There are different types of poker games:

Draw poker

Draw poker you can draw new cards from the deck after the initial cards are dealt, your cards are usually dealt face down, and you bet after receiving your initial cards and after you draw new cards.

Draw Poker is the basic form of Poker and the place to start when introducing new players to the game. It`s fairly uncommon these days in the casinos, but it is the form from which all other Poker games are derived.

The essence of Draw Poker is that the player builds a hand from 5 cards. After the initial round of betting the player may discard some or all of their cards and receive replacements. The players cards should never be revealed until the final Showdown, and are only then if absolutely necessary (more on that later). During the game, all cards are dealt and discarded face down.

There are two main things to learn when it comes to Draw Poker. The first is Poker`s 5-card hands and their ranking. The second is the course of play including when and how to bet.

Stud poker

In stud poker games, you play with your initially dealt cards, some cards are face down and some are face up, and you bet after each new face up card is dealt and after the last face down card is dealt.

In most types of Stud games, the players are dealt an initial amount of cards, and then one more card each time a betting round is completed until seven (or five in Five Card Stud) cards are dealt. In a few variations, the players are dealt all of their cards initially, and then reveal cards at certain mandated times during the betting rounds.

In 5-card stud, each player is initially dealt one card down and one card up. All other cards are dealt up until a total of five cards have been dealt to each player. In 7-card stud, each player is initially dealt two cards down and one card up. All other cards are dealt up until a total of six cards have been dealt to each player. The seventh card is dealt down to each player.

Texas Holdem Poker

The game of Texas Holdem poker is one of strategy and skill. Playing well requires solid knowledge of the poker odds, the ranking of poker hands, probability and of course being able to bluff your opponents. A well seasoned texas hold em poker player takes the above mentioned factors and more into account when making a decision to fold, check or raise their bet. One of the most critical factors in poker is being able to read your players and identify patterns in their betting, this way you have a chance of determining whether the player is bluffing or isn`t. Reading players is most easily done by analyzing their eyes as the old saying goes ... "the eye`s never lie", actually holds true in poker. The only down side to this is that many professional players have perfected their poker face and it`s very difficult to pick out a bluff. Other poker players both amateur and professional wear sunglasses so other players can`t read their eyes.

Seven Card Stud Poker

Seven-card stud is played with two downcards and one upcard dealt before the first betting round, followed by three more upcards (with a betting round after each card). After the last downcard is dealt, there is a final round of betting. The best five-card poker hand wins the pot. In all fixed-limit games, the smaller bet is wagered on the first two betting rounds, and the larger bet is wagered after the betting rounds on the fifth, sixth, and seventh cards. If there is an open pair on the fourth card, any player has the option of making the smaller or larger bet. Deliberately changing the order of your upcards in a stud game is improper because it unfairly misleads the other players.

Seven Stud Hi Lo Poker

There can be a maximum of 8 players at a 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo poker game table. There are five betting rounds in a complete game of Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, not including the ante. Each poker player is dealt 2 cards face down, then 4 cards face up and the final river card is dealt face down.

7 card stud hi lo is a technically demanding poker game where the best poker hands for the high and low split the pot at showdown. In 7 card stud hi lo poker, players are dealt 7 cards throughout the course of the hand, but only the best five-card hand possible for each player is used to determine the winner. Visit  poker hand rankings page to see the ranking of hands for 7 card stud hi lo. Note that 7 card stud hi lo is played with an "8 or better" qualifier, which means that a hand must be, at worst, an 8 for low to be eligible to win the low portion of the pot.

Omaha Hold`em Poker

Omaha is similar to hold em in using a three-card flop on the board, a fourth boardcard, and then a fifth boardcard. Each player is dealt four holecards (instead of two) at the start. In order to make a hand, a player must use precisely two holecards with three boardcards. The betting is the same as in hold`em. At the showdown, the entire four-card hand should be shown to receive the pot.

Omaha hold `em (or Omaha holdem or simply Omaha) is a community card poker game (often referred to as a "flop game") similar to Texas hold `em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make his best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards.

Omaha Hi Lo Poker

In Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or better (Omaha Hi/Lo) the pot is split 50-50 between the best High Hand and the best qualifying Low Hand. Omaha Hi/Lo requires a lot of skill and usually takes a little practice to understand the intricacies of the game.

Omaha Hi/Lo is structurally played the same as Omaha High except that the highest hand wins 50% of the pot and the lowest qualifying hand wins 50% of the pot.

A Low hand must be high card "8 or better" to qualify. To be eligible to win the Low, the highest card must be a 5, 6, 7, or 8. The winning Low Hand (8 or better) is determined firstly by the player with the lowest High card. Upon a tie with the High card, the hand goes to the player with the next lowest High card. Any hand that is high card 9 or higher can NOT qualify as a Low Hand.

Five Card Stud Poker  

Five card draw is the game many people grew up playing around the kitchen table. In this game, your goal is to make the best five-card hand after one draw. Like hold`em, it`s a game that`s easy to learn, but takes a long time to master.

Five-card draw poker was once the poker game that everyone and his mother knew how to play.  It’s the game you’ll see in numerous poker scenes in old westerns, the game that many of us first learned, a game to feel nostalgic about.  But in recent years, the game has almost vanished.  Among the numerous events at the World Series of Poker, there is no five-card draw event.  Want to play it in a casino? No problem if you live in California, own a time machine and can go back to 1978.  Good luck finding it today in a public card room.