Poker fundamentals and our five-card duel
Understand check, call, raise and fold. Pots, antes and showdown explained, including the actual rules and settings of our poker edition.
Read guideGAME GUIDES
Poker: rules, variants and guides
Understand poker families: hand rankings, betting and the differences between Hold’em, Omaha, Stud, Draw and lowball.
Begin with the fundamentals and hand rankings, then choose a variant family. Our playable five-card duel is described separately from the international variants explained here.
Rules
Poker hands: rankings, kickers and split pots
From high card to straight flush: compare tied categories, recognise the low ace and solve original exercises.
Read guideStrategy & tactics
Poker strategy: pot odds, information and learning decisions
Original pot-odds and bluff-threshold calculations, plus useful hand reviews. Explicit assumptions instead of promises of profit.
Read guideHistory
Poker history: from game families to modern variants
Why poker need not have a single inventor and why card structure explains its development better than a simple origin legend.
Read guideVariants & regions
Texas Hold’em: play, position and betting limits
Two hole cards and five community cards: preflop, flop, turn, river, heads-up order and no-limit, pot-limit and fixed-limit betting.
Read guideOmaha: PLO, Hi/Lo, Big O and Courchevel
Learn the exactly-two-plus-three rule with a worked example. Compare four, five and six hole cards, eight-or-better, split pots and Courchevel.
Read guideStud poker: seven-card, five-card and Hi/Lo
Upcards, downcards, the bring-in and five betting rounds. Compare seven-card stud, stud eight-or-better and five-card stud.
Read guideRazz: when the lowest hand wins
Ace-to-five low without an eight qualifier: bring-in, exposed cards and original exercises comparing low five-card hands.
Read guideDraw and lowball: five-card draw, 2–7 and A–5
Understand card replacement, single draw and triple draw. Why the same hand scores differently in deuce-to-seven and ace-to-five.
Read guideBadugi: four suits, four ranks, low cards
Evaluate badugi hands and understand three draws. Worked examples cover duplicate suits, paired ranks and the best valid subset.
Read guideShort deck and 6+ Hold’em: what actually changes
Understand a named 36-card rule set, A–6–7–8–9 and flush over full house, while recognising house-rule differences.
Read guideMixed games: HORSE, 8-game and dealer’s choice
Game rotations, high/low switches and different betting limits. A clear guide with a study checklist for every change.
Read guideOther poker forms: pineapple, Chinese and casino poker
Understand pineapple and open-face Chinese; distinguish three-card poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em and pai gow from player-versus-player poker.
Read guideCompetition
Tournament poker: stacks, side pots and procedure
Distinguish cash games from tournaments, work through main and side pots, and understand tournament staff and current TDA guidance.
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