Poker is by far the most popular gambling card game in the world. It is actually not accurate enough to refer to Poker in the singular because there are many Poker games that could generally be grouped into community, draw and stud games.

In community games there are cards dealt face up to be used by all the players. The most widespread are Texas Hold’em, (Crazy) Pineapple, Omaha, and Omaha Hi-Lo.

Texas Hold’em has four betting rounds, the dealer (the “button” position) gives each player two cards face down (“hole cards”). The button moves one player to the left (clockwise) after each game. The two players to the left of the button are called the “small blind” and the “big blind”. The blinds must place money in the pot before the first betting round. It starts from the player to the left of the big blind and continues clockwise. After it is over, the dealer flips three new cards face up (the “flop”). The second betting round starts now with the first player still in the game to the left of the dealer and continues clockwise. A fourth card (the “turn”) is flipped then, and this is the third betting round, in which usually the bets are doubled. Then a fifth card (“river”) is flipped for the last betting round.

The goal of Texas Hold’em is for the players to make the best five-card hand out of all the cards – their two cards and the community cards on the table. The hands rank as the following from low to high: highest card in a hand; a pair; two pairs; three cards of a kind; straight (five cards with consecutive values); flush (five cards of the same suit); full house (three cards of a kind and a pair); four cards of a kind; straight flush (a straight and a flush at the same time).

In Pineapple the players receive three hole cards instead of two, but they must discard one of them before they see the flop. In Crazy Pineapple the card is discarded after the second betting round (after they see the flop and bet).

Omaha (or Omaha Hold’em) is similar to Texas Hold’em, the only differences being that four hole cards are dealt instead of two, and the players must use exactly two of their hole cards and three of the community cards to make the hand.

Omaha Hi-Lo (short for High-Low) is the same as Omaha, but it is also a split-pot game – half of the pot goes to the best high hand and half to the best low hand (if available). A low hand must not contain a card higher than an Eight. An Eight Low (worst low hand) for instance is made up of an Eight and four other cards lower than eight. A Five Low (best low hand) is a 5-4-3-2-A hand. If two players have the same high or low hand, each of them gets a quarter of the pot.

Now to draw games, in them the players receive a complete hand before they start to bet. Five-Card Draw Poker is the most popular draw game, generally it has two betting rounds, the players make firstly an “ante” bet to enter a game. They receive each five cards then and bet a round, they may bet, check (pass if there is no bet in the pot), call (pay a bet), raise (pay a bet and also raise it), or fold (not pay and surrender their cards). Next they have the choice to ask to replace some of their cards (there could be a limit to the number of cards to replace) and it is the second betting round; the “showdown” takes place afterwards. A popular version of Five-Card Draw Poker is “Jacks or Better” (or “Jackpots”), in which a player must have a pair of Jacks or higher to start the first betting round.

There are really many draw games, just remember to always ask about the rules even if you think that you know the game.

In stud games the players are dealt both hole cards and up-cards. The most popular are Seven-Card Stud and Five-Card Stud. In Seven-Card Stud each player receives two cards face down and a third face up. There might be an ante. The player with the lowest up-card makes the “bring-in” bet. Betting is always clockwise. Then a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth card are dealt face up, each starting a new betting round, in which the player with the highest up-cards’ hand bets first. A seventh card is finally dealt face down and the best five-card hand wins. In Five-Card Stud the cards are first hole card and second up-card, all is the same then as in Seven-Card Stud, just that the cards are five.