What Online Poker Variations Are There?
Poker is an old game that no one is quite sure about the origins of. Some people think it derives from a Persian game called As-Nas, while others believe that the French game of Poque is where its origins lie.
Regardless of how poker came to be though, the game is bigger than ever in the age of digital gaming. The demand for online poker real money games has gone through the roof.
These let people play the game for actual cash while also enjoying the comfort of playing from home or any other convenient location with an internet connection. The actual games they are playing vary a lot though, because poker is really the name for a set of card games rather than just one.
They all have differences and things in common. Read on to find out more about the various versions of poker.
Firstly it should be emphasized that the different poker games all fall into one of three groupings. These are:
- Community Card Poker
- Stud Poker
- Draw Poker
All of the popular poker games that people play online at sites like 888 Poker are part of one of those three groups.
Community Card Poker
By far the most commonly played community card poker game is Texas Hold’em. It is thought to have been invented in Robstown, Texas early in the last century.
As is typical in poker games of that grouping, each player in a Texas Hold’em game will be dealt two concealed cards but there will also be exposed ones in the centre of the poker table called community cards.
In most poker games, the aim is to get the highest value hand – or bluff your opponents into believing that you have it. However, community card poker games like Texas Hold’em let you use your hand of two cards plus the shared ones in the centre to build it.
Hands are made up of five cards in total and bets are placed during the deal. Typical player in-game errors include becoming bored and playing too many pre-flop hands.
Resisting the urge to do that when the face down ‘hole’ cards you are getting are consistently bad will bring better long term results.
Stud Poker
The stud poker group includes several games, including Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud and Razz. Stud poker games are among the oldest, having been played during the US War of Independence in the late 18th century.
One thing that all stud poker variants have in common is that players are dealt both exposed and concealed cards, meaning each player has some idea of what his opponents are holding. The most popular form of stud poker is Seven Card Stud.
This sees every player given one exposed card and two concealed ones. The player who has the worst exposed card must pay the bring-in, following which there is a round of bets.
Then every player gets dealt a further exposed card and more bets are made, with the first bet made by the player with the best exposed cards. Things proceed in the same way for a further three rounds of betting and there may be a showdown between two players with strong hands at the end.
Stud poker games like Seven Card Stud are good versions of it for less experienced players, because the rules are fairly simple.
Draw Poker
Games within this grouping include Five-Card Draw and 2-7 Triple Draw. What marks draw poker games out is that the cards are all dealt face down and each player gets a complete hand of cards before any betting takes place.
They then ‘draw’ further cards from the dealer after that, which gives the grouping its name. Five-Card Draw sees every player given five concealed cards and then bets are placed.
Players can then discard a chosen number of cards and replace them with new ones from the dealer before placing further bets. After this second round of betting there is a showdown between any players left in the game.
2-7 Triple Draw is an unusual form of it in which the goal is to assemble the lowest value hand instead of the highest value one. Again players are dealt five concealed cards and can replace them following betting rounds with new cards drawn from the dealer.
One advantage that draw poker games have over stud and community card ones is that they provide more opportunities for improving your hand. That is because you have several chances to change your cards during the games.
They are less common at online casinos than community card and stud games though.
These are the three forms of poker and the different games that come under each grouping. Favourites are a matter of taste.