Poker games

Poker is a modern game that has a few hundred years ( or thousands?) of history to look back upon. While some attribute the game's origins to the French "poque" others to the German "pochen", a type of game that also had an element of bluffing, still others could swear it's the same as the Persian game of As Nas. Theory has it that persian seafarers tought the game to the French in New Orleans and thet's where it spread all through America - with some later modifications to it.
Most people know about poker ( especially its most popular version: Texas Hold'em) from all the publicity surrounding the industry it's become. Today the WPT and the WSOP turn around money at a rate few people would've thought possible only a couple of decades ago.
As one can often see it put " there's definitely more to poker than Holdem" Poker's different genres can be classified into three basic categorie: the first one includes the most games, the Community card branch.
Texas holdem belongs here. These poker games revolve around a few cards that all players are allowed to use to make up their hands with, also known as shared- or community cards. Texas Holdem uses 5 such cards for each hand played. Three are shown at the flop, one at the Turn, or 4th street, and a last one at the River. Each of the players having received two cards beforehand, can use ane 3 of the 5 cards on the table to build a strongest posible hand which he/she will show at the Showdown ( provided he/she makes it there, and doesn't fold before).
Texas holdem belongs here.
These poker games revolve around a few cards that all players are allowed to use to make up their hands with, also known as shared- or community cards.
Another representative of the community card game is the Omaha Hi-Lo. A significant difference between Holdem and Omaha is the fact that in Omaha players get dealt 4 cards instead of the 2 in Holdem. They can make their best hand with any 2 of these cards plus the three community cards on the table. Omaha is also often played with a high-low split, thus the name of the game.
The second branch of poker, the Draw poker branch, includes games that have players receive a full hand of 5 cards at the start of the game. Some of these cards can be exchanged during the game in asn attempt to improve the hand. This type of poker is the most popular with video poker machines.( namely the 5-card draw) Other games belonging to this category are: the Anaconda and the Seven-Card-Stud.
Stud poker is the third main poker branch. In stud games players have a fixed number of cards dealt, and then they receive an additional one with each betting round until they reach 5 ( in case of the 5 Card Stud) or 7 ( in case of the Seven Card Stud).
Other poker variants are: Stud Horse, Oxford Stud, Chicago Low, Billabong, Shanghai, Guts.
Poker science will try to offer useful information on as many of these poker variants as possible in the future. Hopefully, whichever type of poker you like, you'll be able to find something useful on these pages.

All articles written by (c) James West.