VARIATIONS IN POKER

Poker has a very rich history and it’s a centuries old game. With time and advancements many changes, variations and modifications are added to the original game of poker. Despite these variations, the basic pattern of the game is same and it follows the same hand ranking hierarchy.

There are primarily four families of variants, which are grouped by the protocol of betting and card dealing.

Basic ones are listed as under:

STRAIGHT

Straight is considered the oldest in the poker family, and is evolved from the game Primero, was one considered very popular gentleman’s game at the time of the American Revolutionary War, and is still played in Europe as three-card brag.

A complete hand is dealt to each player, and all players bet in one round (raising and re-raising of bet is allowed). In Straight, hand of 5 cards is mostly the final showdown, however, poker is always played in a complicated form to allow additional strategy to come into play.

STUD POKER

Next oldest family is believed to be stud poker, in which cards are distributed in a prearranged combination of face-down and face-up rounds, (with or without the round of betting following each). They are played with one card at a time that can either be face up or face down.

The most popular stud variant today, seven-card stud, that deals with the provision of two extra cards to each player (three face-down, four face-up) from which they must make the best possible 5-card hand.

DRAW POKER

In draw poker, a full hand is distributed to each play solid poker player (face-down), and then players are allowed to place their bets, and then cards can be changed in an attempt to improve the cards and discarding unwanted cards.

Most common variation of this family is Five-card draw.

COMMUNITY CARD POKER

Community card poker is also known as flop poker. In this game a 5 card hand is to be made out of face up community cards that are placed in center after the distribution of incomplete hand of face down cards

Texas hold-em and Omaha are two well-known variants of the community card family.

POKER LIKE GAMES:

There are some games that use the poker strategy, however they are not actually poker. There are many instances. We are listing a few` below.

This is electronic era, and everything is now available on personal computers. Video-poker is a single player game, which works like a slot-machine in casino. Most of these machines play draw. In video poker, the player bets, and one hand is dealt, but player can discard or replace cards. In Video-poker, payout depends on the hand after the draw and the bet of player.

Strip poker is another variation. As the name suggests, in this game, players remove clothing when they lose bets. It can be played with any form of poker but normally played with five card draw.

Acey-Deucey or Red Dog poker is another name that is different from the trivial poker and is very similar to Blackjack in layout and betting. Each player bets against the house, and play with two cards. For him to win, the third card dealt (bet can be raised or not depending upon individuals choice) must have a value in between the first two. Other poker-like games played at casinos include three card poker and paigow poker