Blind Stud used to be extremely popular in California up until 1985. It’s basically 7-Card Stud played with all the cards dealt face down.

Just about any Stud poker variant can be played blind. The reason for its popularity was a law that ruled every Stud-horse poker game illegal, in the state.

Draw poker was legal though, and that’s what most cardrooms offered their patrons. Because it was played blind, Blind Stud was considered to be a Draw variant itself, so it was considered legal.

That is the exact reason why most poker rooms used to have it, up until all forms of poker were made legal in 1985.

Blind Stud was never popular in home poker games, over which the law had little or no influence. Cardrooms however, did everything they could to make the game more popular, including the invention of all sorts of complicated variants and spin-offs.