Mississippi Stud is won or lost on the raise decisions, and the first one — with just your two hole cards, before any community card shows — sets up the whole hand. Get it right and you keep the house edge near its 4.9% floor.
The rule for this first decision is short: raise 3× with any pair, raise 1× with 2 points or more (high cards J–A are 2 points, middle cards 6–10 are 1 point each) or with 6-5 suited, and otherwise fold. Every starting hand below resolves to exactly one of those.
Always a 3× raise.
Same suit — extra flush potential.
Two different suits.