Types of Poker

How Many Types of Poker Are There?

There are dozens of poker variants, but they fall into four families: community cardgames (Texas Hold’em, Omaha), stud games (Seven-Card Stud, Razz), draw games (Five-Card Draw), and house-banked casino table games(Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Three Card Poker, Pai Gow). Every one of them uses the same standard poker hand rankings — what changes is how you receive cards and how the betting works.

If you’re new, start with Texas Hold’em: it’s the most popular, the easiest to find games for, and the best-supported by strategy content. Learn the rules, keep a cheat sheet handy, and play unlimited free hands at our Texas Hold’em table — then branch out to the other variants.

The Three Families of Poker

Every player-vs-player poker variant belongs to one of three structural families, and understanding them makes any new game easier to pick up.

Community-card games(Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Short Deck) deal each player a small set of private “hole” cards and then reveal shared “community” cards in the center of the table that everyone can use. The skill lives in how you combine your private cards with the public ones.

Stud games(Seven-Card Stud, Razz) have no community cards at all. Each player receives their own mix of face-up and face-down cards across multiple betting streets, so reading opponents’ exposed cards is as important as the strength of your own hand.

Draw games (Five-Card Draw) give each player a complete private hand upfront, then allow one or more rounds of discarding and drawing replacement cards. No cards are ever visible to other players until showdown, which makes hand-reading a pure inference exercise. Across all three families, the standard poker hand rankingsapply identically — a flush beats a straight whether you’re playing Hold’em, Stud, or Draw (with one exception: Short Deck, covered below).

A Closer Look at Each Variant

Texas Hold’em

Each player receives two private hole cards and shares five community cards dealt in three stages — the flop (three cards), the turn (one card), and the river (one card) — with a betting round after each. You make the best five-card hand from any combination of your two hole cards and the five community cards. Texas Hold’em is the game of the World Series of Poker Main Event and the most widely available poker variant in both live card rooms and online. Play a free hand at our Texas Hold’em table or read the full rules.

Omaha & Pot-Limit Omaha

Omaha uses the same community-card structure as Hold’em but deals each player four hole cards instead of two. The critical rule: you must use exactly twoof your hole cards and exactly three community cards to form your five-card hand — no more, no fewer. This one rule creates dramatically bigger hands on average (full houses and flushes are common), makes strong draws more valuable, and requires tighter starting-hand selection than Hold’em. The dominant form is Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO), where the maximum raise is the size of the pot, producing large multi-way pots and swings that dwarf those in No-Limit Hold’em. PLO is the second most popular poker variant in the world.

Seven-Card Stud

Before Texas Hold’em took over in the early 2000s, Seven-Card Stud was the game most associated with poker. There are no community cards and no flop. Each player receives seven cards of their own — two face-down, four face-up over successive betting rounds, and a final card face-down — and makes the best five-card hand from those seven. Because opponents’ face-up cards are visible to everyone, a key skill is tracking which cards are “dead” (already dealt to others) and adjusting your drawing odds accordingly. See our Seven-Card Stud guide for a full rules walkthrough.

Five-Card Draw

Five-Card Draw is the oldest and simplest poker variant still played today. Each player is dealt five private cards, there is a round of betting, and then each player may discard any number of cards and draw replacements from the deck. A final betting round follows, then showdown. Because no cards are ever exposed before showdown, the game rewards position, betting patterns, and reads on how many cards an opponent drew. It is an excellent game for learning the basics of pot odds and bluffing. See our Five-Card Draw guide for rules and strategy.

Short Deck / Six-Plus Hold’em

Short Deck Hold’em uses a standard Hold’em structure — two hole cards, five community cards — but strips the deck down to 36 cards by removing all twos, threes, fours, and fives. The smaller deck fundamentally changes the math: flushes become harder to make relative to full houses, so a flush beats a full house in Short Deck (the reverse of standard rankings). Straights are easier to hit because the gap between 6 and Ace is narrower. Action runs hot because strong hands arrive far more often, making Short Deck a favorite in high-stakes cash games in Asia and in tournament mixed-game events.

Razz & Lowball

Razz is Seven-Card Stud played in reverse: the lowestfive-card hand wins. Aces are always low, and straights and flushes do not count against you, so the best possible hand is A-2-3-4-5 (the “wheel”). Razz rewards an entirely different skill set from standard poker — reading when an opponent with strong-looking upcards actually holds a weak low hand, and vice versa. Lowball is the draw-game equivalent of the same concept: Five-Card Draw where the lowest hand wins, with variants like 2-7 Triple Draw (three drawing rounds, 2-7-4-5-3 is the nuts) popular in mixed-game rotations.

Casino House Games

Casino table-game poker pits you against the dealer rather than other players, with fixed payouts on a paytable. There is no pot to win, no bluffing opponents, and no chip stacks to manage — just a hand comparison and a payout if you win.

• Ultimate Texas Hold’em — Uses Hold’em cards (two hole cards, five community) but you play against the dealer for a fixed paytable. The strategic twist is choosing when to bet 4×, 2×, or 1× your ante, or to check and see more cards first. Optimal play requires knowing the house edge for each bet-sizing decision.
• Pai Gow Poker — You receive seven cards and split them into a five-card high hand and a two-card low hand; both must beat the dealer’s corresponding hands to win. The split decision is the core skill. Ties (“copies”) go to the dealer. The slower pace and frequent pushes make Pai Gow one of the lowest-volatility casino card games.
• Three Card Poker — Each player and the dealer receive exactly three cards. You can make an Ante bet (compete against the dealer), a Pair Plus bet (paid on your hand alone regardless of the dealer), or both. Pair Plus is a pure paytable bet with no decision required; the Ante game requires only one choice: play or fold.

Betting Structures: No-Limit, Pot-Limit & Fixed-Limit

The betting structure of a poker game is independent of the variant — Texas Hold’em, Omaha, and Stud can each be played under any of the three main structures. The structure determines how much you can bet or raise, and it changes the character of the game more than almost any other single rule.

No-Limit (NL).You can bet any amount up to your full stack at any time. A player holding $200 in chips can move all-in for $200 on any street, regardless of the pot size. No-Limit rewards large-bet pressure and big bluffs, and it is why Texas Hold’em — almost always played No-Limit — is so dramatic. Example: the blinds are $1/$2, the pot is $8 after the flop, and you can bet $200 all-in if you choose.

Pot-Limit (PL). The maximum bet or raise is the current size of the pot, including any calls made before the raise. This caps aggression compared to No-Limit while still allowing large bets as the pot grows. Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) is the dominant form of this structure and is the second most popular game in the world. Example: the pot is $20 and you can bet a maximum of $20; if called, the pot becomes $60 and the next player can raise up to $60.

Fixed-Limit (FL).Every bet and raise is a fixed, predetermined amount — typically one “small bet” on the first two streets and one “large bet” on the last two, with a cap of three or four raises per street. Fixed-Limit Hold’em was the dominant form of the game before the No-Limit TV boom of the 2000s. Seven-Card Stud is almost always played Fixed-Limit. Example: in $2/$4 Limit, every preflop and flop bet is $2; every turn and river bet is $4, and you can only raise three times per street. The fixed amounts reduce the intimidation factor and make pot-odds decisions more mechanical, which is one reason Limit is sometimes recommended for complete beginners as a controlled learning environment.

Which Poker Variant Should You Learn First?

Start with No-Limit Texas Hold’em. The reasons are practical, not theoretical. First, it is the most available game — you will find it in every card room, every major online site, and every home game that knows the rules. Second, learning resources are deepest: books, videos, solver tools, and free games like the one on this site are built around Hold’em. Third, its core concepts — position, pot odds, reading board texture, value betting and bluffing — transfer cleanly to every other variant. Master these in Hold’em and the learning curve for Omaha or Stud flattens significantly.

Once you are comfortable with Hold’em — meaning you understand hand strength, position, pot odds, and basic aggression — Pot-Limit Omahais the natural second game. The community-card structure is identical; the adjustment is the “must use exactly two hole cards” rule and the recalibration of hand strength (top pair is far weaker in PLO; strong draws are far more valuable). After Omaha, Seven-Card Stud rounds out your skills by introducing the no-community-card paradigm and the discipline of tracking dead cards.

Begin with the Texas Hold’em rules if you are brand new, keep the cheat sheet open for hand rankings, and play free unlimited hands at our Hold’em table until the decisions feel natural. Then come back here and pick the next variant that interests you.

FAQ

What are the most popular types of poker?

Texas Hold'em is by far the most popular, followed by Pot-Limit Omaha. Seven-Card Stud and Five-Card Draw were the classics before Hold'em's boom. In casinos, Ultimate Texas Hold'em, Three Card Poker, and Pai Gow Poker are the most common table-game versions.

What is the difference between Hold'em and Omaha?

Both are community-card games, but in Texas Hold'em you get two hole cards and use any combination, while in Omaha you get four hole cards and must use exactly two of them with three community cards. Omaha makes bigger hands more often.

Which type of poker is easiest to learn?

Five-Card Draw is the simplest — you get one hand, swap some cards once, and show down. Texas Hold'em is the best to learn next because it's everywhere and the strategy resources (like this site) are deepest.

What is the difference between poker variants and casino poker?

In traditional poker variants (Hold'em, Omaha, Stud, Draw) you play against other players for a shared pot. In casino table-game poker (Ultimate Texas Hold'em, Three Card, Pai Gow) you play against the house for fixed payouts — no bluffing other players.

What is the most popular poker variant?

Texas Hold'em is the most popular poker variant in the world by a wide margin. It is the game played in the World Series of Poker Main Event, the most widely available poker game in both live card rooms and online, and the variant with the largest library of strategy content for players at every level.

What is the easiest poker game for beginners?

Texas Hold'em is the best starting point for most beginners because the rules are simple — two hole cards, five community cards, best hand wins — and the abundance of free games, tutorials, and strategy guides makes learning fast. Five-Card Draw is technically simpler (one hand, one draw, showdown), but it is rarely played in card rooms or online, so learning it provides little practical payoff compared to Hold'em.

What is the difference between Omaha and Texas Hold'em?

Both games deal shared community cards on a flop, turn, and river, but Omaha gives each player four hole cards instead of two — and here is the key rule: you must use exactly two of your hole cards combined with exactly three community cards to make your five-card hand. This 'must use exactly two' rule creates bigger hands on average (full houses and flushes appear much more often than in Hold'em), makes draws more powerful, and generally calls for tighter hand selection before the flop.