Poker Rules: Most Popular Game Variants
Poker is a game that combines card dealing and betting rounds. There are many different Poker variants. Texas Hold'em Poker is the most played variant currently.
Before understanding how to play poker, certain concepts are necessary.
What is a hole card in Poker?
A hole card is a face-down card on the table. Only the player who received it can look at it.
What is an exposed card in Poker?
An exposed card is a card visible to everyone during the hand.
What is a private card in Poker?
A private card is a card that belongs to the player who received it. They are the only one who can use it to form their hand.
What is a community card in Poker?
A community card is a card that belongs to all players at the table. Everyone can use it to form their hand.
The differences between Draw Poker, Community Card Poker, and Stud Poker
What is Draw Poker?
In draw poker, all cards are private and face-down (hidden). Each player receives a certain number of cards that only they can see. During each betting round, they can request to change some of these cards or keep them.
Examples of Draw Poker:
- Five Card Draw
- Deuce to Seven or Kansas City lowball is played like draw poker but in low deuce to seven mode.
- Badugi is the only poker game played with four cards, where you need low cards that aren't of the same suit.
What is Community Card Poker?
In community card poker, players receive a certain number of private hole cards (hidden) and other community cards are exposed (visible to all). The goal is to make a hand using these private cards and community cards.
Examples of Community Card Poker:
- Texas Hold'em or Vegas (two private cards, five community cards)
- Omaha (four private cards, five community cards)
- Double Hold'em, or Double Flop Hold'em (two private cards, two sets of five community cards)
- Pineapple and Crazy Pineapple (three private cards, five community cards)
- Courchevel (five private cards, five community cards)
What is Stud Poker?
In Stud games, all cards are private but some are face-down while others are face-up (visible to all).
Examples of Stud Poker:
- Five-card stud or Cincinnati Kid (one down card, four up cards)
- Seven-card stud (two down cards, then four up cards, and a final down card)
- Razz
What are High, Low, and High/Low in Poker?
The goal in Poker is to make a hand from cards according to the variant's rules. A hand can be low or high. For example, the lowest hand in Texas Hold'em would be 23457 without a flush, and the highest hand would be AKQJTs.
In the majority of variants, the highest hand is considered the strongest and wins the pot (High). In some variants, the lowest hand wins the pot (Low) and in other variants, the pot is split between the highest and lowest hands (High/Low)
Limit, Pot Limit, and No Limit: What are the differences?
During a hand, there are betting rounds. These bets can be limited to a fixed amount, limited to the pot size, or have no limits.
Minimum and maximum bets in No Limit Poker
A player can bet as much as they want up to their entire stack in No Limit. If the player doesn't want to check or fold, the minimum bet is one big blind.
Minimum and maximum bets in Pot Limit Poker
A player can bet as much as they want up to the current pot size in Pot Limit. If the player doesn't want to check or fold, the minimum bet is one big blind.
Minimum and maximum bets in Limit Poker
The bet is standardized and therefore fixed in Limit Poker. The player can decide to bet but not the amount of the bet.
| Type | Minimum bet | Maximum bet |
|---|---|---|
| Limit | Standard bet | Standard bet |
| Pot Limit | The big blind (BB) | The pot |
| No Limit | The big blind (BB) | Your entire stack |
Limit Poker is the easiest to analyze mathematically.
No Limit Poker provides the most spectacle to watch because at any moment, a player can go all-in.
What is the minimum raise amount?
The minimum raise is the amount of the previous raise. For the first raise, the minimum is one big blind.
For example: A player opens preflop by raising 2 big blinds (thus betting 3 big blinds). The minimum to raise them is 2 big blinds, so you need to bet 5BB (3BB to call + 2BB raise).
Where can you play these different Poker variants?
Not all variants are played everywhere. Check directly with casinos and poker rooms to find out which variants are available. Some variants of online Poker can be found in France.
What is NLHE?
NLHE stands for No Limit Hold'Em or No Limit Texas Hold'em Poker. Most of the time when people talk about Poker, they're referring to No Limit Texas Hold'em.
Next, you'll discover the possible hand combinations and the hand progression in No-Limit Texas Hold'em Poker (NLHE).
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