Choosing a Poker Game

Hints on choosing which poker game to join

When Choosing a Poker Game, it is imperative to pick one you are familiar

If you are one of the millions of people who has ever played in a home poker game, you’ll remember that it was often played “Dealer’s Choice”. That is, whoever was dealing chose the game. These games could vary widely in their rules and structure, wild card and community card games with names like “Spit in the Ocean”, “Baseball”, or “Pass the Trash”. You won’t find these games at your local or online casino, but you will find a variety of games, and your best bet is to choose just one to start with.

Hold'em is becoming more Popular than Stud

For a long time, Seven Card Stud was the game of choice. It was the game most widely played in casinos and often the first poker game (along with five card draw), that people learned to play. That has all changed. Today, as you might have guessed, the game is Texas Hold ‘em. Why has Hold ‘em become so much more popular than Stud? One very simple reason. It is more T.V. friendly. Before the advent of hole cam card technology (which enables viewers at home to know what their favorite players are holding) Seven Card Stud was completely unsuited to television. With up to eight players having four exposed cards each, and three cards unknowable, determining all the players’ possible hands was an arduous effort for even the most avid poker fan.

Hold ‘em, on the other hand, provides a much less daunting task. With five community cards spread out in the middle of the table for all to see, and only two of each player’s cards hidden, figuring out the possibilities is child’s play (often in early World Series of Poker broadcasts, Dick Van Patten can be heard gleefully shouting out the best possible, or “nut” holding during an action hand). Now that technology allows viewers to see the players’ hole cards, they can follow the entire action of a Hold ‘em match, still a challenge with Stud games.

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For this reason, learning Hold ‘em is probably the best bet for a new player. The variety of literature, television exposure, and game availability for Hold ‘em far outweighs that of any poker game at this time. This means that you will learn the game faster, improve faster, and find more opportunities to enjoy poker if you begin as a Hold ‘em player. Also, with only two of your own cards to keep track of (as opposed to four in Omaha and seven in Seven Card Stud), this game is the most user-friendly.

Since you are playing Hold ‘em, the other critical question to decide is whether to play No-Limit or Fixed Limit Hold ‘em. As the name indicates, Fixed Limit Hold ‘em has a fixed betting structure, for example $3-6 Hold ‘em means you can bet exactly three dollars on the first two betting rounds, and exactly six dollars on the last two. In No Limit, you can bet up to everything you have in front of you at any time.

For many, No Limit seems much scarier, as well as much more exciting. However, the reality is that you can win or lose just as much in a Fixed Limit as a No Limit game, and in fact the biggest games in the world are usually played with a Fixed Limit structure. Play whichever structure you are most comfortable with, but keep in mind that Fixed Limit and No Limit Hold ‘em are two very different games with different strategies, and you will need to learn the strategies appropriate to the structure you are playing. Good luck and have fun!