An Introduction to Popular Poker Variants
If you are interested in poker, then you must have already read about poker: from its basic rules, to its specific, game-defining mechanics. Perhaps what sparked your interest is what you have seen on TV or on the internet. However, you might be familiar with only one type of poker, and might be surprised when you encounter a variant of this game.
Even though they are called poker variants, the pattern of play remains the same: betting is made before each player's hands are matched (called the "showdown"), and a player wins either by having the best hand ranking or by intimidating all other players to fold.
Nothing can prepare you more for an alien field than familiarity. Thus we will introduce you to three poker variants, which could be considered the most popular.
The first is draw poker. This poker variant may be more common as a house game than as a casino game. In a draw poker, players are dealt face-down a complete hand of five cards before the betting round begins. Each player is then given the chance to improve their hand by discarding and drawing another card on subsequent betting rounds.
The second poker variant is stud poker. Like draw poker, players are dealt a complete hand or even more. What differs is that players could not discard and draw new cards, thus there is no chance to improve one's hand; and also, cards are dealt with a face-down and face-up combination. The face-down cards that are dealt to each player are known as hole cards. The number of betting rounds differs from the sub-variants of stud poker, but usually affects the limit of betting.
The third variant, which is perhaps the most popular, is community card poker. Poker tournaments on TV are examples of Texas Hold'em poker, a community card poker variant.
In community card poker, players are dealt face-down incomplete hands, and form a complete hand by combining their face-down cards with cards dealt face-up at the center of the table. The face-up cards or community cards are called the "board," and are shared by all players engaged in the pot. The sub-variants of community card poker dictate how these community cards are to be used.
For example, in Texas Hold'em poker, two cards are dealt to each player, and any of the five community cards could be used to create a hand. In Omaha Hold'em, however, players are dealt four cards, and are expected to use just two of them in combination with no more than three cards from the five community cards.
As with any other game, familiarity is the key to being a better player. By being familiar with poker variants, one would know what game to play and what strategies will be used to play it. There are several other poker variants, and knowing them would lead you out of being a beginner and into a being a starting professional poker player.