Games - Community card poker

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	Games - Community card poker

Probably starting about the time of World War II, many modern poker games used Community cards (also called "shared cards" or "widow cards"), which are cards dealt face up to the center of the table and shared by all players. In these games, each player is dealt privately an incomplete hand ("hole cards"), which is then combined with the community cards to make a complete hand. The set of community cards is called the "board" or the "widow", and may be dealt in a simple line or arranged in a special pattern; rules of each game determine how they may be combined with each player's private hand.

The canonical community card game today is probably Texas hold 'em (and variants thereof), originating sometime in the 1920s. That game is described in great detail in its own article, while most of the descriptions below are brief and refer to that more detailed article (a few other games merit their own article as well, such as Omaha hold'em).

In home games, it is typical to use antes, while casinos typically use only blinds for these games. Fixed limit games are most common in casinos, while spread limit games are more common in home games. No limit and pot limit games are less common, but some games play particularly well with those structures. As with stud poker, later betting rounds often have a higher limit than earlier betting rounds. Each betting round begins with the player to the dealer's left (when blinds are used, the first round begins with the player after the big blind), so community card games are generally positional games.

Most community card games do not play well with lowball hand values, though some do play very well at high-low split, especially with ace-to-five low values, making it possible to win both halves of a pot. When played high-low split, there is generally a minimum qualifying hand for low (often 8-high), and it is played cards speak.

Texas hold 'em

This is the most popular community card game today. Each player is dealt two private cards, after which there is a betting round. Then three community cards are dealt face up (in no particular order or pattern), followed by a second betting round. A fourth community card is followed by a third betting round, a fifth community card and the fourth and final betting round. At showdown, each player plays the best five-card hand he can make using any five cards among the two in his hand and the five on the board.

Texas hold 'em does not play well high-low split (Omaha hold'em is probably the best high-low community card game). It plays very well at no limit, and in fact the "main event" of the World Series of Poker, the tournament generally considered to be the world championship of the game of poker, is the $10,000 entry no limit Texas hold 'em event.

Pineapple (and Crazy Pineapple, Tahoe)

These are variants of Texas hold 'em in which each player is initially dealt three cards instead of two. In Pineapple, each player then immediately discards one of the three cards he is dealt, and the game proceeds exactly as in Texas hold 'em. In Crazy Pineapple, the players discard their third card after the second betting round, before the fourth community card is dealt. In Tahoe, players keep all three cards through showdown, but may not use all three of them to make a hand—each player may use none, one, or two cards from his hand, combined with those on the board, to make his final five-card hand.

Crazy Pineapple and Tahoe are often played high-low split, and play reasonably well that way, though plain Pineapple does not.

Double-board hold'em

A split-pot variant that can be applied to many games (but that is generally only applied to normal hold'em) is "double-board". For double-board hold'em, two separate five-card boards are dealt, and the high hand using each board takes half of the pot. For example, after the first betting round, three community cards are dealt to each of two separate boards; after the second round, another community card is dealt to each board; and before the final round, a fifth community card is dealt to each board (so there will be in total ten community cards, comprising two separate five-card hold'em boards).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Community card poker ]

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