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Poker Games at Your Favorite Sites

There are almost as many poker variations as there are possible bad beats to your regular monster hand. Due to popular demand, poker sites focus pretty much on Holdem, Omaha and 7 Card Stud - in that order. Some throw in 5 Card Draw or Razz to spice things up for you. Only very few go all the way and offer games like Pineapple and Badugi, or even mixed games like HORSE, SHOE, RASH and HA.

Poker Games – Detailed Walkthrough of the Poker Rooms

In the list below you’ll find all poker games that are available at all the most popular poker sites. From Texas Holdem and Omaha to some that you may not even have heard of yet.

Once you’re up in speed when it comes to Texas Holdem, don’t hesitate to try other poker games. For the fun, of course, but also because trying other poker games may improve your holdem game quite a bit.

Always a New Poker Card Game to Enjoy

Mankind has invented more card games than there are grains of sand in Nevada, almost. Even if you restrict your research to poker card games, numbers threaten to get astronomical. See for instance the book "Dealer's Choice" by Ernest, Foglio & Selinker for a list of 200 playable poker card games.

Once you feel comfortable with Texas Holdem, Seven-Card Stud or whatever poker game you started out in, you’ll discover that learning other internet poker games is a great pleasure. Even if you prefer one particular poker game, like Omaha high/low or crazy pineapple, varying the poker games not only gives you diversified stimulation, it also helps you improve your favorite poker game.

All online poker games are different, but there are parallels between them. What you discover in one poker game can come in handy in other poker games as well. If you play Hold’em and, say, Omaha is far from your best poker game, some low-stake Omaha may improve your overall poker knowledge. When learning multiple pokergames you get a chance to look at poker strategy from a different angle.

Let’s have a look at the most important poker games online that you can find when you download poker games at the biggest poker sites.

Texas holdem

Texas holdem is the most popular of all poker games today. Each player has two hole cards, five community cards are dealt on the board and there are four rounds of betting. If the game goes to showdown, the highest hand wins the pot. Today, Texas poker games are the most popular poker variations, and often when someone talks about “poker”, he actually refers to Texas poker game.

Omaha

Omaha is the second most popular variation of all online poker card games. It is exactly like Texas holdem with two exceptions: Each player receives four hole cards, and you must use exactly two of them together with three of the community cards to form your best five card poker hand. Omaha is mostly played as fixed limit or pot limit.

Omaha high/low

In high/low games, half the pot is won by the player who shows down the lowest hand. Straights and flushes are neglected in the low hands, so in Omaha high/low the lowest possible hand is A2345. A low hand cannot contain any card over eight (that’s why it’s often called eight-or-better). If there’s no low hand, the highest hand wins the whole pot.

Seven card stud

Seven card stud is the most traditional poker game in the US and North America, being played by grand children and grand parents at every other the kitchen table. Each player is dealt two concealed cards and one open card. Then successively each player receives three more open cards and then one last card face down. In seven card stud, there are five rounds of betting.

Seven card stud high/low

Just like seven card stud, only that the lowest hand wins half the pot. The lowest possible hand is A2345, regardless of suits. As in Omaha high/low, there’s a qualifier for the low hands. They cannot contain any card over eight. When no low hand is present, the whole pot goes to the highest hand.

Razz

Razz is the short name for seven card stud low. This game is played just like seven card stud, only that the lowest hand wins the whole pot. High hands don’t count at all. Since there are no high hands in Razz, there’s also no qualifier on low hands. That is, they are not limited to cards below nines.

Crazy Pineapple

Crazy pineapple has become very popular in the latest years. In this poker game, each player receives three hole cards. After the betting on the flop has been terminated, each remaining player must discard one card. From there, the game is played exactly like Texas holdem.

Five card stud

In five card stud, or 5 stud, Each player receives one card face down and one open card. Then, successively, three more open cards are dealt to each player, with betting in between for a total of four betting rounds. The highest hand wins the pot.

Five card draw

Five card draw (5 draw) is another very classical poker game. For many, this game is simply “poker”. Each player is dealt five cards face down. After one round of betting each remaining player can discard any number of his or her cards and draw the same number of new cards from the deck. Then there’s a last betting round and a showdown.

2-7 triple draw

This poker game has seen a huge rise in popularity, not only among high stakes professionals. It plays like five card draw, but players draw new cards three times instead of just once. Contrary to five card draw, in this poker game the lowest hand wins the whole pot. Aces count as high cards and straights are not neglected. Like this, the lowest hand in 2-7 triple draw is 2-3-4-5-7, which explains the name of the game.

A-5 lowball

This poker game is played like 2-7 triple draw, except that aces are low and any straights or flushes are left unnoticed. Players hold five concealed cards and can exchange any number of them for new cards a total of three times. The best hand is A-2-3-4-5.

HORSE, SHOE, RASH, HO, HA, 8-game

All these games are called mixed and are the best poker games according to most pros. Basically you can put together any list of poker games and name it according to the abbreviations for the included games: H = holdem, A = Omaha, O = Omaha high/low, S = seven card stud, E = seven card stud high/low (Eight or better), R = Razz, T = triple draw. The game called 8-game is a Poker Stars specialty. In 2008 WSOP there was a seven-games mixed event. The hilarious editors at Poker Junkie quickly found the appropriate name for it: HOTARSE.

Download Poker Games - Easy Peasy

Downloading poker games is typically a piece of cake. Just click the Download button and then a couple of times on OK. The poker rooms provide step by step instructions too.

Most poker clients are not particularly large when it comes to file sizes, downloads range from from maybe 6 to 30 MB or so. One exception is 3D graphic paradise PKR, but even the PKR download stops at 56 MB of your hard disk space.

When you’ve been playing online poker for a couple of years, chances are you have downloaded a number of poker sites, maybe even a large number if you’re an avid bonus hunter (which we recommend). Then you might want to start cleaning up a bit. No problem, just uninstall the poker clients you don’t use anymore.

With this scenario in mind, it might also be a good idea to jot down your log-in names and passwords for the poker sites in some document so you can keep track of them. Preferably right after you download the poker software and register your account. At the same time, take two seconds and delete the download package. Once the software is installed, the download package will not be needed again.