Guide to the Most Popular Poker Variations

Poker, as a game, may be relatively simple to understand and play. Its near unending intricacies lie in the various strategies, which essentially is a battle of wits between opponents. A player’s opponents may vary depending on the type of poker variant he or she prefers to play. Each variant requires its own set of rules to ensure a smooth playing game is achieved.

For the greater part poker variants fall under a traditional classification identifying many of them as stud games, draw games, and community card games mainly due to the manner in which the cards are dealt. Some poker variants can be categorised into one or more of the traditional types or even none of the above so it is important to know and understand the following useful and overlapping categories.

Draw poker games allow players an opportunity to improve their initially dealt hand by discarding undesirable cards and draw replacements from the dealer.

Open poker games commonly known as stud poker refer to games that allow for number of the player’s cards to be dealt face up, it unique set of rules allow several rounds of betting during each deal.

Community card aka shared card games feature cards that are dealt face up to the board or table that are made available for any player to utilise to improve their hand.

Lowball or low poker rules dictate the lowest poker hand to be the winner in contrast to the highest hand as per the norm.

High/low poker features a rule set determining either part of the pot or the complete pot may be won by either, the lowest, or highest poker hand.

Wild poker utilise one and more cards designated as wild which can then be used to represent any other card in order to improve the holder’s hand.

Split poker employs a set of rules that divides the pot between two and more winners according to specified criteria that considers lowest hand, highest hand, highest spade, and others.

Buy poker allow players to pay additional amounts into the pot to enjoy the privilege of a card exchange or extra card.

Pass poker rules offer players the opportunity to trade cards or pass a number of their cards to other players.

Match poker games allow players to stay in the game after failing to win the showdown by paying a penalty, which goes into the following hand’s pot. Penalty values are usually equal to the current pot value.

Mixed poker are a compilation of a number of different poker game types dealt in succession, with either a fixed sequence or chosen by its participants.

Other, allows for games that are not to poker variants, but at times offered as options in a dealer’s choice game.

 

Due to its unique nature, online poker features a couple of categories in addition to those discussed above. The following points and categories each feature a set of rules that require different strategy for a player to be successful at poker, and currently there are literally thousands of different variants of poker. This guide will highlight the specific rules that make-up each of the most popular variants as well as your possible and hand selection and simple strategies to use. However, in the end your level of success will be determined by your ability to make the correct decisions, which in turn will depend on your understanding of the rules pertaining to each variant.

Banker or banking games are currently one of the most popular formats of online poker, where all players individually compete against the banker instead of against each other. In most forms, the banker enjoys a slight advantage over players but this is expected somewhat. However, a number of banking games the banker has no advantage and the payouts reflect the exact chances of winning. In these games the casinos take a slice of the winnings, which is more commonly known as the rake. All online casino gaming variations will fall into one of just four categories namely Addition Games, Comparison Games, Casino Poker Games, and Partition Games.

Casino Poker Games rules require players to form card combinations, similar to poker hands, determining wins and losses on the strength of the player’s hand of cards in comparison to the combination that makes up the banker’s hand. Currently the most popular poker games are Texas Hold‘em, 7 Card Stud, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, and Badugi.

Texas Hold’em is the most popular of all online poker variations and at first glance seemingly simple. However its vast quantity of possible game scenarios quickly brings the game’s very complex nature to the fore front when played at an expert level. Each player receives two hole cards, from which their main aim is to create the best possible five-card hand. To initiate betting the rules require the first two players on the direct left of the button to post a large and a small blind (pre-flop), from this point forward the action occurs on three streets, the flop, turn, and river. The game’s betting rules are determined by whether the game is Pot Limit, Limit, or even No Limit. The rules on Pot Limit allows players to only raise to a maximum limit of the pot i.e. the total value of the bets placed as at that moment. The rules on Limit only allows a player to raise by the value of the game’s big hand. No Limit rules allow players to raise by the amount of your chip stack, which is referred to going all in. The Flop comes after the completion of the first round when the dealer sets out three community cards to start a new hand. The “turn” is when the dealer draws and sets out the fourth community card to kick-off the next betting round. The “river” is when the dealer sets out the fifth community card prior to the commencement of the final betting round. During each round of betting players will have an option to either, fold, bet, or raise, and to “check” simply passes the action to the next player in the hand. At the end of the final betting round all remaining players will face-off in a showdown by exposing their cards where after the dealer determines the winning hand.

Omaha is a Texas Hold’em variant, where players receive four instead of two hole cards from a regular deck containing 52 standard playing cards, shuffled between each hand. The format features either a Limit or a Pot Limit, with the two most frequent spread variations being Omaha 8-or-better and Omaha Hi. Players receive four hole cards at the initial deal with firstly a small blind, then a big blind, as well as a single round of betting. Omaha Hi is quite comparable to Hold’em since the player with the best hand takes the pot. Omaha 8-or-better in contrast splits a jackpot between the best low and best high hands. Qualifying low hands consist of five dissimilar cards valued eight or lower. Its wider range of potential winning hands compared to Texas Hold‘em going to make the game more competitive. During its end showdown the best five card hand containing three cards from the community board and two hole cards wins, dissimilar to hold them players may not utilise more than three board cards, while blinds and betting remained the same as in Hold’em.

Razz is a variant of Ace to Five Lowball utilising the format the same as 7 Card Stud. The game focuses on creating the best possible five card low hand of the seven dealt cards. The difference between Razz and Omaha Hi/Lo 7 or Card Stud Hi/Lo is the lack of a 8-or-better requirement in order to win its jackpot. The anti-require players to buy in with a minimal amount dependent on each game, which then serves the cost of the hand deal, each table’s title bar displays it’s value. Players holding lowest value card or the best Razz hand start the betting round action. Players still in the hand at the completion of the final betting round enter its showdown.

Due to all poker game similarities, once players have a grasp of the fundamental basics in poker it will be far easier for them to understand any poker game despite the numerous varieties of poker.