POKER GAME VARIATIONS - POKER VARIANTS, LEARN POKER VARIATIONS

Poker has picked up quite a few variations on its way to becoming the dominant card game on the planet. Generally speaking the value of poker hands tends to be pretty consistent throughout most variations of the game, the differences occur in a few families of variations where the rules as to dealing and wagering differ slightly. Building on our range of basic poker information articles we provide you here with a brief explanation of these varieties so as you work your way through our articles you will be building your basic poker proficiency.

The oldest poker variation is 'straight', this is the game that emerged from the various other poker-like games throughout history that we discuss further in our 'Brief History of Poker Pt 1'. The rules of straight poker are simple: Each player is dealt a complete hand, with each player making their bets in one round. Players can raise and re-raise their original wagers and in the case of draws, five card hands are compared. This is thought to be the backbone of the modern game of poker, later variations building on these basic rules in order to create the possibility for more complex play.

Next up we have stud poker. Stud marks a transitional phase where old poker was beginning to adopt certain new additions in order to make it more interesting and competitive. Stud also marks the point at which poker hands started changing from three to five cards. As a result you find that in stud poker the cards are dealt consecutively to each player, one at a time until each player has a total of five (depending on the variety being played). Cards are dealt either face-up or face-down in stud, with a round of wagering between each deal. Seven card stud is probably the most popular stud variety in play today. In this variety players are dealt a total of seven cards, three of which are face-down, the aim as with all poker games is to make the best hand of five cards possible with the hand you were dealt.

Another popular poker variation is draw poker. In this game all hands are dealt in their entirety and are placed face-down. Players must then place their bets and then attempt to improve their hands by discarding card and being dealt other ones.

Now we move on to community poker, Texas hold-em and omaha belonging to this category. Community poker is one of the most recent variations and is probably the most popular form of poker available today. Community poker is simply a variation of stud poker, where there is a communal area of face-up cards on the table that each player may take advantage of in the effort to put together the best possible hand. Players are not dealt a complete hand to begin with and must then use the community cards to assemble their best possible five-card hand.

Finally we reach video poker, a firm favorite among online gamblers that has seen a massive upsurge in interest in the past decade as online gambling has become so prevalent. In video poker, one player pits himself against the computer, the game is like draw poker where bets are paced first, a hand is dealt and then the player has the opportunity to get rid of certain cards and pick up new ones in an effort to make a strong final five-card hand. In video poker the winnings are calculated according to what was initially wagered by the player and the strength of his hand.