If you’ve ever played poker before, chances are you will have played Texas Hold’Em. There are dozens of online poker types and Texas Hold’Em is by far the most common. Not only is it a mainstay of land-based casinos, it’s also played by millions online.
There are even some who try to make a living playing it. Since it’s so popular, it’s easy to forget about all the other types of poker you could be playing instead. Let’s have a look at the different types of poker variants, before looking at some of the less common poker types.
Types of poker variants
Most poker variants fall under one of three categories: draw poker, stud poker and community card poker.
In draw poker games, players are dealt a full hand, with all cards hidden, before the start of the first betting round and aims to perfect their hand by replacing cards.
Stud poker sees players dealt a combination of both face-up and face-down cards in several betting rounds; it’s also possible for the player who bets first to change with each round.
In community card poker, players a dealt an incomplete, hidden hand. This can be combined with shared ‘community cards’ that other players can use.
Some of the other types of poker variants include lowball, where it’s the lowest hand that wins, and high-low split, where the pot is shared between both the player with the highest hand and the player with the lowest hand.
It’s possible for a single player to win the pot if they happen to have both the highest and lowest hand.
Less common poker types
1) Badugi
This draw poker poker variant is also a type of lowball poker and can be played by 2-6 people. Players are dealt four cards, instead of the usual five, and have to make the best low hand possible, with similar ranks and suits counting against them.
A ‘badugi’ is a hand of four cards, all of which are of different rank and suit. If a hand contains more than one card of the same rank or suit, the player must eliminate some cards until they have a valid hand; it’s possible to end up with a hand of just one card.
The best hand you can get in the game is A-2-3-4 with one card of each suit. Players have a total of three rounds of drawing where they may exchange up to four of their cards; betting takes place after each round and the winner is the player with the lowest hand at showdown.
2) Razz
Razz is quite similar to Badugi in that it’s a type of lowball poker, so you’re trying to get the lowest ranked hand, as opposed to the highest. It’s also a type of stud poker as only some of the cards are visible to the other players.
The game sees players dealt seven cards, though only five cards are used to make the potentially winning hand. The aim of the game is to get the lowest hand of five cards possible, which in this case is A-2-3-4-5 of any suits.
Razz, also known as Seven Card Stud Low, can be played by 2-8 people and uses a single deck.
3) Crazy Pineapple
One of the most creatively named casino games, Crazy Pineapple is a community card game similar to Texas Hold’Em. There aren’t too many differences between the two, but there are enough to give Crazy Pineapple an exciting new dynamic.
The key difference is that all players start of with three cards, as opposed to two in Texas Hold’Em. More players are able to take part in each hand and this leads to larger pots being made and more action taking place.
Another important difference is that after the betting round, once the flop card has been dealt, players then have to discard one of their cards, so they’re only left with two.
If you’re sick of playing Texas Hold’Em all the time, Crazy Pineapple is a great alternative, especially since its very similar and easy enough to play.
4) Iron Cross
Also known as Church Poker, Iron Cross is a type of high-low split poker. It’s so-called because of the five community cards arranged in a cross in the centre of the table.
The objective of this game is to have the best five-card poker hand using at least two of your own cards and some of the community cards. However, you can only use community cards from the vertical line of the cross or the horizontal line of the cross.
The community cards are initially face-down, but get turned over one-by-one after betting rounds. After the final betting round, the community card in the centre of the cross is turned over. The player with the best poker hand then wins the game.
5) Five-O Poker
This poker variant is unlike the others we’ve talked about so far in that you can only play it on Facebook. It’s one of many casino games to have launched on social media.
Even though it’s great to play, it’s still waiting to be discovered by many. It’s a type of heads-up poker, which means it’s played just between two players, with your opponent selected randomly.
What sets it apart from other poker types is that players are given five hands each of one face-up card. After several rounds, players will have five hands of five cards each, with one card in each hand face-down.
The players’ hands are pitted against each other and whoever has three or more stronger hands wins. A Five-O Win is when one player beats the opponent with all five of their hands. Players are given $10k in chips for free and can claim a further 1k every four hours.