Some poker games just don't fit neatly into the categories of draw poker, stud poker, or community card poker, and some have features of more than one of these categories. The poker room at the Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, NJ. Poker is a card game, the most popular of a class of games called vying games, in which players with fully or partially concealed cards make wagers into a central pot, which is awarded to the remaining player or... Draw poker is any poker variant in which each player is dealt a complete hand before the first betting round, and then develops the hand for later rounds by replacing cards. ... Stud poker is any of a number of poker variants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. ... Probably starting about the time of World War II, many modern poker games used community cards (also called shared cards or widow cards), which are cards dealt face up to the center of the table and shared by all players. ...

Stud Horse poker

Stud Horse poker is mentioned in the California law books as one of the gambling games prohibited in California's card rooms. There is no definition for it under the law, however. It appears not to be Stud poker, which is not prohibited and is offered in several variations in California card rooms. Stud poker is any of a number of poker variants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. ...

Oxford stud

Though called "stud", this is a combination stud/community card game that was popular at MIT in the 1960s, in which players receive individual downcards, individual upcards, and community cards. Many variations on this are possible by changing what kinds of cards and how many are dealt in various rounds. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research and educational institution located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. MIT is a world leader in science and technology, as well as in many other fields, including engineering systems, management, economics, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. ...

One difficulty with such a combination is deciding the betting order: in stud games, the player with the best upcards showing bets first in each round (except sometimes the first, where the worst upcard is forced to begin the betting with a Bring-in). In community card games, each betting begins with the same player (because there generally are no upcards), making it more positional. Oxford stud chooses to use the players' individual upcards for determining order, which makes it play more like stud. The game of poker as played today requires that players agree before play on allowable amounts for betting (called limits), and the use and amount of forced bets. ...

First, each player is dealt two downcards and one upcard as in seven-card stud, followed by a first betting round. Like stud, the game is usually played with a Bring-in, the lowest upcard being forced to pay it, and betting follows after that. After the first round is complete, two community cards are dealt to the table, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the highest-ranking incomplete poker hand (as in stud) made from his upcard plus the two community cards. For example, if one player has a K upcard, and a second player has a 7 upcard, and the community cards are T-7 (T = 10), the second player bets first (since he has a pair of 7s, and the other player only has K-high). Then a second upcard is dealt to each player, followed by a third betting round, again beginning with the player who can make the best partial hand with his two upcards and the board. Finally, a third community card is dealt to table, followed by a fourth betting round and showdown. Note that as with Mississippi stud, each player has five cards of his hand exposed at this point (two of his own plus three on the board), so it is possible for a flush or straight to be the high hand for the purpose of first bet. At showdown each player makes the best five-card hand he can from the four cards he is dealt plus the three community cards, in any combination. This game is usually played High-low split. The game of poker as played today requires that players agree before play on allowable amounts for betting (called limits), and the use and amount of forced bets. ... In physics, a force is an external cause responsible for any change of a physical system. ... For methods of splitting a pot, see Splitting poker pots. ...

Billabong (and Shanghai)

Just as Oxford stud is a mixed stud/community card version of Texas hold'em, Billabong is a mixed version of Manila. Each player is dealt two downcards and one upcard. Low upcard starts the betting with a Bring-in if you are playing with one, otherwise high card starts the betting. Next, two community cards are dealt, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the best exposed partial poker hand (counting the community cards, as in Oxford stud). Then a third community card is dealt, followed by a third betting round. Finally a fourth community card and fourth betting round and showdown. Each player plays the best five-card hand he can make from the three in his hand plus the four on the board in any combination. Texas hold em (or simply hold em or holdem) is the most popular of the community card poker games. ... The game of poker as played today requires that players agree before play on allowable amounts for betting (called limits), and the use and amount of forced bets. ...

Shanghai is the same game with an extra hole card, but no more than two hole cards play. That is, the game begins with each player being dealt three downcards and one upcard; each player must discard one of his hole cards at some point during the game as determined ahead of time. The most common variation is to discard immediately as in Pineapple; the second most common is to discard just before showdown as in Tahoe.

Guts

Guts is quite different from most other poker games (in fact classifying it as a poker game at all is somewhat questionable). Rather than the customary rounds of betting followed by a single showdown, guts features multiple rounds, each of which consist of the decision to be "in" or "out", and each of which contains a showdown. Only the players who stay "in" participate in the showdown. In the most common version, the player who stays in with the best hand receives the current pot, while all other players who stayed in must match the pot. (For example, if the pot is $5 and three people stay in, then one player will receive the $5 pot and two players will be forced to add $5 each to the pot, thus doubling it.) Then the hand is re-dealt, and all players (even those who were "out" in the last round) can participate again. The game ends when only a single player has the guts to stay "in", and thus the pot is taken without replenishment. In all poker games, if more than one player remains after the last betting round, all of the players expose and compare their hands to determine the winner or winners. ...

Each player's hand usually consists of a reduced poker hand of either 2 or 3 cards. The cards are ranked as in regular 5-card poker, but in some variations straights and flushes count and in some they do not.

Another variation is for three-card guts. The hands are ranked as follows: Three of a kind, straight flush, straight, flush, pair. Each player receives two cards face down. In turn, each player declares whether they're in or out. If they're in, they receive their third card face up. The dealer declares last; if no other player has stayed in, then the dealer must have a pair or better to win the pot. Another variation is for the other players to have another chance to declare and challenge the dealer. With this variation, there is no requirement for the dealer's hand; if no one challenges him, the dealer wins.

Declaring "in" or "out" is similar to declaring high or low in high-low games. Each player takes a chip, places their hands under the table, and either places the chip in one fist or not. Each player then holds their closed fist above the table, and the players simultaneously open their hands to reveal their decision (a chip represents "in", an empty hand represents "out"). There are several actions in poker called declaration, in which a player formally expresses his intent to take some action (which he is then required to perform at a later point). ... For methods of splitting a pot, see Splitting poker pots. ...

Because the pot can double (or more) each round, the stakes can grow exponentially, and pots of 50 or 100 times the original ante are not unheard of. In mathematics, a quantity that grows exponentially is one that grows at a rate proportional to its size. ...

There are many variations. Sometimes only the single player with the worst hand (who stayed in) must add to the pot, but they must double the pot rather than match it. In an especially vicious variation, nobody wins the pot unless nobody else stays in. This can degenerate quickly, when one player must add a large amount to the pot, and decides to stay in until he wins it back. Thus the game continues indefinitely, with one player continually adding larger and larger amounts to the pot. The pot may grow so big that no player has enough cash to match it, leading to arguments about how to end the game. (This variation is not recommended when playing among friends. Often this variation is abandoned after the first really big pot leads to conflict.)

One solution to the exponentially growing pots is to cap them at 50x or 100x the ante. That is, if there are 5 players with an ante of $1, the pot started at $5. If there were 3 doublings, the pot is now at $40. Suppose the "cap the pot at $50" rule were in force. Then, if another doubling occurred, each loser would pay $40, but the pot would now be at $50 and the extra $30 would be set aside as the ante once there's a hand with a winner and no loser.

Blind Man's Bluff

Blind Man's Bluff is a version of poker in which a player sees the cards that would generally be visible to the other players, but does not see his own. It can be played with just one card ("Indian Poker"), as a community card poker game, or as five-card stud. Blind mans bluff is a version of poker which is unconventional in that each person sees the cards of all players except his own. ... Probably starting about the time of World War II, many modern poker games used community cards (also called shared cards or widow cards), which are cards dealt face up to the center of the table and shared by all players. ...

See also: Non-standard poker hands Non-standard poker hands are hands which are not recognized by official poker rules but are created by house rules. ...

External links

• Joker Poker Site Devoted One Of the Variants Of Poker
• Pai Gow Poker
• Poker Three
• Red Dog Poker
• Poker Rules