Popular poker games

It’s not a secret that poker, which is considered to be one of the most exciting and popular gambling games, is not one game with a set of strict rules. Actually poker is a common word to name a group of popular games that have common features: 52-card deck, limited amount of players from two to ten, making bets according to the cards gamblers are holding and common bank. The assortment of the games is enormous. It includes Five Cards Draw, Seven Stud, Omaha Poker, Oasis Poker, Russian, Chinese and Italian poker, Texas Holdem, and many-many others. It would take us forever to describe all of them. That’s why we decide to focus on four mostly widespread poker games to get you interested and to give you an idea of the variety poker world has to offer.

Texas Holdem Poker is rather simple. It is also the most popular poker game played as a cash game as well as a tournament. The rules though may slightly differ. Then, one should take in consideration that there are Limit Holdem, where the size of bets is limited and No limit Holdem, where players may raise or bet as much as they wish and Pot Limit Holdem where you can’t bet your stack whenever you want, but you can bet however much is in the pot at the time. At the beginning of the game gamblers make blind bets. The blinds provide the required amount of money in the bank and are called so because gamblers bet when they are not able to see the cards. Two cards face down are dealt to each player, and plus there are five common cards. There are four betting rounds after which all common and player’s cards can be used to make up a winning combination.

In Omaha poker rules are similar. There are five common cards and each player is dealt four cards of his own. The winning combination can be made out only out of two «pocket» cards and three common cards. In Omaha poker blind bets are made, as well as in Texas Holdem. Omaha is considered to be a little more complicated than Texas Holdem poker; but at the same time a larger amount of cards gives a player more chances to get a strong hand.

In 7 Stud Poker there are no blinds. Bets that are called Antes are used to provide the required amount of money in the bank. Another difference is that there are five betting rounds instead of four. In the showdown, each player makes the best five card hand possible out of their own seven cards, as there are no common cards in this game.

Five Card Draw is also very popular. The game has Antes as well as Blinds. Five cards face down are dealt to each player. After all players receive their cards, the first betting round begins. In the raw round a player has two options: whether keep all five cards, or throw away any amount from 1-5 cards, and replace them with the same number of cards from the top of the deck. Then, after the second betting round, the player with the best hand combination takes the pot.