players more information than any other form of poker. You are dealt one hole card face down and one upturned and you decide on what you're going to do based on the strength of those two starting cards. The one hole card you dealt face down will be the only card your opponents can't see. The next three cards to be dealt will all be face up and so, if you do get to the river, 80% of your hand will be visible to the rest of the table.
It is clear therefore that the one hidden card is of vital importance to a player's hand and it is from 5-Card Stud Poker that the phrase 'An ace in the hole' originates, to describe an extra asset or some form of hidden strength. If you have an Ace as your hidden hole card and also an Ace showing on your board, you are in an extremely strong position and can keep your opponents on their back foot.
With so much information on display it is up to players to play good, common sense poker. You cannot try to represent a straight or a flush if your upturned cards show it to be impossible and so you must do all that you can to persuade them of other possible hands.
As with 7-Card Stud it is absolutely imperative that players watch which cards are on display, or have already been folded. It is no good trying to represent three of a kind if you have two 10's showing and the other two 10's have already been folded. Your opponents will have already noticed that.
Watch the cards diligently and attentively, push hard when you have a hand (make your opponents pay if they want to improve their hand) and don't be afraid to fold when it is clear from other cards on display that you are beaten and have little chance of making your own hand. This is especially true if you are playing No Limit and are being made to pay heavily to draw to a straight or a flush. Your chases will soon see you losing a lot of chips.