TL;DR
Poker is not one game, it is a family of games built on the same foundation of ranked hands and strategic betting, played out in dramatically different ways. All poker variants fall into three structural categories: community card games (Texas Hold’em, Omaha), stud games (Seven Card Stud, Razz), and draw games (Five Card Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw). Beyond those categories sit mixed game formats like HORSE, which rotate through multiple variants, and newer action games like Short Deck.
This list of poker variants guide covers every major variant worth knowing, with enough detail to understand what makes each one distinct.
The Three Families of Poker
Before getting into individual games, it helps to understand the structural categories every variant falls into. The rules of betting, hand rankings, and the goal, make the best five-card hand or make everyone fold, are universal. What differs is how the cards are dealt and how much information players share.
Community card games deal each player private hole cards, then place shared cards in the centre of the table that all players use. Texas Hold’em and Omaha are the two dominant examples. The shared cards create a common point of reference – every player is working from the same board.
Stud games deal each player a mix of face-up and face-down cards individually. There are no community cards. The face-up cards provide information about opponents’ hands, and reading the “board” of exposed cards is a central skill. Seven Card Stud and Razz are the main stud variants.
Draw games deal each player a complete private hand, then allow them to discard cards and draw replacements to improve their holding. There is no shared board. Five Card Draw is the classic; 2-7 Triple Draw allows three rounds of drawing.
Mixed games like HORSE rotate through variants from multiple families within the same session or tournament.
Read More: Texas Hold’em Rules: The Complete Beginner Guide
Community Card Games
Texas Hold’em
The most played poker game in the world. Each player gets two private hole cards and five community cards are dealt in three stages: the flop (three cards), the turn (one card), and the river (one card). Players use any combination of their two hole cards and the five community cards to make their best five-card hand. No-Limit Hold’em, where any player can go all-in at any time, is the standard format for most tournaments and cash games, including the World Series of Poker Main Event.
Texas Hold’em’s appeal comes from the four betting rounds, the shared information of the community cards, and the balance it strikes between skill and chance.
Read More: Texas Hold’em Rules: The Complete Beginner Guide
Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO)
Each player receives four hole cards. Five community cards are dealt identically to Hold’em. The critical rule: players must use exactly two of their four hole cards and exactly three community cards. PLO is typically played pot-limit, maximum bet equals the current pot size.
The extra hole cards create dramatically more drawing possibilities, and Omaha is widely described as a “game of the nuts” because second-best hands lose big pots with regularity. Preflop equities are far more compressed than in Hold’em, even the best starting hand (A-A-K-K double suited) is only about a 33% favourite against the second-best hand.
PLO5 (five-card Omaha) extends the format with a fifth hole card, producing even more action and bigger drawing combinations.
Read More: Omaha Poker Rules: PLO, PLO5 & Hi-Lo Explained
Omaha Hi-Lo (PLO8)
Identical structure to PLO but the pot is split between the best high hand and the best qualifying low hand. To qualify for the low half, a player must have five unpaired cards all ranked 8 or below (aces count as low). Straights and flushes are ignored for low evaluation. The best low hand is A-2-3-4-5 (the wheel), which is also a straight, giving it both high and low potential in the same hand.
If no qualifying low exists, the high hand wins the entire pot. Getting both high and low is called scooping; getting quartered (tying the low while another player wins high) is one of the most painful outcomes in poker.
Read More: Omaha Poker Rules: PLO, PLO5 & Hi-Lo Explained
Short Deck Poker (Six-Plus Hold’em)
Played with a 36-card deck created by removing all 2s through 5s. The structure is identical to No-Limit Hold’em, but the altered deck changes hand frequencies, and therefore hand rankings. The key changes:
- A flush beats a full house (flushes are harder to make with only 9 suited cards per suit instead of 13)
- In many variants, three-of-a-kind beats a straight (straights are easier to make with fewer gaps between connected cards)
- The ace plays as the lowest card in straights, making A-6-7-8-9 the lowest possible straight
Short Deck produces more frequent premium hands and more action. The game became famous through high-stakes cash games in Macau around 2015-2018, popularised by players including Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan.
Read More: Poker Hand Rankings: The Complete Guide
Stud Games
Stud games are the oldest form of casino poker. There are no community cards and no dealer button rotating. Instead, each player is dealt their own cards, some face-up for all to see, some face-down only for them. Betting typically starts with the player showing the best (or worst, in lowball) visible hand, and information from exposed cards is the strategic centre of the game.
Stud games use antes (a small forced bet by all players before each hand) instead of blinds, and a bring-in (a mandatory opening bet by the player with the highest or lowest door card, depending on the game).
Seven Card Stud
Seven Card Stud was the dominant form of poker in the United States before Texas Hold’em displaced it following the poker boom of the early 2000s. It remains a feature of HORSE and most major mixed game formats.
How it works:
Each player is dealt seven cards across five betting rounds, described by “streets”:
- Third Street: Two cards face-down (hole cards) + one card face-up (the “door card”). The player with the lowest door card posts the bring-in. Betting proceeds clockwise.
- Fourth Street: Each player receives a second face-up card. The player showing the best two-card combination acts first.
- Fifth Street: A third face-up card is dealt. Betting limits double at this point in fixed-limit games. The player with the best visible hand acts first.
- Sixth Street: A fourth face-up card is dealt. Same structure.
- Seventh Street (the River): Each player receives a final face-down card. Final betting round. Showdown if more than one player remains.
The complete seven-card deal can be summarised as: two down, four up, one down.
At showdown, each player makes the best possible five-card hand from their seven cards using standard poker hand rankings. The remaining two cards are irrelevant.
Key strategic differences from Hold’em:
- No dealer button or positional advantage based on seating, who acts first changes each street based on exposed cards
- Memory is essential: folded face-up cards are dead, and knowing which cards are gone affects your drawing odds
- Fixed-limit betting creates a slower, more deliberate pace where implied odds calculations differ from no-limit games
Seven Card Stud can be played with 2 to 8 players. With 8 players who all stay in to seventh street (8 x 7 = 56 cards), the deck runs out – in that rare case, the final card is dealt as a single community card visible to all.
Razz
Razz is Seven Card Stud played lowball, the lowest hand wins instead of the highest. It has been part of the WSOP since 1971, where it is the “R” in HORSE.
The key rules:
- Seven cards are dealt across five betting streets, identical to Seven Card Stud in structure
- The player with the highest door card posts the bring-in (the opposite of regular Stud, where the lowest card brings in)
- Aces are always low – they count as 1, not 14
- Straights and flushes are irrelevant – they neither help nor hurt your hand
- The lowest five-card hand wins – no qualifier required (unlike Omaha Hi-Lo’s 8-or-better rule)
Best possible Razz hand: A-2-3-4-5, known as “the wheel” or “the bicycle.” This would be a straight in normal poker – in Razz, it is simply five low cards.
How to rank Razz hands: Compare from highest card down. A hand of 7-6-4-3-A beats 7-6-5-3-A because the third card (4) is lower than 5. The hand with the lower highest card always wins.
What to avoid in Razz: Pairs are bad (they count as high values and remove one low card from your count). Kings and queens are terrible door cards – they signal weakness and force the bring-in. Any starting hand with a card higher than 8 is generally folded by experienced players.
The best Razz starting hands are three low, unpaired cards: A-2-3, A-2-4, A-2-5. These give the highest probability of building a strong five-card low by seventh street.
Memory and dead cards: Since opponents’ exposed cards are visible throughout the hand, a Razz player must track which low cards have folded. If three aces are already dead (folded by opponents), your A-2-3 starting hand is significantly weakened – you cannot improve your ace.
Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo (Stud/8)
The “E” in HORSE. Same structure as Seven Card Stud, but the pot is split between the best high hand and the best qualifying low hand (five cards, all 8 or below). It combines the strategic depth of Stud with the split-pot complexity of Omaha Hi-Lo, making it one of the more demanding games in mixed game rotations.
Draw Games
In draw poker, each player is dealt a complete private hand and then has one or more opportunities to discard cards and draw replacements. There are no community cards and no face-up cards, the only information players have is the number of cards opponents draw and their betting patterns.
Five Card Draw
The oldest and most widely recognised form of draw poker. Before Texas Hold’em became dominant, Five Card Draw was what most people imagined when they thought of “poker” – the game depicted in old Westerns and casino films.
How it works:
- Each player is dealt five cards face-down
- A betting round takes place
- Each player may discard any number of cards and draw replacements from the deck
- A final betting round takes place
- Showdown – best five-card hand wins using standard rankings
The game is typically played fixed-limit or pot-limit with 2 to 6 players. The simplicity of the structure means psychological reads and betting patterns carry extra weight, there are very few betting rounds and no shared information to analyse.
Five Card Draw appears in most home games and dealer’s choice formats. It is rarely offered in live poker rooms today but is standard on most online platforms and video poker machines.
2-7 Triple Draw (Deuce-to-Seven)
A lowball draw game considered by many professionals to be one of the most technically demanding poker variants. Players aim to make the lowest possible five-card hand using deuce-to-seven (Kansas City) lowball rules:
- Aces are always high (unfavourable)
- Straights and flushes count against you (hurt your hand)
- The best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-7 – a seven-high hand with no straights or flushes
How it works:
Players receive five face-down cards, then go through three draw rounds separated by betting rounds. On each draw, a player can discard any number of cards and draw replacements. The structure is: deal, bet, draw, bet, draw, bet, draw, bet, showdown.
Having three draw opportunities creates enormous strategic depth – players must balance the strength of their current hand against the information they reveal by drawing, and must read opponents’ draw counts to estimate hand strength.
2-7 Triple Draw is a regular feature in the WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship and appears in 8-Game and 10-Game mixed formats. The best starting hands are seven-low or better with no pairs, no ace, and no connecting cards that would form straights.
Badugi
A four-card draw game with its own unique hand rankings, unrelated to standard poker rankings. The goal is to make the best four-card hand where all cards are of different ranks and different suits – a “Badugi.”
Badugi hand rankings:
- The best possible hand is a four-card Badugi: one card of each suit, all different ranks (e.g., A♠ 2♥ 3♦ 4♣)
- A three-card Badugi (three different suits and ranks) beats any two-card Badugi
- Lower cards are always better (aces count as low)
- If two players have the same number of Badugi cards, compare ranks from highest to lowest
Badugi is played with three draw rounds, identical in structure to 2-7 Triple Draw. It appears in mixed game formats, particularly in Badacey (a combination of Badugi and Ace-to-Five Triple Draw) and in 10-Game mix rotations at the WSOP.
Mixed Game Formats
Mixed games rotate through multiple poker variants, typically changing after a set number of hands or a fixed time period. Players must be competent at every variant in the rotation. Because most players specialise in one or two games, mixed game formats tend to reward breadth of knowledge.
HORSE
The most famous mixed game format. HORSE is an acronym for five fixed-limit variants played in rotation:
| Letter | Variant |
|---|---|
| H | Texas Hold’em |
| O | Omaha Hi-Lo (Fixed-Limit) |
| R | Razz |
| S | Seven Card Stud |
| E | Eight-or-Better (Stud Hi-Lo) |
HORSE has been part of the WSOP since 2002, including a prestigious $50,000 buy-in championship event. Phil Ivey’s 2012 WSOP HORSE bracelet is considered one of the most prestigious in the game – winning at HORSE signals mastery across all five formats rather than dominance in a single variant.
The fixed-limit betting structure in all five HORSE games creates a slower, more mathematical game than the no-limit formats most players are familiar with.
8-Game Mix
Expands HORSE by adding three more variants: No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. Running a full 8-Game rotation tests players across every major structural category, community card, stud, and draw, in both limit and no-limit formats.
10-Game Mix
Adds No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw and Badugi to the 8-Game mix. Primarily seen at the highest stakes live games and in select WSOP events.
Other Notable Variants
Pineapple and Crazy Pineapple
Pineapple gives each player three hole cards instead of two at the start of a hand, then requires them to discard one before the flop (in standard Pineapple) or after the flop (in Crazy Pineapple). The community card structure is otherwise identical to Hold’em.
The extra hole card creates more possibilities before the flop, making premium holdings stronger and giving players more flexibility in hand construction. Crazy Pineapple in particular sees more action because players get to see the flop before deciding which card to discard.
Chinese Poker
A 2-to-4-player game where each player is dealt 13 cards and must arrange them into three hands: a 3-card “front” hand, a 5-card “middle” hand, and a 5-card “back” hand. The back hand must outrank the middle, which must outrank the front – “mis-setting” a hand forfeits all three comparisons.
Each hand is compared against the equivalent hand of every other player. Chinese Poker is a points-based game rather than a pot-based one. Open-Face Chinese (OFC) is a popular variant where cards are placed face-up one by one, with players building their three-hand structure incrementally rather than all at once.
Video Poker
A machine-based game where a player is dealt five cards and may discard and draw to improve their hand against a fixed pay table. Popular variants include Jacks or Better (pairs of jacks or higher required to pay out), Deuces Wild (all 2s are wild cards), and Double Bonus Poker.
Video poker has no opponents, it is played against the machine’s pay table, which determines the return-to-player based on hand probabilities and payout structure. Some pay tables for Jacks or Better return over 99.5% with optimal strategy applied, making video poker among the lowest house-edge games in any casino.
Variant Comparison at a Glance
| Variant | Cards per Player | Community Cards | Betting | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Hold’em | 2 | 5 (shared) | No-Limit | Best 5-card high hand |
| Pot-Limit Omaha | 4 | 5 (shared) | Pot-Limit | Best 5-card high hand (2 from hand) |
| Omaha Hi-Lo | 4 | 5 (shared) | Fixed or Pot-Limit | Best high + best low (split pot) |
| Short Deck (6+) | 2 | 5 (shared, 36-card deck) | No-Limit | Best 5-card hand (altered rankings) |
| Seven Card Stud | 7 (individual) | None | Fixed-Limit | Best 5-card high hand |
| Razz | 7 (individual) | None | Fixed-Limit | Best 5-card low hand |
| Five Card Draw | 5 (individual) | None | Fixed or Pot-Limit | Best 5-card high hand (1 draw) |
| 2-7 Triple Draw | 5 (individual) | None | Fixed-Limit | Best 5-card low hand (3 draws) |
| Badugi | 4 (individual) | None | Fixed-Limit | Best 4-card Badugi |
| HORSE | Rotates | Rotates | Fixed-Limit | Rotates |
Which Variant Should You Play?
Start here: Texas Hold’em is the right starting point for any new player. The rules are clear, the strategy depth is enormous, and it is available everywhere, from Power.Win’s poker tables to the WSOP Main Event.
When you want more action: PLO is the natural next step. More cards, bigger draws, larger pots. Most serious Hold’em players eventually develop competency in PLO.
When you want a challenge: Seven Card Stud and Razz reward players who invest time in learning, and because fewer players know them well, they can be profitable spots in HORSE rotations.
For the highest skill ceiling: 2-7 Triple Draw and Badugi are the most technically demanding draw games. They appear at elite mixed game levels and reward deep study.
For a fresh Hold’em experience: Short Deck retains the Hold’em structure while forcing strategic recalibration through altered hand rankings and higher frequency of strong hands.
List of Poker Variants: Key Takeaways
- Poker variants fall into three structural families: community card games, stud games, and draw games.
- Texas Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha dominate modern poker. Stud and Draw games are primarily found in home games and mixed formats.
- Seven Card Stud uses no community cards – each player gets their own mix of face-up and face-down cards over five betting streets.
- Razz is Seven Card Stud played lowball. The lowest hand wins. Aces are always low. Straights and flushes are ignored. Best hand: A-2-3-4-5.
- HORSE rotates through five fixed-limit variants: Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Seven Card Stud, and Stud Eight-or-Better.
- Short Deck (6+) removes 2s through 5s, creating a 36-card game where flushes beat full houses and ace-to-six is the lowest possible straight.
- Mixed game formats reward breadth of knowledge. In rotations where most opponents specialise in one game, knowing the full rotation is a significant edge.
FAQs
Q. What is the most popular poker variant?
(No-Limit) Texas Hold’em poker, and by a significant margin. No-Limit Texas Hold’em is the format for the $10,000 Buy-in WSOP Main Event, most televised poker, and the majority of online and live cash games worldwide. Pot-Limit Omaha is the clear second, particularly in Europe and among experienced players seeking more action.
Q. What is the difference between Stud and Hold’em?
In Hold’em, all players share five community cards in the centre of the table. In Seven Card Stud, there are no community cards, each player is dealt their own seven individual cards, some face-up and some face-down. Hold’em uses a rotating dealer button and blinds; Stud uses antes and a bring-in determined by the players’ exposed cards.
Q. What is Razz and how does it differ from regular Stud?
Razz is Seven Card Stud played lowball, the lowest five-card hand wins instead of the highest. In Razz, aces always count as low and straights and flushes are irrelevant. The best possible Razz hand is A-2-3-4-5. In regular Stud, the best hand is a royal flush.
Q. What is HORSE poker?
H.O.R.S.E (HORSE) is a mixed game format that rotates through five fixed-limit poker variants in sequence: Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Seven Card Stud, and Eight-or-Better (Seven Card Stud). It tests players across every major structural category of poker.
Q. Is Short Deck the same as Texas Hold’em?
Almost. Short Deck uses the same community card structure, two hole cards, and four betting rounds as Hold’em. The difference is the deck: all 2s through 5s are removed, leaving 36 cards. This changes hand frequencies, which in turn changes hand rankings, a flush beats a full house, and in many variants, three-of-a-kind beats a straight.
Q. Can you play all these variants online or at a crypto casino?
The most widely available online are Texas Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and Omaha Hi-Lo. Seven Card Stud and Razz are available on major platforms like PokerStars. Mixed games including HORSE appear at higher stakes. Short Deck is increasingly common.
Sources (Citations)
- Wikipedia – List of Poker Variants
- Pokerology – Types of Poker: Popular Variants Explained
- PokerNews – 7-Card Stud Rules
- Wikipedia – Razz (poker)
- WSOP – Razz Game Rules
Take the Lead, Gamble Responsibly
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