Community card poker

Community card poker refers to any game of poker that uses community cards (also called "shared cards"), which are cards dealt face up in the center of the table and shared by all players. In these games, each player is dealt an incomplete hand face down ("hole cards"), which are then combined with the community cards to make a complete hand. The set of community cards is called the "board", and may be dealt in a simple line or arranged in a special pattern. Rules of each game determine how they may be combined with each player's private hand. The most popular community card game today is Texas hold 'em, originating sometime in the 1920s.

Texas hold 'em deals community cards

In home games, it is typical to use antes, while casinos typically use only blinds for these games. No limit and fixed limit games are most common, while spread limit and pot limit games are less common. The betting format and stakes can vary by region as well as time of year and volume (casinos often change games on weekends to accommodate increased customer demand). Later betting rounds often have a higher limit than earlier betting rounds. Each betting round begins with the player to the dealer's left (when blinds are used, the first round begins with the player after the big blind), so community card games are generally positional games.

Most community card games do not play well with lowball hand values, though some do play very well at high-low split, especially with ace-to-five low values, making it possible to win both halves of a pot. When played high-low split, there is generally a minimum qualifying hand for low (often 8-high) and no declaration is needed.

Community cards

Often, several community cards are dealt to the table, shared by all players, and subject to variant-specific rules about how many, and which of the cards may be used in each player's hand. Such a set of community cards is often called a "board". The board is usually dealt in a simple line, but some games may have elaborate layouts of community cards with special rules about what combinations can be used. For example, Texas hold 'em ends with each player holding two cards in his individual hand, and a board of five community cards in a simple line shared by everyone; each player then plays the best five-card hand in any combination. In Omaha hold 'em, game rules restrict players to using exactly three (no more and no fewer) of the five community cards, combined with exactly two of the four cards dealt to each player, to make a hand. In Tic-tac-toe, the board is a 3x3 array of nine cards, and players must use exactly three cards from a row, column, or diagonal of the board.

Texas hold 'em

Further information: Texas hold 'em

This is the most popular community card game today. Each player is dealt two private "hole" cards, after which there is a betting round. Then three community cards are dealt face up (in no particular order or pattern) to form the "flop", followed by a second betting round. A fourth community card (the "turn") is followed by a third betting round. And finally the fifth community card (the "river") is followed by the final betting round. At showdown, each player plays the best five-card hand he can make using any five cards among the two in his hand and the five on the board. This is the key difference from Omaha hold 'em; the player may use both, one, or none of his hole cards in the final hand (though a hand that plays the board is guaranteed to be able to "chop" the pot at best, since every other player still in the hand at showdown has access to those same five cards). Note that in current practice, before each community card round (the flop, the turn, and the river) first a card is "burned" and placed in a discard pile. This was implemented to prevent card-cheaters from "marking" cards and knowing what the card on the top of the dealer's deck was.

Double-board hold 'em

For double-board hold 'em, two separate five-card boards are dealt, and the high hand using each board takes half of the pot. For example, after the first betting round, three community cards are dealt to each of two separate boards; after the second round, another community card is dealt to each board; and before the final round, a fifth community card is dealt to each board (so there will be in total ten community cards, comprising two separate five-card hold 'em boards). It is possible for one player to have the best hand on both boards and thus "scoop" the entire pot.

This variant of Texas hold 'em is sometimes called "double-flop hold 'em", which is a bit of a misnomer, since there are not just two flops, but also two turns and two rivers.

Greek hold 'em

Main article: Greek hold 'em

Greek hold 'em follows the same rules as Omaha, except that each player is only dealt two cards, same as in Texas hold 'em. In Greek hold 'em each player must use both hole cards along with 3 of the total available community cards to make the strongest five card hand, unlike Texas hold 'em where each player may play the best five card poker hand from any combination of the seven cards available to them.

Irish Poker

In Irish poker, each player is dealt four cards before the flop. After the betting round on the flop is completed each player must discard two cards. From this point the game is played exactly like Texas hold 'em with betting after the turn and river. At showdown, each player uses their remaining two cards along with the board to construct a hand.

No river hold 'em

Players are dealt three hole cards instead of two with three betting rounds: pre-flop, flop and turn. Players can use any number of hole cards to make the final hand.

Royal hold 'em

Royal hold 'em is a variation which is played using a stripped deck. In royal hold'em, the deuces through nines are stripped from the deck, thereby only leaving the tens through aces.

Royal hold 'em can only be played with a maximum of six players because there are only 20 cards in the deck. With 5 community cards, 3 burn cards, and 2 pocket cards per player, a six-player table will use all 20 cards in the deck. The strategy for royal hold 'em varies from other forms of poker, since the odds of certain hands are greatly increased.

Six-plus hold 'em

Main article: Six-plus hold 'em

Six-plus hold 'em, also known as short-deck hold 'em, is a variation in which the cards valued 2 through 5 are removed from the deck.

Omaha hold 'em

Further information: Omaha hold 'em

Another hold 'em variant is Omaha hold 'em. Each player is dealt four cards to his private hand instead of two. The betting rounds and layout of community cards is identical to Texas hold 'em. At showdown, each player's hand is the best five-card hand he can make from exactly three of the five cards on the board, plus exactly two of his own cards.

See also

• List of poker variants