Popular Variants

The most popular poker variants are as follows:

Draw poker

Players each receive five — as in five-card draw — or more cards, all of which are hidden. They can then replace one or more of these cards a certain number of times.

Stud poker

Players each receive five — as in five-card stud — or more cards; some cards are dealt face up, one at a time, and displayed to other players at the table. The key differences between stud and ‘draw’ poker are that players are not allowed to discard or replace any cards in stud poker and that part of a players’ hand in stud is exposed rather than the entire hand being hidden as in draw.

Community card poker

Players combine individually dealt cards with a number of “community cards” dealt face up and shared by all players. Each player will attempt to make the best five card poker hand using the community cards and their own face down cards. Two or four individual cards are dealt in the most popular variations, Texas hold ’em and Omaha hold ’em, respectively.