Casino Hold'em
A banking casino adaptation of Texas Hold'em devised in the late 1990s, first spread in Egyptian casinos before expanding to Russia, South Africa, and eventually the UK.
Coming soon — not yet playable
Rules
Casino Hold'em deals two hole cards to each player and the dealer, exactly as in standard Hold'em, sharing a five-card community board revealed as a three-card flop followed by the turn and river together.
Players place an ante before the deal. After seeing their hole cards and the flop, each player may fold (forfeiting the ante) or call with a bet worth 2x the ante to see the turn and river. The dealer's hand must qualify (commonly a pair of 4s or better) for the ante and call bets to be compared normally.
Showdown: each player's best five-card hand (from their two hole cards plus the five community cards) is compared against the dealer's corresponding hand, following standard Hold'em hand rankings.
Historical note: Casino Hold'em was devised by Stephen Au-Yeung in the late 1990s and launched around 2000, first spreading through casinos in Egypt, Russia, and South Africa before reaching the United Kingdom in 2007.
Strategy notes: Because the flop is seen before the only real betting decision (call or fold), optimal play depends heavily on how the flop interacts with the two hole cards — significantly different from Ultimate Texas Hold'em, where the biggest decisions happen before any community cards are revealed.
Common house rules
Dealer qualifier is typically low
A pair of 4s or better is the standard dealer-qualifying threshold — noticeably lower than some other casino Hold'em variants, meaning non-qualifying dealer hands are relatively rare.
Only one real decision point
Unlike Ultimate Texas Hold'em's multiple raise-sizing decisions, Casino Hold'em has just one call-or-fold decision after the flop, making it one of the simpler casino Hold'em variants to learn.
An international, not purely American, invention
Worth noting at a mixed dealer's-choice table: unlike most casino table poker games in this library, Casino Hold'em's documented history traces through Egypt, Russia, and South Africa before it became a fixture in Western casinos.
Related games
Based on shared category, origin, and rules that reference each other.
Texas Hold'em
The world's most popular poker variant: two private hole cards combined with five shared community cards, playable heads-up or with a full ring of players.
Learn the rules →Texas Hold'em Bonus Poker
A casino Hold'em variant with sequential betting at the flop, turn, and river, no dealer qualifier, and an Ante that only pays out if the player's hand reaches a straight or better.
Learn the rules →Ultimate Texas Hold'em
A casino adaptation of Hold'em played against the dealer: players commit to a raise size at each stage (or fold), with the biggest raises available before the flop is even seen.
Learn the rules →5-Card Omaha
Omaha with five hole cards instead of four, played high-only — the high-hand-only counterpart to Big O, which adds a low split to the same five-card format.
Learn the rules →