The Different Kinds of Poker

Here are the major kinds of poker along with their rules. If this isn’t your first time at a gambling website, you should not be surprised that each game represented at top rated online casinos comes with tons of rule variations.

Texas Hold’em

Learning the basic rules of poker is actually quite easy, most of all when it comes to Texas Hold’em. Almost every version is played with 52-card decks of two to ten players. The game begins with two players setting up blinds. Then, two face-down cards are given to each table player, known as pocket or hole cards. When betting pre-flop, the player seated right next to the bigger blind bets first and has the choice to stay or quit. If he wants to stay, he has to call or raise the bigger blind. If no raises or re-raises are made pre-flop, the bigger blind can check, call, or re-raise. Betting rounds end after every player places an equal amount into the pot.

During the flop, three face-up community cards will be placed onto the table and a new round of betting occurs, followed by the turn and the river, where two more community cards come into play. After each card deal, a betting round occurs. All of the table’s face-up community cards can then be put to use by players to make up the best poker hand. The player who has the highest hand will win the pot. If there is a tie, the pot will be divided equally.
No-limit Texas Hold’em is the most common version of poker nowadays. Unlike with other games, players can bet as high as they want, no matter when. Even all-in can be found within this game, where players can bet every chip they have. Naturally, it would not be safe to play no-limit Texas Hold’em until you are very experienced in the game; otherwise you will not be able to win big.

Omaha

If you are already familiar with basic Hold’em rules, Omaha should be easy for you since their poker variation rules tend to be quite similar. Games of Omaha are played through betting rounds of the pre-flop, the flop, the turn and the river. During the showdown, cards will be revealed and pots will be awarded. The main difference that comes with Omaha would be that in place of having two hole cards, players will get four face-down cards, although they can only use two of them to make up their final five-card hand. Plus, only three community cards are shown within each hand.

Seven-Card Stud

Seven-Card Stud begins with posting antes. Then, every player will get three cards, of which one is face-up and two are face-down. The second deal includes a face-up card followed by a round of betting. This will then be repeated twice until the seventh face-down card gets dealt, resulting in four face-up and three face-down cards for the entire game, out of which any seven or five cards can be used for the final poker hand.

Caribbean Stud Poker

Within this game, players compete with the hand of the dealer. The gaming action Pokerstars casino begins with placing ante bets before players are given five cards face-down. The dealer also gets five cards, although one is face-up, so that players can check their chances and decide whether they want to give up their hand or keep playing. To keep playing, players have to bet equal to the actual ante. In order to win, a player’s hand has to beat that of the dealer, provided the dealer holds a King, Ace, or higher. If not, the player gets paid evenly and the raise will be returned. Upon getting a royal flush, players will get awarded with a progressive jackpot.

Other Games

Tri-Card poker is played with hands of three cards; Lei it Ride is a stud poker variation with two community cards and three hole or pocket cards; two-hand Pai Gow is the American version of a Chinese game. Several games can be played in variations of Hi/Lo, which means that the weakest and strongest hands win, dividing the pot between two players. Several players find this variation a bit hard, though, since they get confused regarding low and high hands.