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Types of poker games

Every poker game falls into one of three families: community card games like Texas Hold'em and Omaha, stud games where some of your cards are dealt face up, and draw games where you swap cards. Here are the common ones side by side, with how many different starting hands each one can deal you.

Lesson: Seven cards, best five (needs an invite). In the glossary: Hand rankings, Omaha (PLO), Hi-lo (eight or better). How the numbers are made.

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Common poker games compared
GameFamilyYour first cardsShared cardsBetting roundsHow a hand is made
Texas Hold'emCommunity cards254Best five of your two cards and the five on the board, using any mix
OmahaCommunity cards454Exactly two of your four cards with exactly three from the board
Five-card Omaha (Big O)Community cards554Exactly two of your five cards with exactly three from the board
Short deckCommunity cards254As Hold'em, with the twos to fives taken out
PineappleCommunity cards354As Hold'em after you throw one of your three cards away before the flop
Seven-card studStud3none5Best five of your own seven cards, four of them face up
Five-card studStud2none4Your five cards, one hidden and four face up
RazzStud3none5Lowest five of your seven cards; straights and flushes do not count
Five-card drawDraw5none2Your five cards after one chance to swap some of them
2-7 triple drawDraw5none4Lowest five after three draws; aces are high and straights count against you
BadugiDraw4none4Four low cards of four different suits and four different ranks

How many starting hands each game can deal

  • Texas Hold'em1,326
  • Omaha270,725
  • Five-card Omaha (Big O)2,598,960
  • Short deck630
  • Pineapple22,100
  • Seven-card stud22,100
  • Five-card stud1,326
  • Razz22,100
  • Five-card draw2,598,960
  • 2-7 triple draw2,598,960
  • Badugi270,725
The number of different sets of first cards, on a log scale: each step along the bar is ten times more. Short deck deals from 36 cards.

Community card games

Everyone shares the cards on the board and holds a few of their own. Texas Hold'em gives you two; gives you four but makes you use exactly two of them with three from the board. Five-card Omaha, Pineapple and short deck change the number of cards or the deck.

  • Texas Hold'em: best five of your two cards and the five on the board, using any mix.
  • Omaha: exactly two of your four cards with exactly three from the board.
  • Five-card Omaha (Big O): exactly two of your five cards with exactly three from the board.
  • Short deck: as Hold'em, with the twos to fives taken out.
  • Pineapple: as Hold'em after you throw one of your three cards away before the flop.

Stud games

There is no shared board. Each player gets some cards face down and some face up, one at a time, with a round of betting after each new card. In seven-card stud you get three to start, four more one by one, and use your best five. Seeing other players' up cards tells you which cards are gone. Stud games use antes and a bring-in bet instead of blinds.

  • Seven-card stud: best five of your own seven cards, four of them face up.
  • Five-card stud: your five cards, one hidden and four face up.
  • Razz: lowest five of your seven cards; straights and flushes do not count.

Draw games

You get a full hand at once and improve it by throwing cards away and drawing new ones. Five-card draw is the classic home game. Lowball draw games such as 2-7 triple draw and badugi turn the rankings over: the lowest hand wins.

  • Five-card draw: your five cards after one chance to swap some of them.
  • 2-7 triple draw: lowest five after three draws; aces are high and straights count against you.
  • Badugi: four low cards of four different suits and four different ranks.

Short deck: why a flush beats a full house

Short deck, or six-plus Hold'em, removes the twos to fives, leaving 36 cards. With fewer cards of each suit, flushes get much rarer, and the order of the hands changes to match. Counting all 376,992 five-card hands from the short deck against the 2,598,960 from a full deck:

Five-card hands in a 36-card and a 52-card deck
HandShort deckShareFull deck share
Straight flush240.0064%0.0015%
Four of a kind2880.0764%0.0240%
Flush4800.13%0.20%
Full house1,7280.46%0.14%
Three of a kind16,1284.28%2.11%
Straight6,1201.62%0.39%
Two pair36,2889.63%4.75%
One pair193,53651.34%42.26%
High card122,40032.47%50.12%

In the short deck there are 480 flushes and 1,728 full houses, so the flush ranks higher. Rooms differ on three of a kind and the straight: some keep the straight higher, as in the five-card counts above, and others, Triton among them, put three of a kind above it. Check the house rule before you play. An ace also plays low in A-6-7-8-9, the short-deck wheel.

Mixed games

Some games rotate through several variants. The best known is HORSE: Hold'em, Omaha , Razz, seven-card Stud and Stud eight-or-better, usually played fixed-limit and switched every orbit or every level. The guide to poker variants goes further into where each game came from.