Are you looking to try your hand at poker? If so, you may want to consider learning more about the game. The good news is that poker has come a long way from its humble beginnings—and today’s games can offer some pretty exciting opportunities. Find out the basics about Texas Hold’em, Omaha and other variations.
The card game of poker was born in the United States during the late 19th century. Over time, poker evolved into several distinct variants. Today, there are four main types of poker: cash table poker, ring poker, video poker and Internet poker. Each variant offers unique rules, but they all share similar strategies.
Poker variants vary by the number of players, betting structure and pay-outs odds. Typically, each player receives two cards face down and three face up. In cash tables, each round of play ends after every player has received a full house or better. In ring games, rounds continue until someone wins a pot worth twice their stack of chips.
Different Types of Poker
1. Texas Hold’em Poker
The most popular form of poker is also one of the oldest. Texas hold ’em is played using 52-card decks. It’s a no-limit table game with two phases of betting. After the first betting round, players place their bets on whether they will take any further action (called “calling” their bet) or fold and forfeit those actions for this hand (called “folding”). Once betting begins, both opponents must show their hands. If neither opponent shows his hand, then the dealer flips over the hidden community cards. If the dealer reveals an unsuitable pair, the player who called last gets to see what would have happened if he had folded instead.
2. Seven Card Stud Poker
Seven Card Stud is a variation of stud poker where five cards per hand are dealt face down and two face up. Players pay $5 to ante before playing and are dealt seven cards face down from a deck of 25 cards. At the end of the betting phase, the remaining 15 cards are turned face up and the highest ranking 5 cards are used as the starting hand. This version is known as lowball because it allows the lowest-ranked players to win pots.
3. Five Card Draw Poker
Five Card draw poker is usually played with a standard 52-card deck. To begin the betting round, all players check their hole cards. They may either raise the previous bet or call the next player’s bet. Any player who holds four of a kind is paid off before being required to show down against the other players. Lowball versions of this game allow the lowest hand to be declared the winner.
4. Three-Card Poker
Three Card Poker consists of 3 separate hands. There is no betting structure; each player simply places a wager and the three blinds are revealed. The player to the left of the dealer plays first, followed by the player to the right of the dealer, and finally the dealer himself. The dealer deals three cards face-up to each player and the others receive three face-down cards. A player holding a royal flush pays off at 100 to 1 odds. A player holding three of a kind collects at 50 to 1. A player holding a straight pays out at 20 to 1. For other winning combinations, payouts follow suit.
5. One Card Omaha
This is a relatively new variant of poker that uses only one card to determine your final standing. The object is to get the best possible hand based on the value of the single card you’re dealt. Each player starts with a set amount of money which he can use to buy more chips at the table. When it comes time for a player to make a betting decision, he looks at his one card and decides how much to bet based on its rank relative to the rest of the field. He keeps track of his best possible hand in his head throughout the entire hand. When the betting round is complete, each player lays his cards down face up on the table in front of him to reveal his hand.
6. Deuce to Seven Triple Draw
This is a deuce to eight triple-draw variations of poker. In this variation, each player is dealt a total of twelve cards (six pairs and six singles). The first player to hit a Royal Flush wins the pot. If there is a tie between two or more players then the person who has the highest ranking 2-card combo wins the pot. If the number of ties remains even after that, then the player with the highest ranking 3-card combination wins the pot. If one player has more 2 card combos than another, then the higher hand wins automatically without having to beat out the lower hand. If they are tied, then the higher hand must beat out the lower hand through an additional series of straights and flushes.