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.
Coming soon — not yet playable
Rules
Each player is dealt two private hole cards face down. A betting round follows (preflop), starting with forced small and big blinds posted by the two players left of the dealer button rather than antes from everyone.
Flop: three community cards are dealt face up in the center of the table, shared by every player, followed by a betting round. Turn: one more community card is dealt, followed by a betting round. River: one final community card is dealt, followed by the last betting round.
Showdown: each player makes their best five-card hand using any combination of their two hole cards and the five community cards — including using zero, one, or both hole cards (a hand made entirely from the five community cards, "playing the board," is legal and splits the pot among everyone still in if no one can beat it).
Strategy notes: Because only two hole cards are private, starting-hand strength is easier to reason about than in Stud or Omaha, but position (acting later in the betting order) and reading community-card texture (draws, pairs, coordinated cards) become the dominant skills — this is why Hold'em is usually the first "serious" game newer players are taught, and it's a natural default when a dealer's-choice table wants a change of pace from stud and draw games.
Common house rules
Antes instead of (or with) blinds
Some home games layer a small ante from every player on top of the standard two blinds, to build a bigger pot before the flop and encourage more action.
Straddle allowed
A common home-game option lets the player after the big blind post a voluntary 'straddle' (double the big blind) before cards are dealt, acting last preflop but forcing a bigger preflop pot.
Run it twice
When all remaining players are all-in before the river, some tables allow dealing the remaining community cards twice and splitting the pot between both runs, reducing variance by mutual agreement.
Related games
Based on shared category, origin, and rules that reference each other.
Cincinnati
A stud-and-community hybrid: every player gets five private down cards, and a shared row of community cards is revealed one at a time to build the best hand.
Learn the rules →Crazy Pineapple
A Texas Hold'em variant where each player gets three hole cards instead of two, discarding down to two right after the flop.
Learn the rules →Omaha
Community-card poker like Hold'em, but with four hole cards instead of two — high hand only, no low split, and exactly two hole cards must be used at showdown.
Learn the rules →Pineapple
The straightforward cousin of Crazy Pineapple: three hole cards dealt before the flop, with the discard down to two happening immediately, before any betting.
Learn the rules →