Real Money Texas Hold’em Games

If you ask the casual observer, all poker is the No Limit Texas Hold’em they see exclusively on TV. But part of what makes poker such an interesting game to millions of actual players around the world is the wide variety of types of poker played. Each game has its particular rules and dynamics. Some poker games involve small regular bets, while others risk everything in your stack. Some poker games prioritize the highest possible cards, while others value having the lowest cards in your hand. Some poker games share communal cards, while others draw cards individually. With all these different permutations, it could be argued that there is some variant of poker that suits every possible type of card player, strategy, and sentiment. Whether you are impulsive or methodical, passive or aggressive, there is a poker variant for you.

Different Poker Elements

The first distinction to note when understanding all the different varieties of poker is to look at the betting structure. Each of these three varieties of betting limits can be applied to the main poker variants that will be described further below.

• Limit - The fixed limit form of poker constrains all bets to the size of the big blind or to double the big blind, called the a big bet, at later points in the hand. Limit poker in all its variations is a very different game of math and regular betting where one rarely runs the risk of going broke in a particular hand.
• Pot-Limit – Pot limit poker, most popularly seen in the action game Pot Limit Omaha, allows a maximum at each turn that matches the pot. So your maximum bet can be an amount that equals the existing pot, plus matching any previous bet, and a bet that matches that combination. Pot limit prevents players from going all in easily pre of post flop but can make for big hands and pots if players are aggressive.
• No-Limit – The most popular betting form puts no maximum limit on what you can bet that doesn’t exceed what you have in your own chip stack. You can go broke on any individual hand when you play with players with more chips than you have.

The next element of poker games to understand is the game style. Once again, all three styles can be played amongst the main poker game variants below.

• Multi-Table Tournament – Tournaments can involve a few people up to hundreds or thousands all playing the tournament until they are eliminated and one player remains with all the chips. The blinds increase on a schedule which forces action.
• Single Table Tournament (e.g. SnG) – SnG’s involve one table of play to determine a winner, whether it starts with 9,6 or 2 people originally. Blinds increase as play progresses.
• Cash Game – Cash games have no artificial starting or ending point, players play for cash results accumulated or lost against anywhere from one to eight other opponents. The blinds never increase.

Add to the above elements the variable blind structure applicable to all but cash games and you have the possible recipe for many different types of poker games. Each tournament and Sit ‘n Go has a different blind structure and time frame of blind increases that varies the pace of the game. You can’t play the same way if the blind structure is a faster turbo style with short blind levels versus a longer World Series of Poker main event blind structure where the blind levels increase every two hours. They require different skill sets and moves to excel at each.

Poker Categories

While there are dozens of poker games that are played casually, with new ones being invented all the time, the most popular poker games fall into three categories.

• 1. Draw Poker – These games involve players dealt a hidden hand that has cards replaced as play progress
• 2. Stud Poker – These games involve players being dealt a combination of face-up and face-down cards over multiple rounds of betting.
• 3. Community Card Poker – These involve player’s incomplete hidden hand is combined with shared face-up cards.

Some of the most popular poker games played:

• No Limit Texas Hold’em – Considered the cadillac of poker for the opportunity to bluff and outplay your opponent, No Limit Texas Hold’em involves being deal two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being dealt face up by the dealer. After the first betting round, the first three cards are dealt (called the flop) and a betting round, then the fourth card (the turn) another betting round, then the final card (the river) and the final betting round. Each player still in the hand has the opportunity to check, bet, raise, or fold. As the name implies, there is never a limit as to how much they can bet each round so the games can have wild swings and aggression. Only the hands that make it to showdown, having met all the bet or calls, are shown to see which is strongest and wins the pot. If you had the strongest hand, but folded during play because you feared a stronger hand, you don’t win the hand. The goal is not necessarily to win every hand, but rather to make the best possible decisions at each step and have your winning hand results overcome your losing hand results.
• Limit Texas Hold’em – Another popular form of community card poker but with limit betting structure that forces the game into a capped environment that makes your decisions more mechanical, mathematical and predictable. Unlike NLHE, you can’t really be pushed off a hand (bluffed).
• Pot Limit Omaha – Pot Limit Omaha is an increasingly popular community card game where you are dealt four cards down and work off a community board the same as in Hold’em. The difference is you must always use two of your down cards to make your final hand, whereas in Hold’em you can use one or even play the board if it’s better than your dealt cards. People enjoy PLO because it seems many more hands are playable and there are more options to make hands. The average hand strength made is considerably higher and for those who love action, it’s a great game. But if everyone can make a decent hand, then the equity favorites of NLHE are gone in the face of much closer hand equities that mean it’s often correct to stay in a hand (pot odds) even though you know you are behind. PLO is very much a drawing game where the best hand on the flop is often not the best hand on the river.
• Omaha8 – The major difference to PLO is that with your four down cards, you are trying to make the best high and and best low hand if there are five combined cards below an 8. So it is a split pot game where you can win just the high hand, the low hand, tie for a partial or scoop the entire pot.
• 7 Card Stud – The most popular variant of Stud involves a series of seven cards being dealt alternately face down and face up for each player with betting rounds that are most often limit and increase from the big blind to double that (a big bet) for the last three rounds. To a beginner, 7 Card Stud can seem like a complicated game. Once a few hands have been played, it actually will seem quite easy to play, but there are many nuances to the game where the casual player will make regular mistakes and where you can profit. Once a player has a firm grasp on the rules of 7 Card Stud, they can then focus on advanced concepts such as bluffing and board texture and start working on making a regular profit.
• Razz - Razz is a variation on 7 Card Stud where instead of the highest hand winning, it is the lowest or worst hand that wins the pot. The lowest possible hand, also called “the wheel” is A-2-3-4-5, because straights and flushes don’t count against a hand being low, and aces are counted as low. It is a refreshing departure from most poker games where achieving a high card hand is your goal. In Razz, you value the lowest cards. There are no non qualifying hands, like a hi-lo game. Any hand can win, even one with a pair in it, although that is unlikely.
• 5 Card Draw - This draw game is often the first variant of poker that people learn because it is such a simple game where everyone receives five cards and must choose to replace up to three cards to make the best possible hand. There are heavy psychological elements to this game with room for a lot of bluffing because no card are seen.
• Mixed Games (i.e. HORSE, HA, Ten Game Mix etc.) – For poker players who enjoy the variety of formats that poker offers, H.O.R.S.E. or one of the mixed game formats are very popular. They require a good understanding of many different games and strategies in poker. H.O.R.S.E. is the most well known of the mixed games and stands for Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Stud, and 7 Card Stud 8 or better. Most of the world’s best players relish the opportunity to play multiple games against each other rather than just focusing on one game exclusively.

Online poker rooms, in particular, have looked to innovate new formats to entice more people to poker. For instance, Full Tilt Poker introduced the fast paced, no waiting Rush Poker which significantly increases the pace of the game you are playing by re-seating you at a new table of players as soon as you fold. There are also a myriad of different tournament and Sit n Go formats; including rebuys (buy back in if you bust out the first hour), deep stack (2x the normal starting stack), cash out (allowing you to cash out part of your chip stack during the tournament), matrix (different formula for dividing the prize pool in multi table Sit n Go’s), double or nothing (different payout formula in Sit n Go), steps (tiered Sit n Go format), shootouts (several one table eliminations during a tournament) and knockouts (where every player has a partial bounty on their head). Each new variant of poker introduces different strategic and psychological considerations.

No matter your skill level, temperament, level of patience, or aggression, there is a variety of poker that will suit your game. Established players will often play different card game formats depending on their mood or how they are running lately. Playing a different variety is a good way to keep the game fresh and interesting. It forces your mind to keep sharp as you adapt to the new dynamics. For anyone who says poker is boring, they haven’t tried all the different variants yet. Get out there and see what suits you best.