Poker

Poker has many variations, all following a similar pattern of play. There are three main families of variants, largely grouped by the protocol of card-dealing and betting: Stud - Cards are dealt in a prearranged combination of face-down and face-up rounds or "streets", with a round of betting following each. This is the oldest Poker family; 3 card and 5 card stud variants were popular as of the late 1700's. The most popular stud variant today, 7 card stud, deals two extra cards to each player from which they must make the best possible 5-card hand. Draw - All cards are dealt face-down, the hand is dealt all at once, and at a given point during play of the hand, players are allowed to attempt to change their hand by discarding unwanted cards and being dealt new ones. 5 card draw is the most famous variation in this family. Community - A variation of Stud, players are dealt an incomplete hand of face-down cards, and then a number of face-up "community" cards are dealt to the center of the table, each of which can be used by one or more of the players to make a 5-card hand. Texas hold-em and Omaha are two well-known variants of the Community family. Other games that use poker hand rankings may likewise be referred to as "poker". Video poker is a single-player computer game that functions much like a slot machine.