Poker may be played as a modern online game mainly, but it has been around for centuries, evolving and adapting as it spread to new places. From friends playing card games to the bright lights of major tournaments, poker’s appeal is undeniable.
What’s intriguing is the sheer variety of poker games out there. Texas Hold’em and Omaha are two of the popular variations but there are others, and each one has its own rules and potential strategies. A little bit of variation never hurt but it can be intriguing and tough to understand why there are so many different types of poker. And what makes games like Omaha and Texas Hold’em stand out and become the most popular?
Poker’s Often-Debated History
Like with lots of old games, it is impossible to actually know the history. Rules may have been discussed and debated when there weren’t published guidelines like there are now and the games were slightly different from one location to the next. To understand why poker has so many variations, start with its origins.
Nobody knows for sure, but some believe it has roots in several old card games that were played in the Middle East and Europe. Some historians trace poker back to a 16th-century Persian game called As-Nas which has some similarities while others see connections to the French game Poque or the German game Poch (you can see how the name would become poker).
As these games spread and mingled with other cultural influences, poker as we know it began to take shape. By the 19th century, poker had become a staple of American culture and that is one of the reasons why the popular variations are often named after US locations.
Poker first went online in the 1990s and the rules of the main games were firmed up long before this – the fact that there are varieties means that every player should read and understand the rules when they play.
The Texas Hold’em poker rules are standardized, and the game is played using community cards, meaning cards that can complete anyone’s hand. Each player gets just two of their own cards and the goals of the game include keeping the cards secret without a “tell” as to what cards players may have.
Hold Em and Omaha
Texas Hold’em is often considered the main way of playing poker games. The gambling industry is still growing and this means more people are becoming familiar with the game, too. It’s the version most people think of when they hear the word “poker,” largely thanks to its prominence in major tournaments and television broadcasts (and songs by the likes of Beyonce, of course).
It is fair to say the rules are straightforward, which makes it accessible to beginners, but the strategy involved can be deep. As briefly alluded to already, in a game of Texas Hold Em, each player is dealt two private cards, known as hole cards, and then five community cards are dealt face-up on the table. Players use any combination of these seven cards to make the best possible hand of up to five cards.
Many people who have watched a few games of this or read up on the rules will be familiar with how to play.
Omaha could be described as Hold Em’s more complex cousin. The game is similar in structure, but with a crucial difference: each player is dealt four hole cards instead of two. Players must use exactly two of their hole cards and three of the five community cards to make their hand.
This subtle change alters the strategy. With more hole cards, the number of potential hands increases, making Omaha a more complex game in some peoples’ eyes.
Why So Many Varieties?
So why do so many different types of poker exist? Aren’t people satisfied with one? The answer lies in the game’s adaptability as well as the way it spread across the globe. Poker as a game evolved to meet the tastes and preferences of different cultures and communities and sometimes the rules may have just been influenced by people misremembering or adding a twist on some rules.
This led to people who enjoy poker having different ways to play. People can choose which one they prefer.
Types of poker keep the game fresh and there may even be more ways that the game evolves in the future. Poker can be a game of tradition, but it also thrives on innovation. New variations pop up from time to time as well as different interfaces offering freshness and ways for players to test their skills in different ways. This constant evolution is part of what keeps poker popular but it should be remembered that this is a very old game that has been on quite a journey to reach the main methods of play we see today.