Types of Poker: A Complete Guide to Popular Variants and Game Structures

Understanding Poker Basics and Game Foundations

Before we get into the fancy stuff with split pots and discarding cards, we’ve got to talk about the engine under the hood. The foundation. Because no matter how weird the game gets, the core DNA is usually the same, and if you skip this, you’re stuffed. It’s like trying to build a house on sand. You might get lucky for a bit, maybe win a pot because you didn’t know you were supposed to fold, but eventually, the math and the logic will catch up to you. I’ve seen heaps of players jump straight into complex games without understanding the basics of positioning or value, and they just get eaten alive. It’s painful to watch. Actually, it’s profitable to watch, but you know what I mean. You need to get your head around why we’re doing this. It’s not just gambling. Well, it is, but it’s controlled gambling.

What Is Poker and Core Rules

At its heart, poker isn’t really a card game. It’s a game about information and money, played with cards. That’s the best way to think about it. The basic goal isn’t always to have the best hand—it’s to win the pot. Sometimes you win by having the nuts (the unbeatable hand), and sometimes you win because you convinced the other guy that you have the nuts when you’re actually holding absolute garbage. That’s the rush.

Most games follow a rhythm. You get dealt cards—some face down (hole cards), maybe some face up. Then there’s betting. This is where the magic happens. You’re buying the right to see the next card or the showdown. Players act in turn, usually clockwise. You can check (do nothing), bet (put chips in), call (match a bet), or raise (make it more expensive). And if you’ve got nothing? You fold. Throw your cards in the muck and live to fight another hand. It sounds simple, right? But the timing… knowing when to do these things is what separates the sharks from the fish. It’s a blinking contest. Who’s going to flinch first?

Hand Rankings and Card Values

This is the one thing you absolutely cannot mess up. You’d be surprised how many people get confused in the heat of the moment, thinking a Straight beats a Flush. It doesn’t. Memorise this, or just tattoo it on your arm or something. The hierarchy is strict. In most standard games (High games), you’re chasing the highest ranking combo of five cards.

Suits usually don’t rank higher than each other in poker (spades aren’t better than hearts for winning the pot), which is good because there’s enough to think about already. The Ace is usually high, but can be low for a straight (A-2-3-4-5). Don’t be the guy who tables “two pair” and loses to “three of a kind” because you forgot the order. It’s embarrassing. And costly.

Here is a quick cheat sheet so you don’t look like a muppet:

Key Betting Concepts and Terminology

The jargon in poker is like a second language. If you sit down and don’t know what “pot odds” or “equity” means, you’re basically playing blindfolded. Betting isn’t just about putting chips in the middle; it’s telling a story.

First off, “Blinds.” These are forced bets before cards are even dealt to ensure there’s something to play for. Usually a Small Blind and a Big Blind. Then you’ve got the “Ante” in some games, which everyone pays. It forces action. Without these, everyone would just sit there waiting for Aces for six hours. Boring.

Then there’s “Position.” This is massive. Being “in position” means you act last. It’s a huge advantage because you get to see what everyone else does before you make a decision. Information is power, mate. If you’re acting first (“out of position”), you’re guessing.

And don’t get me started on “Tilt.” That’s when you lose a big hand, get angry, and start playing like an idiot to win your money back. We’ve all been there. You start shoving chips with 7-2 offsuit because you’re mad at the universe. That’s how bankrolls die. You need to understand that betting is about math, not just “feeling lucky.” If the pot is huge and it only costs a little to call, you might do it even with a dodgy hand. That’s pot odds. It’s logical, mostly. Until it isn’t.

Community Card Poker Games

This is where the real action happens. If you walk into any casino from Auckland to Las Vegas, 95% of the tables are going to be spreading these games. The concept is genius because it mixes private info with public info. You get your secret cards—your “hole cards”—that only you can see, but then the dealer spreads out these “community cards” face-up in the middle of the table that everyone shares. It changes the dynamic completely compared to old-school games like Stud. Suddenly, you’re not just looking at your hand; you’re looking at the board and trying to figure out if that Ace on the table helped your opponent more than it helped you. It creates this massive tension. Everyone is staring at the same cards, doing the same math, but coming to different conclusions. It’s psychological warfare with a few pieces of cardboard.

Texas Hold’em – The Most Popular Variant

You literally cannot escape this game. It is everywhere. It’s the “Cadillac of Poker,” as Doyle Brunson famously called it, and honestly, he wasn’t wrong. It’s deceptively simple: you get two cards, the board gets five, and you make the best five-card hand you can. Sounds easy, right? But the depth is insane. You can play this game for fifty years and still learn something new every session. The beauty of Hold’em is the betting structure across the “streets”—Pre-flop, Flop, Turn, and River.

The volatility can be brutal, though. One minute you’re sitting pretty with Pocket Kings, and the next minute an Ace hits the flop and you feel sick to your stomach. You have to be patient. So much of Hold’em is just folding. Sitting there, throwing away junk like 7-2 and J-3, waiting for a spot to attack. But when you do play, it’s about aggression. You can’t be passive.

Here is how the flow usually goes down:

1. The Deal: You get your two secret cards. Don’t show anyone, obviously.
2. The Flop: Three community cards hit the board at once. This defines the hand.
3. The Turn: A fourth card is dealt. Pots get bigger here.
4. The River: The final card. The “make or break” moment where hearts are broken.
5. Showdown: If anyone is left, you flip ’em over and see who wasn’t lying.

People love No-Limit Hold’em because you can bet all your chips at any moment. That “All-in” move is the ultimate adrenaline spike. It’s purely terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

Omaha and Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO)

If Hold’em is a strategic duel, Omaha is a bar fight. It’s widely considered the second most popular game, but it plays completely differently. You get dealt four hole cards instead of two. But—and this is the bit that trips everyone up—you must use exactly two of your hole cards and exactly three from the board. No more, no less. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a newbie holding an Ace in their hand and four hearts on the board think they have a Flush. They don’t. Because they aren’t using two cards from their hand. It’s tragic, really.

Because everyone has so many cards, the average hand strength goes through the roof. In Hold’em, a single pair is often good enough to win. In Omaha? A single pair is basically garbage. You need the nuts (the best possible hand) or a draw to the nuts to feel comfortable putting money in. It’s usually played as Pot-Limit (PLO), meaning you can only bet the size of the pot, which stops people from just shoving all-in pre-flop every hand, but the pots still get absolutely massive. The variance is sickening. You can play perfectly and still lose ten buy-ins because the equities run so close together.

Check out the main differences so you don’t get wrecked:

Pineapple and Short Deck (6+ Hold’em)

Now we’re getting into the “fun” variants. The stuff people play when they’re bored of the standard grind or want to gamble hard. Pineapple is basically Hold’em with a twist. You get three cards to start, but you have to discard one before the betting really gets going. There’s “Crazy Pineapple,” where you keep all three until the flop, and then throw one away. It’s hilarious because you always end up discarding the card that would have made a full house on the river. It’s just Murphy’s Law in card form. Great for home games with a few beers.

Short Deck, or 6+ Hold’em, is a different beast entirely. It’s taken over the high-stakes scene in Asia and is trickling down. They remove all the 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s from the deck. The lowest card is a 6 (and the Ace counts as a 5 for straights, like A-6-7-8-9). Because the deck is smaller, you hit big hands constantly. Sets, straights, and full houses are everywhere. The math changes too—in most Short Deck games, a Flush actually beats a Full House because it’s harder to hit mathematically. You have to rewire your brain. It’s an action junkie’s dream because you’re rarely drawing dead.

Split-Pot Poker Variations

I honestly have a love-hate relationship with split-pot games. On one hand, they keep you in the game longer because you can win half the pot with a terrible hand. On the other hand, getting “quartered” (winning only a tiny fraction of the pot) makes you want to flip the table. These games require a totally different mindset. You aren’t just trying to win; you’re trying to scoop. “Scooping” is winning both the High half and the Low half of the pot. That’s where the profit is. If you’re only playing for half the pot, you’re just treading water and paying rake.

Omaha Hi-Lo (Omaha 8 or Better)

This is the most common split-pot game you’ll find in casinos. It plays just like regular Omaha (4 cards, must use 2), but at the showdown, the pot is split in two. One half goes to the best “High” hand (standard poker rankings), and the other half goes to the best “Low” hand. To qualify for a Low, you need five cards ranked 8 or lower, with no pairs. The Ace plays as the ultimate low card.

It sounds complicated, and it is. The best hands in Omaha Hi-Lo work for both sides. Something like A-A-2-3 double suited is a monster because you can win the High with aces and the Low with A-2-3-X-X. The biggest mistake players make here is chasing only the High hand. They bet big with a Straight, get called by a guy with a better Straight and a Low, and end up losing money. Or they chase a Low when the board is all high cards. You have to be able to read the board and realize when a Low isn’t even possible.

Stud Hi-Lo and Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo

Before Hold’em took over the world in the 2000s, this was the game the old pros played. It’s slow, it’s methodical, and it requires an insane memory. Just like Omaha Hi-Lo, the pot is split between the best high hand and the best qualifying low hand. But unlike Omaha, there are no community cards. You have your own board.

You get some cards face down and some face up. You have to watch everyone else’s “up cards” like a hawk. If you need a 7 for your Low, but you saw three 7s folded by other players, you’re drawing dead. You have to remember dead cards. It’s exhausting. The betting limits are usually fixed (Fixed Limit), which means you can’t just shove all-in to bluff someone off a hand. You have to grind them down. It’s a game of patience and precision, not brute force.

How to Split Pots Correctly

This is where rookie dealers and home games fall apart. Splitting the pot can be a nightmare if you aren’t organized. The basic rule is: High hand gets half, Low hand gets half. If there is no qualifying Low hand (like if the board is K-Q-J-10-9, no low is possible), the High hand takes the whole lot (“Scoop”).

If two people have the same High hand, they split that half. If one person has the High and another has the Low, they chop the pot evenly. If you have both the best High and the best Low, you take everything, and everyone else hates you. It gets messy with odd chips. Usually, the odd chip goes to the High hand or the player closest to the button, depending on house rules. You really need to pay attention at showdown. Never, ever throw your cards away until the dealer pushes you the chips. I’ve seen people muck a winning Low because they didn’t realize they had it. Don’t be that guy. Read your hand twice.

Stud Games and Traditional Formats

These are the dinosaurs of the poker world. And I mean that with respect. These games were around way before the internet wizards started solving Hold’em with supercomputers. Stud games are pure. There are no community cards to save you. It’s just you, your cards, and what you can see on the other players’ boards. It feels more… personal. You’re building your own hand, independent of the guy next to you, but you’re completely dependent on knowing what cards are “dead” (already folded or visible).

Seven-Card Stud Gameplay

This used to be the game. If you walked into a card room in 1995, this is what was spreading. Everyone gets dealt seven cards throughout the hand, but you only use the best five. The structure is weird if you’re used to Hold’em. You get two down, one up. Then betting. Then another up (4th street), bet. Another up (5th), bet. Another up (6th), bet. And finally, a river card face down.

The information game here is intense. By the time you get to 7th street, you’ve seen a lot of cards. If you’re trying to make a Flush, you need to know if your suit is “live.” If you look around the table and see all the spades are already out on other people’s boards, your Flush draw is garbage. You have to fold. The skill gap in Stud is massive because bad players just look at their own cards, while good players are memorizing every card that has been folded since the start of the hand.

Five-Card Stud Mechanics

You hardly ever see this played anymore, maybe in some old movies or very specific home games. It’s brutal. You get one card down and one card up. Then betting. Then three more cards dealt face up, one by one, with betting rounds in between.

Because you only have five cards total, there is nowhere to hide. If a guy is showing a Pair of Kings on his board, you know he has at least a pair of Kings. You can’t bluff as easily because so much is exposed. It’s a game of “highest card wins” a lot of the time. It’s extremely predatory. If you show weakness, you’re done. It’s fast, simple, and honestly, a bit boring compared to the modern games, which is probably why it died out. But it teaches you the value of a single pair like no other game.

Razz – The Lowball Stud Variant

Razz is the game that makes grown men cry. It’s Seven-Card Stud, but you are trying to make the lowest possible hand. Straights and Flushes don’t count against you. The Ace is low. The best possible hand is A-2-3-4-5 (the “Wheel”).

Why is it so frustrating? Because you can start with a beautiful hand like A-2-3, and then catch a King, a Queen, and a Jack on the next streets while your opponent—who started with garbage—catches perfect low cards. It feels like the deck is mocking you. It’s purely psychological torture. People tilt harder in Razz than any other game. You see your board getting worse and worse, and you’re trapped. But that’s the skill. Knowing when to get out even when you started strong. If you can keep your cool in Razz, you can play anything.

Draw Poker Games and Mechanics

If Stud is the dinosaur, Draw Poker is the fossil. It’s the game from the Wild West movies, where cowboys sit around a dusty table and cheat with cards up their sleeves. But don’t let the simplicity fool you; these games are pure psychology. There are no community cards, and unlike Stud, there are no exposed cards (usually). You have zero information about your opponent’s hand other than how many cards they choose to exchange and how they bet. It’s a lying contest. If you can look someone in the eye and bet the farm while holding absolutely nothing, this is your format.

Five-Card Draw Fundamentals

This is the first poker game most of us learned as kids. “Here are five cards, swap the ones you don’t like.” Simple. You get five cards face down. There’s a round of betting. Then the “Draw” happens—you can discard up to all of your cards (or none, which is called “standing pat”) and get new ones. Then one more round of betting and showdown.

The strategy is surprisingly deep. If a guy draws three cards, he probably has a pair. If he draws one, he might have two pair, or he’s chasing a straight or flush. If he stands pat? He’s either got a monster (Straight or better) or he’s stone-cold bluffing. The term “stand pat” literally comes from this game. Because there are only two betting rounds, the edges are thin. It’s hard to extract value. You mostly just want to play big hands fast. It’s rarely played in casinos now because it’s too easy to cheat (marking cards is devastating here) and the action is slow, but online it pops up occasionally.

2-7 Lowball and Triple Draw

Now we’re talking about the game of the pros. “Deuce-to-Seven” (2-7) is the opposite of normal poker. You want the worst hand possible. But unlike Razz, straights and flushes count against you. Aces are high (bad). So the best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-7 offsuit. That’s “The Wheel” in this game. If you hold 2-3-4-5-6, you lose because that’s a straight. It’s tricky.

The most popular version is 2-7 Triple Draw. You get three chances to draw cards, with betting rounds in between. It is an absolute action game. The pots get huge because people are constantly drawing to monsters. The variance is insane. You can be drawing dead after the first draw or get lucky on the very last card. It’s a “limit” game usually, meaning the bets are fixed sizes, so you can’t protect your hand by betting huge. You just have to hope your hand holds up. Bluffing is huge here—”snowing” is when you stand pat with total garbage to pretend you have a made hand, hoping everyone else folds their draws. It takes guts.

Badugi – The Four-Card Draw Game

Badugi is weird. It comes from Korea (allegedly) and uses only four cards. The goal is to get a “Badugi”—a hand with four cards of different ranks and different suits. The lower the cards, the better. The best hand is A-2-3-4 of four different suits.

If you have two hearts, one doesn’t count. If you have a pair, one doesn’t count. So if you hold 4♥-5♥-6♠-7♦, you effectively have a “three-card hand” (5-6-7) because the 4♥ duplicates the suit of the 5♥. You’re trying to eliminate pairs and matching suits. It’s a triple draw game, so lots of swapping. It breaks your brain a bit because you’re constantly checking suits, which you ignore in most other Lowball games. It’s a fun change of pace and usually played in mixed game rotations.

Betting Structures and Limits

You can know the hand rankings inside out, but if you don’t understand betting structures, you’re going to lose your shirt. The structure dictates the strategy. Playing A-J offsuit in a Limit game is standard; playing it in a No-Limit game can be suicide. The rules of how much you can bet change the value of every hand.

No-Limit, Pot-Limit, and Fixed-Limit Formats

These are the three main ways games are controlled.

• No-Limit (NL): The Cadillac. You can bet any amount of chips you have in front of you at any time. “All-in.” It’s pure pressure. Mistakes are fatal. You can play perfectly for three hours and lose your entire stack in one hand. It favors aggressive, psychological players.
• Pot-Limit (PL): Common in Omaha. The maximum bet is the current size of the pot. It stops people from over-betting the pot to “buy” it, but the bets grow exponentially. $5 bet, $15 raise, $50 re-raise… suddenly you’re playing for thousands. It’s deceptive.
• Fixed-Limit (FL): The grinder’s game. Bets are set amounts (e.g., $2/$4). You can only bet $2, then raise to $4. You can’t shove. It’s all about math and saving one bet here, earning one extra bet there. It’s lower variance but harder to bluff because the price to call is usually so cheap.

How Betting Changes Game Dynamics

The structure completely changes how people play. In No-Limit, “implied odds” are king. You’ll play a small pair like 5-5 hoping to hit a set (three of a kind) because if you do, you might win the opponent’s entire stack. You’re willing to take a small loss for a chance at a huge win.

In Fixed-Limit, implied odds barely exist. You can’t win a huge stack in one hand because the betting is capped. So you play “tight” and “solid.” Top pair is a monster hand in Limit Hold’em. In No-Limit, Top Pair often loses big pots. You have to adjust. If you play Limit like No-Limit, you’ll just bleed chips. If you play No-Limit like Limit, you’ll get run over by bullies.

Blind Structures and Ante Systems

Games need to force action, otherwise we’d all be nits (super tight players).

• Blinds: The two players to the left of the dealer pay the Small Blind and Big Blind before seeing cards. This is “dead money” to fight for.
• Antes: In tournaments and some cash games, everyone pays a small amount (an Ante) every hand. This bloats the pot and makes playing loose more profitable. If there are huge antes, you have to play way more hands to steal that dead money.
• Straddle: This is a cash game special. The player to the left of the Big Blind can voluntarily put in a double-blind bet before cards are dealt. They effectively “buy” the Big Blind position and get to act last pre-flop. It makes the game play much bigger and wilder. People do it to gamble and create action.

Specialized Poker Formats and Mixed Games

Eventually, playing just one game gets stale. Or you just want to prove you’re the best all-around player, not just a Hold’em specialist. That’s where Mixed Games come in. These are rotations where the game changes every few hands. It tests your versatility. You can’t just be a one-trick pony.

H.O.R.S.E. – The Five-Game Mix

This is the ultimate test of a traditional poker player. It’s played at the WSOP for the $50,000 Players Championship, which is arguably more prestigious than the Main Event among pros. The acronym stands for:

• Hold’em
• Omaha Hi-Lo
• Razz
• Stud
• Eight-or-Better (Stud Hi-Lo)

All games are played as Fixed Limit. The game changes every orbit (every time the button goes around the table). The hardest part is the mental switching cost. You just played a hand of Razz where Aces are low, and now you’re playing Stud Hi-Lo where Aces are high and low. One lapse in concentration and you’re betting a losing hand. It’s grueling.

High-Low Chicago and Specialty Variants

These are “dealer’s choice” favorites. You won’t find them in big tournaments, but home games love them.
Chicago is Seven-Card Stud, but the pot is split between the best hand and the player with the highest spade in the hole (High Chicago) or lowest spade (Low Chicago). It adds a whole new layer. You might have garbage cards but hold the Ace of Spades, so you’re guaranteed half the pot. You bet like a maniac to get money in.

Then there are games like Follow the Queen or Baseball, where wild cards get introduced. “Wild cards” ruin the math of poker, in my opinion, but they’re fun for a beer-and-pizza night. It becomes less about strategy and more about who gets dealt the magic card.

Casino Poker Games (3-Card, Mississippi Stud, Caribbean Stud)

Warning: These are not real poker. Well, they use poker hands, but you aren’t playing against other players. You are playing against the House (the Casino). And the House always has an edge.

• Three-Card Poker: Fast, simple. Beat the dealer’s 3-card hand. The house edge is decent if you play right, but you will lose over time.
• Caribbean Stud: You play 5 cards against the dealer. There’s usually a massive Progressive Jackpot for a Royal Flush that sucks people in.
• Mississippi Stud: You pay to see community cards. It can be brutal on your wallet because you have to keep betting to stay in the hand.

Play these for entertainment, not to make a living. In real poker, you can win if you’re better than the other guys. In these games, the math is rigged against you from the start.

Game Structures – Cash, Tournaments, and Sit & Gos

Finally, you have to decide how you want to play. Do you want to play for an hour and leave? Or do you want to lock yourself in a room for 12 hours trying to win a trophy?

Cash Games with Fixed Blinds

This is the bread and butter. You sit down with real money (or chips representing cash). The blinds never change (e.g., $1/$2 forever). If you lose your stack, you can reach into your pocket and buy more (“reload”). You can stand up and leave whenever you want.
It’s the purest form of poker. It’s about making good decisions consistently over long periods. A “Cash Game Pro” is usually a very deep-stacked, dangerous player. The freedom to leave is key—if the game is bad, you just walk away.

Tournament Formats and Increasing Stakes

This is the glory. The WSOP. You pay a buy-in (say, $100) and get a stack of chips. When those chips are gone, you are out (unless it’s a “rebuy” tournament). The blinds increase every level (e.g., every 20 minutes). This forces action. You can’t sit and wait forever or your stack will be blinded away.
The goal is to survive and accumulate all the chips in play. The payouts are top-heavy. Only the top 10-15% of players get paid (“in the money”), and the winner takes a huge chunk. It’s high variance. You can play great for 8 hours, lose one coin-flip, and go home with nothing. But the feeling of winning a tournament? Nothing beats it.

Sit & Go Games and Hybrid Structures

A Sit & Go (SNG) is a mini-tournament. It starts as soon as the table fills up (usually 6 or 9 players). It plays like a tournament (blinds go up, freezeout), but it’s faster. It’s great practice for final tables.
Then there are “Spin & Gos” or “Jackpot SNGs”—3-handed, hyper-turbo games where the prize pool is randomized. You might play for $2 or $2,000. It’s basically a slot machine mechanic applied to poker. Pure gambling, fast action, very addictive.

Choosing Your Ideal Poker Game

Look, don’t try to be a hero and start with Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. You’ll just get a headache and an empty wallet. Start where you fit in.

Beginner-Friendly Variants to Start With

No-Limit Texas Hold’em (Cash or Tournaments).
It’s the standard for a reason. There is endless content, videos, and books to help you learn. The rules are simple. You can find a game anywhere. Stick to low stakes ($0.01/$0.02 online or $1/$2 live).
Focus on: Learning hand rankings, position, and not playing too many hands.

Intermediate Games for Skill Development

Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO).
Once you get bored of folding in Hold’em, try PLO. It teaches you how to calculate odds and how to handle big swings. It forces you to think about “blockers” and post-flop play much deeper than Hold’em.
Focus on: Nut-peddling (only drawing to the best hand) and managing your bankroll.

Advanced Variants for Seasoned Players

Mixed Games (H.O.R.S.E. or 8-Game).
This is the final boss. If you can sit at a Mixed Game table and hold your own, you are a complete poker player. It requires mastery of every mechanic—stud memory, split-pot math, draw bluffing.
Focus on: Finding the games your opponents are bad at and exploiting them there. If you’re great at Razz and they suck, punish them in the Razz rounds.

Pick a lane, learn the rules, and for god’s sake, don’t bet the rent money. Good luck at the tables.