Hold'Em Games and Variations

Texas Hold’em poker is probably the most popular formof poker being played today, both in online poker rooms and at live pokertables.  But did you know that there are other variations of Hold’em stylegames that have branched off Texas Hold’em?  The basic concept that runsthrough all of the Hold’em variations is the fact that the game is played witha combination of community cards, players’ hands, and blind bets instead ofantes.  Let’s take a look at a few of the variations. 

In order to understand the variations, you need tounderstand the basic concepts of Texas Hold’em.  In this game, the highesthand wins the round.  Players can make up their winning hand by using one,both, or neither of their hole cards to create their high hand.  Aces canbe played as high or low in straights, and play goes clockwise from thedealer.  Within the deal, blind bets and flops are established. 

 Crazy Pineapple is played the same way as Texas.  Thedifference between the two is in Crazy Pineapple each player is dealt three cardsin which one must be discarded after the flop.  Irish Hold’em starts withthe players receiving four cards and discarding two of their cards after theflop.  Irish Hold’em is more similar to Omaha than true Texas Hold’em.   

 Manila Hold’em is played with a deck that is strippedof every card below the seven.  The game is then played with the remainingthirty-two cards.  Two hole cards are dealt to every player and the fivecommunity cards are dealt one at a time followed with a round of betting. The showdown is played closer to the showdown in Omaha where each player makes their best handfrom their two cards and only three of the community cards.  Flushes beatfull houses, and aces can only be played as high in a straight. 

 In the Pyramid version ofHold’em, once again the highest hand wins.  Aces can be played as bothhigh and low, and play is clockwise from the dealer.  In this game,players are dealt four cards face down.  Betting then goes around thetable and the community cards are then laid face down in the centre of thetable in a pyramid shape - hence the name.  The dealer then turns over onecard, betting commences and then another card is revealed.  This continuesuntil all six community cards are turned over and the showdown begins. Five card hands are built from the player’s four cards, the peak card of thepyramid, one of the two centre cards, and one of the three bottom cards. 

 There are other forms of Hold’em games that can belearned but many of them are not seen in the online poker rooms.  Most ofthe variations can be found in live table play, but Texas Hold’em is still themost popular and widely played version of the game.  If you play livepoker with buddies, why not try one of the variations for fun?  It couldprove very interesting.