The main types of poker are Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Razz and Five Card Draw, plus house-banked games such as Casino Hold’em. All of them share the same hand rankings and the same basic idea: you bet on who holds the best hand, or on who can convince everyone else that they do. The types are grouped by how the cards are dealt, and each group asks something slightly different of you at the table.
Knowing those differences helps you pick a game that suits your bankroll, your patience and how much you enjoy reading opponents. Below we compare the poker variants you are most likely to meet at UK-licensed sites, explain how a hand of each one plays out, and show which formats suit beginners, regulars and players who would rather skip the bluffing altogether.
What are the main types of poker?
The main types of poker are community card games, stud games and draw games, plus house-banked casino poker played against the dealer. Each family changes how much information you see and how many betting rounds a hand contains.
In community card games, every player receives a small number of private cards and shares a set of face-up cards in the middle of the table. Stud games have no shared board; instead, each player gets a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt across several streets. Draw games keep every card hidden and let you discard and replace cards to improve your hand. Casino poker borrows these structures but sets you against a dealer who follows fixed rules, while video poker replaces the dealer with a paytable.
The comparison below sums up the player-versus-player variants covered in the sections that follow.
| Variant | Family | Cards dealt to each player | Shared board cards | Usual betting format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Hold’em | Community card | Two | Five | No-limit |
| Pot-Limit Omaha | Community card | Four | Five | Pot-limit |
| Omaha Hi-Lo | Community card | Four | Five | Pot-limit |
| Short Deck Hold’em | Community card | Two | Five | No-limit |
| Seven Card Stud | Stud | Seven | None | Fixed-limit |
| Razz | Stud | Seven | None | Fixed-limit |
| Five Card Draw | Draw | Five | None | Fixed-limit |
| 2-7 Triple Draw | Draw | Five | None | Fixed-limit |
Poker hand rankings across most variants
Poker hand rankings are the same in almost every high-hand variant, from the royal flush at the top to a single high card. Learning this order once lets you move between games without starting from scratch.
From strongest to weakest, the standard hand categories are:
- Royal flush – ace, king, queen, jack and ten of the same suit.
- Straight flush – five cards in sequence, all of one suit.
- Four of a kind – four cards of the same rank.
- Full house – three of a kind combined with a pair.
- Flush – five cards of the same suit that are not in sequence.
- Straight – five cards in sequence in mixed suits.
- Three of a kind – three cards of the same rank.
- Two pair – two different pairs.
- One pair – two cards of the same rank.
- High card – no combination at all, so the highest card plays.
Lowball games such as Razz and 2-7 Triple Draw turn this order upside down and reward the weakest hand, while newer formats such as Short Deck reshuffle a few categories. Our casino glossary explains terms like kicker, nuts and split pot if any of the vocabulary is new to you.
Texas Hold’em: the most widely played variant
Texas Hold’em is the most widely played poker variant, both online and in card rooms, and the format of most major tournaments. Its popularity means you can find a game at almost any stake and at any hour.
Each player receives two private cards, known as hole cards. Two forced bets, the small blind and the big blind, seed the pot, and a round of betting follows. The dealer then spreads three community cards, called the flop, followed by a fourth card (the turn) and a fifth (the river), with a betting round after each one. At showdown you make the best five-card hand from any combination of your two hole cards and the five board cards. You may even use all five board cards, which is known as playing the board.
Hold’em is usually played as no-limit, meaning you can bet all your chips at any moment, although fixed-limit and pot-limit tables also exist. Because only two cards are hidden, it is easier to estimate what an opponent might hold, which makes Hold’em the natural first step for newcomers. The simplicity is deceptive, though: position, bet sizing and the ability to read opponents are what separate winning players from the rest. If you want the rules laid out step by step, our poker guide covers the basics in more detail.
Omaha and Pot-Limit Omaha
Omaha is a community card game like Hold’em, but each player receives four hole cards and must use exactly two of them at showdown. That single rule changes how the whole game is played.
The flop, turn and river work the same way as in Hold’em, so the board still contains five cards. The difference lies in how you build your hand: your final five cards must include exactly two hole cards and exactly three board cards. This trips up many newcomers. Holding four hearts, for example, does not give you a flush unless at least three hearts land on the board, because you can only take two from your hand.
Most Omaha is played as Pot-Limit Omaha, often shortened to PLO, where the largest bet you can make equals the current size of the pot. With four hole cards there are far more possible combinations, so winning hands are typically stronger than in Hold’em and big draws are everywhere. Hands such as top pair, which often take down pots in Hold’em, rarely hold up in PLO without improvement.
Omaha Hi-Lo, also called Omaha eight-or-better, splits the pot between the best high hand and the best qualifying low hand. A low must be made of five unpaired cards ranked eight or below, and the same two-from-hand rule applies to both halves. If nobody qualifies for the low, the high hand collects the whole pot. Five Card Omaha keeps the two-from-hand rule but deals five hole cards, which adds even more action to every flop.
Stud poker: Seven Card Stud and Razz
Stud poker uses no shared board; each player receives their own mix of face-down and face-up cards, with betting after each new card. It was the dominant card room game before Hold’em took over.
In Seven Card Stud, players post an ante instead of blinds, and the player showing the lowest exposed card pays a forced bet called the bring-in. Each player gets two cards face down and one face up, then three more face-up cards and a final card face down, for seven in total. A hand has five betting rounds, and you make your best five-card hand from your seven cards.
Because four of each opponent’s cards end up face up, memory matters more in Stud than in any community card game. Tracking which cards are already gone tells you how likely your draw is to arrive and what your rivals can realistically hold. Stud is usually played fixed-limit, so pots grow steadily rather than through sudden all-in confrontations. Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo uses the same deal but splits the pot like Omaha Hi-Lo, with an eight-or-better qualifier for the low half.
Razz is Seven Card Stud played for the lowest hand. Aces count low, straights and flushes are ignored, and the best possible hand is A-2-3-4-5, often called the wheel. Since pairs hurt you, a strong start in Razz is three different low cards. Five Card Stud, an older version with one card dealt down and four dealt face up, is rarely spread today but still turns up in some home games.
Draw poker: Five Card Draw and Triple Draw
Draw poker keeps every card hidden and lets you swap unwanted cards for new ones from the deck. With no exposed cards, your only clues about an opponent come from their betting and from how many cards they draw.
Five Card Draw is the classic version and the game many people first learn around the kitchen table. Each player is dealt five private cards, a betting round follows, and then everyone still in the hand may discard and replace cards once. A second betting round decides the pot. It is quick to learn, and its structure is also the base for video poker.
2-7 Triple Draw, sometimes called Deuce-to-Seven, is a lowball game with three draws and four betting rounds. Aces count high, and straights and flushes count against you, so the best possible hand is 7-5-4-3-2 in mixed suits. Badugi is a related draw game played with four cards, in which you aim for the lowest hand made of four different suits and four different ranks. Both games appear mainly in mixed-game rotations and in dedicated online lobbies rather than at regular cash tables.
Short Deck, Pineapple and mixed games
Short Deck, Pineapple and mixed games are variations that change the deck, the starting hand or the game in rotation. Each keeps enough of the familiar structure to be easy to pick up.
Short Deck Hold’em, also known as Six Plus Hold’em, removes the twos, threes, fours and fives, leaving nine cards in each suit. With fewer low cards in play, players connect with the board more often and the action gets bigger. Flushes become harder to complete, so in most rule sets a flush ranks above a full house, and the ace can still play low to complete the straight A-6-7-8-9. Some rooms also rank three of a kind above a straight, so always check the rules shown at the table.
Pineapple deals three hole cards, and you discard one before the flop; in Crazy Pineapple, you discard after the flop instead. Once the discard is made, the hand plays out exactly like Hold’em.
Mixed games rotate several variants at the same table to reward all-round skill. The best-known rotation is HORSE: Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud eight-or-better, with the game switching after a set number of hands or a full orbit of the table.
Casino poker games played against the house
Casino poker games pit you against the dealer instead of other players, so bluffing plays no part. The house edge comes from the payout rules, and your decisions are limited to folding or continuing with your hand.
These casino poker games appear in both digital and live dealer lobbies and suit players who enjoy poker hands but not the pressure of a full table of opponents.
Casino Hold’em
Casino Hold’em follows the Hold’em deal but pits your two cards against the dealer’s two. You place an ante, receive your cards and see a three-card flop. You then either fold or call with a bet worth twice the ante. The turn and river follow, and the dealer needs a pair of fours or better to qualify. If the dealer does not qualify, the ante is paid according to its paytable and the call bet is returned.
Three Card Poker
Three Card Poker deals just three cards each to you and the dealer. The Ante and Play bets are compared with the dealer’s hand, which needs queen-high or better to qualify, while the separate Pair Plus bet pays on the strength of your own hand regardless of what the dealer holds. With only three cards, a straight is harder to make than a flush, so it ranks higher in this game.
Caribbean Stud Poker
Caribbean Stud Poker gives you and the dealer five cards each, with one of the dealer’s cards turned face up. After the ante you either fold or raise, and the raise is twice the ante. The dealer qualifies with ace-king or better; if not, the ante is paid at even money and the raise is returned. Many tables add an optional progressive side bet.
Other house-banked variants
Other house-banked variants include Ultimate Texas Hold’em, where you can raise more the earlier you commit to your hand, and Pai Gow Poker, where you split seven cards into a five-card hand and a two-card hand that must both beat the banker’s hands for a win. Let It Ride lets you withdraw part of your stake as the community cards are revealed. Browse the wider range of table games on our casino games hub.
Video poker variants
Video poker is a single-player version of Five Card Draw played against a fixed paytable instead of a dealer or opponents. You receive five cards, choose which to hold, and the machine replaces the rest.
Your final hand is paid according to the paytable shown on screen, so the same game can return different amounts at different casinos depending on the pay rates used. Jacks or Better pays from a pair of jacks upwards and is the standard version most players start with. Deuces Wild turns every two into a wild card, which changes both the paytable and the correct holding strategy, while Joker Poker adds a joker to the deck as a wild card. Double Bonus versions pay extra for four of a kind.
Because the correct play is fixed for each paytable, video poker rewards players who learn which cards to hold in every situation. Our video poker guide covers paytables and holding tips in more depth.
Live dealer and online poker formats
Online poker comes in two broad formats: rooms where you play other people, and live dealer tables where you face a streamed croupier. Each suits a different kind of player.
In a poker room, the operator takes a small commission from each pot, known as rake, or charges an entry fee for tournaments. You can choose between cash games, where chips equal real money and you can leave at any time; multi-table tournaments, where everyone starts with the same stack and play continues until one player holds all the chips; and Sit & Go events, small tournaments that begin as soon as enough players have registered. Fast-fold formats move you to a new table the moment you fold, so you see many more hands per hour. Dedicated poker brands, such as the one in our PokerStars review, focus on this type of play.
Live dealer poker concentrates on house-banked games such as Casino Hold’em and Three Card Poker, filmed in a studio with real cards. It sits between digital games and a trip to a card room: you watch every card being dealt, but you are still playing against the casino. Our live poker page looks at live tables in more depth.
How to choose the right poker variant
Texas Hold’em suits most new players, casino poker suits those who prefer playing the house, and Omaha or Stud reward experience. Your ideal game comes down to style rather than any single “best” option.
Think about three things before you sit down: whether you enjoy reading opponents, how much variance your bankroll can absorb, and how long you want each session to last. The profiles below are a useful starting point.
- New to poker: Texas Hold’em at low stakes, or Casino Hold’em if you want to learn hand values without facing opponents. Our beginner’s guide covers the wider casino basics.
- Looking for action: Pot-Limit Omaha or Short Deck, where bigger hands and bigger pots arrive more often.
- Patient and observant: Seven Card Stud, Razz or Stud Hi-Lo, where tracking exposed cards pays off.
- Fond of strategy charts: video poker, where a fixed paytable means a correct hold exists for every deal.
- Easily bored by one game: mixed formats such as HORSE, which test your skills across several variants.
- Playing for bigger stakes: compare table limits on our list of high roller casinos.
If you enjoy other card games against the house, our blackjack and baccarat guides explain those rules too.
Poker bonuses and safer play in the UK
Casino bonuses often count poker games at a lower rate than slots towards wagering, so read the terms before claiming one. Some poker games are excluded from bonus play altogether.
Poker rooms tend to reward players differently, for example with tournament tickets or a share of the rake returned to regular players. Compare current offers on our bonuses page and check the game contribution table in the terms before you opt in.
Whatever variant you choose, play only at sites licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. Licensed operators must verify your age and identity, and you need to be 18 or over to play. Our guide to how casino licensing works explains what the licence means for you as a player. Set deposit limits before you start, treat poker as entertainment rather than a source of income, and use tools such as time-outs or GAMSTOP self-exclusion if the game stops being fun.
Poker rewards curiosity. Start with the variant that matches your style, learn its hand-building rules before you stake real money, and branch out once the basics feel automatic.
Frequently asked questions
What are the different types of poker?
The different types of poker are Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Razz and Five Card Draw, plus house-banked games such as Casino Hold’em. Texas Hold’em and Omaha share face-up board cards, Seven Card Stud and Razz deal each player a mix of hidden and exposed cards, and Five Card Draw lets you swap cards. Three Card Poker and video poker pit you against the dealer or a paytable instead of other players.
Which poker variants are best for beginners?
Texas Hold’em suits beginners best, because each player holds only two hole cards and low-stakes tables are easy to find. If you would rather not face other players, Casino Hold’em and Jacks or Better video poker teach hand values with fixed rules and no bluffing. Move on to Omaha or Stud once you are comfortable with hand rankings and betting rounds.
Is Omaha harder than Texas Hold’em?
Yes, most players find Omaha harder at first because each player holds four hole cards and must use exactly two of them. That rule creates many more possible hands, so winning hands are stronger on average and big draws are common. Hands that often win in Hold’em, such as top pair, lose much of their value in Pot-Limit Omaha.
Can you bluff in Three Card Poker or Casino Hold’em?
No, bluffing has no effect in house-banked games such as Three Card Poker and Casino Hold’em, because the dealer never folds. The dealer plays to fixed rules and only needs to qualify, so your choices are limited to folding or continuing with your cards. The best approach is to learn the dealer’s qualifying hand and the basic strategy for when to raise.
What is the difference between stud and draw poker?
Stud poker deals some of each player’s cards face up, while draw poker keeps every card hidden and lets you swap cards. In Seven Card Stud you receive seven cards, four of them exposed, across five betting rounds. In Five Card Draw you see five private cards, discard the ones you do not want and draw replacements once before the final round of betting.
Does a flush beat a full house in Short Deck poker?
Yes, in most Short Deck rule sets a flush beats a full house, because flushes become harder to make with a smaller deck. Removing the twos through fives leaves only nine cards in each suit. Some rooms also rank three of a kind above a straight, so check the rules shown at the table before you play your first hand.
Is online poker legal in the UK?
Yes, online poker is legal in the UK for adults aged 18 or over, provided the site is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. Licensed operators must check your age and identity, offer tools such as deposit limits, and take part in GAMSTOP self-exclusion. You can confirm a licence by checking the details shown at the foot of the casino or poker site.