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Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Combining luck, skill and probability of success into an exciting gaming experience, the game of poker offers several variations. Whatever be the form of the poker game you choose to play, finding the best possible combination of 5 cards to form a winning poker hand is common to all. Dealing 5 cards face down for each player and then proceeding from there is the most basic feature of the poker games. History of Poker: According to some, Poker closely resembles the Persian game of As Nas. There is also evidence that a French game known as Poque was played around the region where poker is said to have originated. However, some simply discard these facts. According to them, poker originated in the early or mid-1700's. Soon it spread throughout the Mississippi River region. They even said that betting, which is considered to be a unique feature of poker, never appeared in any known older game. Poker is played in a variety of forms with 52 cards. However, there is also another variant in the form of 20 card poker meant for only two players. Poker Variations: There are many variations in the poker game. They are as follows: - Straight: This is the oldest poker family where a complete hand is dealt to each player. With raising and re-raising being allowed, players bet in one round. Straight hands of five cards are sometimes used as a final showdown. This is a simple game of poker. Most of the Internet poker games use more complex form.
- Draw: Here also, a complete hand is dealt to each player, face down. In this variation, players are given a chance to change their hand by discarding unwanted cards. The most famous variation in this family is Five-card draw.
- Stud: In this, cards are dealt in a prearranged combination of face-down and face-up rounds, each followed by a round of betting. The most popular stud variant in today's online poker games is “Seven-card Stud”. It deals two extra cards to each player- 3 face-down and 4 face-up. With these seven cards, a player must make the best possible 5-card hand.
- Community: In this, players are dealt an incomplete hand of face-down cards. A number of face-up “community cards” are then dealt to the centre of the table, each of which can be used by the players to make a 5-card hand. Texas Hold-em and Omaha are the two most popular variants of the community family. Texas Hold-em is played amongst 2 to 10 players where every player aims at making the best 5-card poker hand using any combination of the 2 cards dealt face-down and the 5 common cards dealt up on the table. Omaha, also known as Omaha High is a poker game for 2 to 10 players. Each players tries to make the best 5-card poker hand using 2 of the 4 cards dealt face-down and 3 of the 5 common cards dealt face-up on the table.
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