Poker is the name of an entire family of card games. Texas Hold’em is one specific game within that family. The two terms are not synonyms, even though most recreational players use them as if they were.
I have taught poker at every level, from basic poker rules to complete beginners to experienced tournament players, and this confusion about terminology comes up more often than you would expect.
Getting it right matters because if someone invites you to a poker game, you need to know whether it is Hold’em, Omaha, Stud, or something else entirely before you sit down.
What Is Poker?
The word poker, much like the word rummy, is used to describe a set of card games that have certain similarities but also quite a few differences.
Generally speaking, poker games are played among players, although casino poker games also exist in which players compete with the dealers.
Some common characteristics of poker games include poker hand rankings, the ability to make bets at multiple points, and the ability to win a hand without holding the best cards by forcing your opponents to fold their cards.
However, if you thought there is only one poker game out there, you were misinformed, as there are literal dozens of versions of poker you can play, some of which don’t even share the most basic elements of the game with the most popular variants like Texas Hold’em Poker.
What Is Texas Hold’em Poker?
Texas Hold’em is currently by far the most popular version of the poker game, and the one you will commonly see played at major tournaments that get attention from TV and other media.
Texas Hold’em Poker is a poker game played with a 52-card deck in which all players receive two hole cards, visible only to them, and a set of five community cards are dealt on the table over three streets.
Between each of these streets, players have the option to make bets, looking to force other players to fold or match their bets with inferior hands.
Texas Hold’em Poker is an extremely complex game that involves lots of strategies and some luck, and it has become the most popular variation of poker thanks to the countless different ways it can be played and many strategies that have been adopted over the years.
If you want to play online poker or play in most live casinos these days, you will need to learn the game of Texas Hold’em, as this is the most widespread poker game today and will likely remain such for a number of years.
Why Texas Hold’em Became the Most Popular Poker Game
Texas Hold’em did not always dominate the poker world. For much of the twentieth century, Seven Card Stud was the most commonly played poker game in the United States, and most major casino poker rooms ran primarily Stud and Draw games. Hold’em was a regional game from Texas that only arrived in Las Vegas in 1967.
What changed the landscape was the World Series of Poker. When Benny Binion launched the WSOP in 1970 and chose Texas Hold’em as the format for its Main Event, it began a slow shift that turned Hold’em into the default game associated with serious poker.
The real explosion came in 2003. Chris Moneymaker, an accountant with no previous major tournament experience, won the WSOP Main Event after entering through a $40 online satellite.
The story of a recreational player winning $2.5 million through a satellite got mainstream television coverage and sparked a global surge in poker interest. Critically, Moneymaker learned the game online, where platforms had standardized around No-Limit Texas Hold’em.
That standardization created a feedback loop: new players learned Hold’em online, came to live games expecting Hold’em, and the game grew faster than any other variant.
I find that understanding this history is useful even for recreational players. It explains why the poker world is so Hold’em-centric today, and it makes clear that the other poker variants did not disappear: they are played actively at high-stakes mixed games and at the World Series of Poker, where many of the most skilled professionals thrive in formats the general poker public rarely encounters.
Other Poker Variants Explained
So, while Texas Hold’em is certainly a poker game, the word poker does not automatically mean Texas Hold’em Poker.
In fact, the word poker can be used to describe a whole number of games such as 7 Card Stud, Pot Limit Omaha, Razz, Badugi, 6+ Hold’em, and many others.
At the Annual World Series of Poker, the best poker players in the world come together and play tournaments in all these different poker games. All of them are poker, but only one of them is Texas Hold’em Poker.
That said, the reason for the confusion comes from the fact that most poker tournaments and cash games in the world these days are Texas Hold’em games.
To make matters a bit more clear, here is a look at a few popular poker game types, all of which include multiple games within them.
Community Card Poker Games
The first and most popular group of poker games these days are the community card poker games. This is the category that includes Texas Hold’em Poker, Omaha Poker, and 6+ Hold’em.
The one major similarity these games have is the fact they are played with hole cards and community cards. Each player receives a number of hole cards, and they all use the same community cards together with their hole cards to make the best possible hand.
The games can differ quite a bit. For example, Omaha games can be played with between four and six hole cards. Texas Hold’em is played with just two hole cards, while 6+ Hold’em is played with a deck made up of just 36 cards.
Yet, all of these poker games are grouped as community card poker games, as they all have this one thing in common, along with the hand rankings used in all of them for the most part.
Draw Poker Games
The older generations of players remember the days when draw poker games were more widespread, including Five Card Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw, and Badugi.
Draw poker games are different from community card poker games in that players only receive hole cards, which they can exchange once or multiple times, but without any cards being revealed.
Since the entire hand is played with concealed cards, bluffing is more prevalent in these poker games, and the strategy is often based on knowing the player more than math, which can often limit the real strategic elements.
Yet, draw games are often played as part of mixed games to this day, and 2-7 Single and Triple Draw especially, along with Badugi and its variants, still appear regularly in mixed game lineups.
Stud Poker Games
A few decades ago, 7 Card Stud was the most popular poker game in the US, and most major poker tournaments were played at a Stud table.
Times have changed, and Stud games like 7 Card Stud, Razz, and 5 Card Stud have been pushed off the stage, but some Stud games can still be found today.
Stud poker is played with players receiving a number of hole cards, some exposed and others concealed, and playing without any community cards in play.
Much like draw poker games, stud poker games have lost some of their popularity as the strategic elements of Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha have convinced players that these games are more exciting and fun to play.
Playing Poker Against the Casino
I want to flag a category of games that often confuses new players: casino-banked poker games. These include Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em Poker, and Caribbean Stud Poker. They share the name and some surface-level mechanics with real poker, but they function as fundamentally different games in one critical way.
Unlike social poker games, which involve a significant skill element, casino poker games are gambling games that give the casino an edge, similar to Blackjack or Roulette.
The impact you can have on the outcome of any hand in these games is very limited, and the long-term results are almost always negative, as these games are created to take your money.
Since you are not playing against other players and can only act within a given set of rules, your chances of beating the house are very low.
So, whether you choose to call these games poker or not is up to you, but you should definitely understand that there is a significant difference between casino poker games and those played against other players.
Key Things to Remember
Here is the practical takeaway I want you to walk away with. When someone says they play poker, that does not tell you which game they play. Texas Hold’em is the most common answer, but Omaha, Stud, and mixed games are all legitimate answers, too.
When you walk into a casino poker room or sit down at a home game, confirm which variant is being played before you play a hand. I have seen players sit down expecting Hold’em only to discover the table is playing Omaha Hi-Lo, and the adjustment is not trivial.
For the most part, you will not be wrong to use the two terms interchangeably, but if you are invited to a Pot Limit Omaha game, don’t say something like “I miss playing poker” or “can we play regular poker,” as using this kind of poker terminology could make you a bit of a laughing stock.
Even if you have never played them, other versions of poker exist, and literally dozens of games are all grouped up under this one umbrella term.
