There are a lot of poker variants, basically divided into three types:

• Draw poker: games in which players are dealt a complete hand, hidden, and then improve it by replacing cards. Most common are Five-card draw and Badugi.
• Stud poker: games in which each player receives a combination of face-up cards and face-down cards in multiple betting rounds. Most common are Seven-card stud and Five-card stud.
• Community card poker: games in which each player’s incomplete hidden hand is combined with shared face-up cards. Most common are Texas hold ’em (the most famous) and Omaha hold ’em.

I’m explaining how to play Texas hold’em on next post Poker 102: Basic Rules.

Low and High-Low

There are also lowball poker games, which reward poor poker hands. Some of these are A-to-5 low, A-to-6 low (also called 6-4 low), 2-to-7 low (also called 7-5 low), 2-to-6 low (also called 6-5 low). There are variations of them, for example:

• Razz: Seven-card stud + A5 Lo
• California Lowball: Draw poker + A5 Lo, with one joker.
• Kansas City Lowball: Draw poker + 2-7 Lo
• Triple Draw: Draw Poker + either A-5 or 2-7 Lo
• London Lowball: Seven-card stud + A6 Lo

It is also common playing High-Low split poker games, where the player with the best poker hand (called high hand) splits the pot with the best low hand. Most common are Omaha Hi-Lo and Seven-card stud hi-lo.

Mixed poker games

The most notable mixed poker variation is H.O.R.S.E poker. It is a combination of Hold’em Texas, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Stud and Stud 8-or-better. Every one half hour, the game mode is changed. H.O.S.E. and H.O.E. are also common.Hay muchas variantes del poker, básicamente divididas en tres tipos:

• Poker tapado: los jugadores se reparten una mano completa, cara oculta, e intentan mejorarla reemplazando sus cartas. Los más comunes son Five-card draw y Badugi.
• Poker descubierto: cada jugador recibe una combinación de cartas cubiertas y descubiertas en múltiples rondas de apuestas. Los juegos más comunes son Seven-card stud y Five-card stud.
• Poker con cartas comunitarias: cada jugador recibe una mano incompleta cubierta, que se combina con cartas comunitarias descubiertas. Los juegos más comunes son Texas hold ’em (el más famoso) y Omaha hold ’em.

Explico cómo jugar al Texas hold’em en el siguiente artículo Poker 102: Reglas básicas.