Poker is a highly popular and thrilling form of entertainment. Millions of people all around the world enjoy playing the game with friends or strangers online.
If you have learned to play poker, there’s a good chance that you were taught the Texas Hold’em variant of the game. This is by far the most played version, followed by the Omaha Hi variant.
In movies such as The Hangover and Rounders that portray poker, the variant shown is most often one of these.
However, there are actually plenty of lesser known forms of the game, so next time you fancy a game, why not try one of these 10 unique poker games?
Here are the details on just a few:
Badugi
Badugi has been played since the 1980s and comes under the ‘draw’ category of poker, which means that players are given the opportunity to improve their hand by discarding a number of cards and picking new ones from the deck. It is also within the ‘lowball’ family, meaning it is actually the lowest hand that wins.
Badugi is unique because of its hand ranking system, which can be a little confusing to those playing it the first few times. In this game, four cards are used in a hand and what suits you have does matter.
In this game, aces are always the lowest card and straights do not count against a low hand. The ideal hand in Badugi is four unpaired cards, each from different suits.
Omaha Hi-Lo
Omaha Hi-Lo is similar to regular Omaha Hi, however in this variant at showdown the pot is divided between the highest and lowest ranked hands.
This game is a little more complex because you need to be thinking about combinations for both high and low hands at the same time. There are also a number of rules around what qualifies as a low hand.
All five hands in the low hand must be lower than eight and straights and flushes do not count against the hand.
Omaha Hi and Omaha Hi-Lo are classed as ‘shared’ variants. This means that some of the cards are dealt facing upwards and any player can pick them for their hand.
Chinese Poker
Chinese poker is most popular in Hong Kong and other parts of South East Asia, it can also be found in some places in the United States. It made a couple of appearances in the World Series of Poker in the mid-1990s, but hasn’t been included since then
This variant is quite different from other poker variants you may be used to. In this game, players must separate their 13 cards out into three poker hands with two sets of five cards and one with three cards.
You will usually play Chinese poker with four players. The player who wins each hand will collect one unit of wager from the other players, rather than the winner takes all.
Pineapple
Another fun poker variant you should try at least once is Pineapple. Pineapple is very similar to Texas Hold’em, with the only real difference being that at the beginning each player is dealt three hole cards and must get rid of one in the first round.
This game hasn’t really gained much popularity in online and land based casinos or at tournament events, however it is still enjoyed as a game in private settings. If you want to try out a new form of poker without having to learn new, complex rules then Pineapple is a great place to start.
2 plus 1
In two plus one, players are dealt two cards and must declare themselves in or out the game. Those who are in are then given a third card.
Sometimes, those who are dealt a third card are required to up the ante and may also then take part in another round of in or out. By paying the extra ante, players risk losing the extra but do not risk being made to match the pot.
2 – 7 Triple Draw
Lastly, 2 – 7 Triple Draw is a lowball variant of poker but in this case straights and flushes do count against a low hand. Aces are high in this game.
In this game you have three draw chances and as you only have five cards it is relatively easy to assess how strong your hand is. Some people find this game difficult because you cannot see any of your opponent’s hand.
In recent years, 2 – 7 Triple Draw seems to have lost some popularity. However you will still probably find it at mixed variant games.
Playing a new variant of poker can take you a little outside of your comfort zone, particularly if it’s a more complex game like Chinese poker. These unique variants are always fun though and you can always start off with variants similar to Texas Hold’em, like Pineapple, and continue to expand your game choices from there.
