Community Card or “Flop” Poker – this is a variation of Stud Poker (see below) wherein the players are dealt a hand of cards (placed face down) as well as an incomplete hand.  A number of “community” or face up cards are then aligned in the centre of the gaming table.  Any one or more of the players can use each of these cards in order to attain the highest five card hand possible.  Omaha and Texas Hold ‘em are the two most common variants of Community Card or Flop Poker.

Draw Poker – each player is dealt a face down hand of five cards, and once they bet they try to improve their hands by discarding certain cards for new ones.  The most famous variation of this poker game’s family is known as 5-Card Draw.

Straight Poker – each player is dealt a hand of five cards and there is only one betting round.  Interestingly enough, this variation was derived from the Renaissance card game called Primero and evolved into Three-Card Brag, a gentleman’s game which was extremely popular during the Revolutionary War and which is still a UK favourite today.

Stud Poker – a more recent variation of Straight Poker wherein a specified number of cards are dealt (usually 5 or 7) in specified face down and face up order (often referred to as “streets” depending on where you are playing the game) with betting rounds following each card.  The most popular version of this variant is 7-Card Stud.  Each player is dealt two cards face up, three cards face down, and two cards face up.

Feb 18 2010