Poker is a game with many variations to play with. These follow a similar pattern of play and use the same hand ranking hierarchy in the game. The family of variants is mainly three in number, based on the protocol of card dealing and betting. These are
Stud: The card in this game are dealt in a prearranged combination of face up or downs or “streets” followed by a round of betting. Seven Card Stud is the most popular in variation today.

Straight: This is a type where complete hand id dealt to each player, and each player has to bet in one round. Here, raising and re-raising are allowed. This is the oldest in the poker family, this is the root of the game of the past which was known as Primero which further evolved into the game called Three Card Brag, a very famous game in USA and is also played in the UK even today. The “straight” hand of 5 cards is used as the final showdown, though the poker is played today with different strategies.

Draw: in this type, a complete hand is dealt to each player, which is face down. After the process of betting, players can change their hand by discarding the cards not required and they are dealt new ones.

Community: this is a variation of stud; here the players are dealt with an incomplete hand of cards which are faced down. After this, a number of face up cards of “community” are dealt to the table center, each of which is used by the players to make a 5 card hand.  Omaha is a well known variant of this family.