COMMUNITY CARD GAMES
Texas Holdem
Holdem is now the undisputed king of poker games and is the one
shown most on the TV, internet and in tourneys. In the World
Series of Poker (WSOP) competition, the winner of the main Holdem event is crowned poker champion
or the world.
In Holdem, each player is dealt two concealed or 'hole' cards. Five
community cards are dealt on the table. The first three are known as
'the flop', the fourth is 'the turn', the fifth is 'the river'. All
players make their best five-card hand from a combination of their
hidden cards and the shared cards. They can use one, two or none of
their hidden cards.
Omaha
Similar to Holdem, but with two differences. Firstly, each player is
dealt four concealed cards, not two. Secondly, a player must use two
from his hand and three from the community cards (unlike Holdem where
the number of hidden cards you can use is unrestricted). Otherwise,
there are five community cards in the same flop, turn, river format.
This game involves more action, as you have more cards to choose from,
but remains less popular than Holdem.
Omaha hi-lo
This is an Omaha variant where you play both a normal ('high') hand and
a 'low' hand. A low hand is the worst five-card hand you can muster from
the nine on offer.
If, for example, you had Ah, 2h, 3h, 3d in your hand and the
community cards were 3c, 10h, 10d, 4c, 6d, your high hand would be a
full house of 3h, 3d, 3c, 10h, 10d and your low hand would be Ah, 2h,
3c, 4c, 6d. Both, of course, are very strong hands.
If you win the high and someone else wins the low hand, the pot is
split. The only other unique rule is that a low hand does not qualify if
the lowest card is higher than 8, so you must have three cards of 8 or
lower on the community cards (without pairs) to have any low hand at
all. If there is no low hand, then all the money goes to the high hand.
All in all, Omaha hi-lo is not the easiest game for novices to grasp!
STUD GAMES
Five-card stud
Here, each person is dealt one card down and one card up to begin. After
each round of betting, a player gets another card face-up until they
have one hidden and four exposed cards. This is a game where you get to
see each other's hand except for the one hidden card. The best five-card
hand wins.
Seven-card stud
Each player is dealt two cards down and one card up. After each round of
betting, each player gets another card face up, until the seventh card
which arrives face down. Players end up with four exposed cards and
three hidden, and make their best five-card hand from the seven.
Seven-card stud hi-lo
Exactly the same as seven card stud, but with a high and a low hand from
seven cards. The rules for the hi-lo are the same as for Omaha hi-lo: 8
or lower to qualify as a low hand, and the pot is split if one has the
high and one the low.
DRAW POKER
Each player gets five hidden cards. They bet, then are allowed to change
a number of cards (usually up to three or four). They bet again before
showing their cards. There is a variation of this where cards may be
changed twice.
