Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hands wind the pot, limits of bets and how many rounds of betting are allowed. Generally, you can distinguish four main variations of poker. Straight, where each player are dealt a complete hand, Stud, where each player receives a mix of face- down and face-up cards dealt in several betting rounds,
Draw, where a complete hand are dealt each player face down, and after betting, players are allowed to change their hand by getting rid of unwanted cards and be dealt new, and finally, Community poker. Players are here dealt an incomplete hand of cards face-down, and then a number of community cards are are dealt into the middle of the table. The players are then supposed to make their best hand from their dealt cards and the community cards. A very popular Community Poker is Texas Hold’em. Other types of poker exist as well.

Stud poker

Six card stud
Six-card stud is usually played as identical to seven-card stud, except that the last face-up round is removed (Thus it is two down, three up, one down). It can also be played as 1-4-1, where the first betting round occurs after only two cards are dealt (one down and one up).

Razz
Razz Poker is a form of stud poker that is normally played for ace-to-five low (lowball poker). The object of Razz is to make the lowest five-card possible hand from the seven cards you are dealt. In Razz, straights and flushes do not count against you for low, and the ace always plays low. The best possible Razz hand is 5-4-3-2-A, or 5 high.

Eight or better high low stud
Also known as “seven eight” or “stud eight”, eight or better is the most common form of high-low split stud. Played as seven-card stud, but the pot is split between the player with the highest hand and the player with the lowest hand (using the ace-to-five low values). An 8-high hand or lower is required to win low.

High-low stud, no qualifier
This form of high-low split stud is played under the same rules as stud-8 with one major exception—there is no qualifier required for the low half of the pot. Often referred to as Q, it is much less common than stud-8, and is generally played at higher limits.

Mississippi Stud
Mississippi stud was created to make seven-card stud play better at no limit and pot limit, and is slowly becoming popular for that reason. It is also often played with a betting structure more typical of Texas hold ‘em: fixed limit with the last two rounds double the limit of the first two. The bring-in should be less than the first-round limit.

Mexican stud
Various forms of roll your own five-card stud, often with a stripped deck and wild cards, are called Mexican stud, Mexican poker, or Stud loco. One such variant played by the Casino San Pablo in northern California has these rules: 8s, 9s, and 10s are stripped from the deck, and a single joker is added (the deck therefore contains 41 cards). The 7-spot and the J become consecutive, so that 5-6-7-J-Q is a straight. A flush beats a full house (with fewer cards of each suit, they are harder to get). The joker plays as a bug if it is face up, and fully wild if it is face down. The game is played as five-card stud choose-before roll your own. It is usually played with a very high ante, and the high card on the first round pays the bring-in.

Blind stud
Blind stud is a variant of stud poker in which all cards are dealt face down. Any stud poker game can be played “blind” by having all cards dealt face down.

Draw Poker

Gardena jackpots (“Jacks to open” or simply “Jackpots”)
Played with standard hand values, and with a single joker in the deck acting as a bug. It is always played with an ante and no blinds. On the first betting round, no player is allowed to open the betting unless his hand already contains a pair of jacks or a better hand. Other players who checked on the first round may subsequently call or raise if someone else opens.

California lowball
Played as above, using ace-to-five low hand values, with a single joker in the deck. Always played with blinds rather than antes, so players may not check on the first betting round (but may on the second round).

Badugi
Sometimes spelled as Padooki or Badougi, Badugi is a four card ace-to-five low lowball variant where traditional poker hand rankings are changed. A Badugi is a four card hand where all the cards are of different ranks and suits. Any cards which match another card in rank or suit does not play and the first criteria for evaluating hands is the number of cards which are playing.

Baduci
Baduci (aka Badeucy or Badeudcey)[1] is a combination of Badugi poker and deuce to seven triple draw, and uses hand values similar to lowball. The pot in this game is split much like high-low split between the best Badugi poker hand and the best 2-7 triple draw hand.

Other forms of lowball
Five-card draw, with no joker, and deuce-to-seven low hand values is called “Kansas City” or “Low Poker” or even “Billy Baxter” draw in honor of the player who dominated the world championship in the event for many years.

California high/low split
Played as above, with a single joker, used as a bug. High hand and low hand (using the ace-to-five low values) split the pot. An 8-high or better low is required to win low. If no hand qualifies low, high hand takes the whole pot.

Double-draw and Triple-draw
Any game can be played with two or three draw phases and therefore three or four betting rounds. Triple draw lowball, either ace-to-five or deuce-to-seven, has gained some popularity among serious players. The 2004 World Series of Poker included a deuce-to-seven triple-draw lowball event, and the 2007 World Series of Poker featured one event as well.

Four-before
Another variation that can be applied to any game above, but that is especially suited to lowball. On the initial deal, only four cards are dealt to each player. A betting round follows, then each player draws one more card than he discards, completing his hand to five cards. Then the final betting round and showdown.

Johnson (and “Jacks back”)
Played with one joker which acts as a bug. Must be played with antes and no blinds. Each player is dealt five cards. The first betting round begins with the player to the dealer’s left, who may check or open with anything. If any player opens, the game continues as traditional five-card draw poker. If the first round is passed out (that is, no one opens), then the player to the dealer’s left may now open if he chooses, but the game has switched to California lowball.

Q-Ball
This is a lowball game designed by Michael Wiesenberg that combines some of the variations mentioned above. It is generally played with three blinds–one unit from the dealer, one unit to his left, and two units for the second player to the dealer’s left. The deck contains one joker. Each player is dealt three cards, followed by a round of betting beginning with the player immediately after the big blind who may call the big blind, raise, or fold (there is no checking on the first round).

Community Poker

One of the most popular Community Poker games on the web is Texas Hold’em. Other games exist as well:

Royal hold ‘em
Royal hold ‘em is a hold ‘em deviation in which the deck only contains tens, jacks, queens, kings and aces.

Double-board hold ‘em
For double-board hold ‘em, two separate five-card boards are dealt, and the high hand using each board takes half of the pot. For example, after the first betting round, three community cards are dealt to each of two separate boards; after the second round, another community card is dealt to each board; and before the final round, a fifth community card is dealt to each board (so there will be in total ten community cards, comprising two separate five-card hold’em boards).
This variant of Texas hold ‘em is sometimes called “double-flop hold’em“.

Omaha hold ‘em
Another hold ‘em variant is Omaha hold’em. Each player is dealt four cards to his private hand instead of two. The betting rounds and layout of community cards is identical to Texas hold ‘em. At showdown, each player’s hand is the best five-card hand he can make from exactly three of the five cards on the board, plus exactly two of his own cards.
The high-low split version of Omaha is called many different names, such as “Omaha Eight or better“, “Omaha HiLo” or “Omaha8“.

Pineapple – Crazy Pineapple – Tahoe hold ‘em – Super hold’em
Pineapple hold ‘em exists halfway between Texas hold ‘em and Omaha hold ‘em. Players are initially dealt three cards. Each player then discards one of the three cards, and the game proceeds exactly as in Texas hold ‘em.

Manila
This is a Texas hold ‘em variant called “Manila” (also called “Seven-up”). It is played with a Stripped deck in which all cards below the rank of 7 are removed (leaving 32 cards). Each player is dealt two private cards, and a single community card is dealt face up, followed by the first betting round. Then a second community card is followed by a second round, a third community card and a third round, and fourth community card and a fourth round, and finally a fifth community card, fifth betting round, and showdown.

Pinatubo
Because Manila has five betting rounds, it does not play well at no limit or pot limit. This can be easily modified by eliminating the betting round between the second and third community cards. So, each player is dealt two private cards and a single community card is dealt to the board, followed by the first betting round. Then two community cards are dealt, followed by a second betting round. Then a fourth community card and third betting round, a fifth and final community card and fourth betting round, followed by a showdown as above.

Other Poker games

Three card poker
Three card poker (trademarked name) or tricard poker is a poker-based game that is played in casinos. It actually consists of two separate games, pairplus and ante-and-play. The players can choose to play either or both of the games.

Pai Gow poker
Pai Gow poker (also called Double-hand poker) is an Americanized version of Pai Gow (in that it is played with playing cards bearing poker hand values, instead of Pai Gow’s Chinese dominoes). The games of Pai Gow poker and Super Pan-9 were created by Sam Torosian and Fred Wolf.
The game is played with a standard 52-card deck, plus a single joker. It is played on a table set for six players, plus the dealer. Each player attempts to defeat the banker (who may be the casino dealer, or one of the other players at the table).