| Casino
poker games is a generic name for literally
hundreds of games, but they all fall within
a few interrelated types. There are high games
like seven-card stud and Texas hold 'em, in
which the highest hand in the showdown wins,
and low games like draw lowball and razz,
in which the lowest hand wins. There are also
high-low split games, in which the best high
hand and the best low hand split the pot.
Among high, low, and high-low split games
there are those like five-card draw, in which
the hands are closed, and those like seven-card
stud, in which some of the players' cards
are exposed for all to see.
Jokers, wild cards, and special rules may
be introduced into any of these games to create
such aberrations as Baseball, Follow the Queen,
Anaconda, and scores of other variations that
have spiced up home casino poker games for
decades. Paradoxically, the two types of players
who favor these exotic casino poker games
variations are generally amateurs who want
a lot of action and hustlers who prey on these
amateurs because their long experience allows
them to adjust more easily to unusual games
than their amateur opponents can. However,
before a player can become an expert at exotic
games, he must understand the basic concepts
of standard games.
Another significant distinction among casino
poker games games is their betting structure.
Most home games and most games in Las Vegas,
Gardena, California, and elsewhere are limit
games-that is, games in which limits are set
on the minimum and maximum bets. Normally,
in the smaller-limit games of Las Vegas, such
as $1-$3 seven-card stud, there is no ante,
and the low card starts the action for 50
cents. In subsequent rounds, the high hand
on board may check or bet $1, $2, or $3. In
the higher-limit Las Vegas games and in the
limit draw games of the card rooms of Gardena,
the betting is rigidly structured. In Gardena
the bets double after the draw. In Las Vegas
they double in the later rounds of betting.
In $5-$10 seven-card stud, for example, there
is a 50-cent ante, low card starts the action,
or brings it in, for $1, and on the next round
the bets and raises must be $5, no more and
no less. With an open pair after four cards,
a player generally has the option of betting
$5 or $10, but anyone who raises must raise
$10. After the fifth, sixth, and seventh cards,
the bets and raises must be $10 whether or
not anyone has a pair showing. |
