Explanation of Variant
Here a list of common poker variants along with their key features.
Hold’em – Called the “Cadillac” of poker. Dealt two cards and use community cards to make a hand.
Omaha – Called the “Ferrari” of poker. Dealt four cards and use community cards to make a hand.
Stud – Perhaps the original poker variant. Dealt a combination of upcards and downcards with no community cards.
Draw – Any game where cards are discarded and additional cards are drawn from the deck. Examples include 5-card draw, 2-7 triple draw and Badugi.
Lowball – Any game where the lowest hand wins. Examples include Razz (the lowball version of Stud), 2-7 triple draw, and London Lowball.
Hi/Lo Split – Any game where the pot is split equally between the best high hand and the best low hand. Examples include Stud Hi/Lo and Omaha Hi/Lo.
Example of Variant used in a sentence -> Before No Limit Hold’em, Fixed Limit Stud used to be the poker variant of choice.
How to Use Variant as Part of Your Poker Strategy
While many of the variants share commonalities between skillsets, each variant needs to be studied individually in order to become a master. A skilled Hold’em player should not automatically assume that he knows how to beat Stud games, although some of the skills he picked up in Hold’em will translate. For example, pot-odds, implied odds and expected value calculations are common to all poker variants.
See Also
