Texas Hold’em is a shared card poker game. Each player is dealt two private cards and there are five face-up shared (or “community”) cards on the table that can be used by anyone. In the showdown the winner is the player who can make the best five-card poker hand from the seven cards available. A…

In Omaha, each player receives four private cards and there are five community cards on the table. In the showdown exactly two private cards together with three community cards must be used to make the player’s best hand. Omaha High A standard 52-card pack is used and from two to 10 players can take part.…

Razz is seven-card stud played for low only, using ace-to-five ranking. In the first betting round the compulsory bring-in bet is made by the owner of the highest card showing. In subsequent rounds, from fourth street onwards, the lowest hand showing bets first. Ace is low and king high throughout, and as usual the suit…

HORSE is probably the most popular of the mixed game poker varieties, where a round of Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Eight or Better (seven-card stud high-low) are played. Normally these are all played as limit games. The two shared card games Hold’em and Omaha are played with blinds and the three Stud games with…

Stud poker is an “open” game in which most of a player’s cards are displayed on the table. Therefore players can form an idea of the strength of other players’ hands and bet accordingly, although each player has at least one “hole” card which remains concealed until the showdown. Since poker is a five-card game…

Lowball or low poker are variants in which the lowest ranking hand wins. Most poker variants can be reversed in this way, but the name Lowball is most often used to refer to a low version of Five-Card Draw. The different possible rankings for low poker depend on whether aces are counted as high or…

This basic game, with no restrictions on the cards needed to open or win, is sometimes known as California Draw or Guts, though Guts is also the name of another poker-like game. Five-Card Draw is played with a standard 52-card pack, and there can be from two to six players – six probably making the…

Badugi is a poker-like game played with four-card hands. To win the pot at showdown you need to have the lowest set of cards, with no two cards of the same rank or suit, ace ranking low. The best possible hand is therefore A-2-3-4 with one card of each suit. Badugi can be played by…