Poker is one of the most popular card games in the world, and with the rise of the online casino in recent years, its accessibility has skyrocketed. This game was once primarily played in land based casinos but has now evolved into a massive industry in its own right, with millions of players now competing in cash games and tournaments online.
Something that makes poker interesting to such a vast amount of people is the variety of different variants of the game on offer. Each variant of the game has its own rules and level of complexity.
In this post, we explore some of the most popular poker variants you can find online, looking at where they have come from and how to play them.
Texas Hold’em
Texas Hold’em is by far the most commonly played variant of poker both online and in land based casinos. It is the game that is used in widely known tournaments such as the World Series of Poker (WSoP).
In this variant, each player is dealt two hole cards, which are private, as well as five community cards. These are placed on the table in three stages, the flop, the turn and then the river. The aim is simply to get the best five card hand possible.
This game was introduced in the early 20th century in Texas and later became popular in Las Vegas, the casino capital of the world.
Omaha
Omaha poker has a number of similarities and differences to Texas Hold’em. It is another community card game but the player is dealt four hole cards instead of two. They must use exactly two hole cards, combined with three community cards, to make the best hand possible.
While the exact origins of Omaha are uncertain, this game became popular in the United States in the 1980s and is now a commonly played game in online casinos.
Seven Card Stud
Seven Card Stud actually predates Texas Hold’em in North America and was once the most popular variant of the game. In this version, each player receives seven cards from the deck throughout the game, three are faced down and four are faced up.
This is not a community card game and players must make the best five card hand possible out of the seven cards they are dealt. When Texas Hold’em became popular, this version suffered a decline but is still played a lot in poker rooms and online.
Razz
Razz is a low ball version of Seven Card Stud, which means the objective of the game is to make the lowest ranking hand possible with five of your cards. It follows the same format as Seven Card Stud apart from the aim of ranking lowest.
Aces are always considered low ranking in Razz and both straights and flushes do not count against the player. This game has been popular since the early 1900s and more people have been introduced to it since it began featuring as a mixed format game at the World Series of Poker.
Five Card Draw
If you are looking for a simple poker variant to introduce you to the game of poker, then the Five Card Draw variant may be well worth giving a go. This is the game often played for fun outside of casinos.
Each player is given five cards, all of which are private, and they have opportunities to exchange them in order to improve their hand. This game goes at least as far back as the 19th century and was often played by soldiers in the American Civil War.
Chinese Poker
Chinese poker is a unique game that has lots of differences to the traditional types of poker. It is more about hand arrangements as opposed to betting strategies.
Each player begins with 13 cards and is tasked with arranging them into three different hands. Two of which are five card hands and one of which consists of three cards. This game originated in Asia and became popular in the 20th century in high stakes tournaments there.
Pineapple Poker
This is a less commonly found game online but is a variant of the more popular Texas Hold’em game. Players are instead dealt three hole cards and must choose one to discard after the flop. The rest of the game is the same as Texas Hold’em.
This is a relatively new game that you might like to try at home, it isn’t something that you will likely find being played in the main poker tournaments.
HORSE Poker
HORSE is a high level game for experienced poker players, it consists of five different variations of poker and each round switches to a new game. It became more popular once it was introduced at WSOP in the early 2000s.