Types of Poker Games: Draw, Stud & Community Card Formats
Ask ten poker rooms how many types of poker games they spread and you'll get ten different numbers, because most variants are cousins of just a handful of core families. Every game you'll find, from a kitchen-table round of five card draw to a televised no limit hold 'em final table, traces back to one of four structural branches: draw, stud, community card, or lowball and mixed formats. If you already play one variant well, this map shows you where it sits and what else is out there. For a deeper, game-by-game breakdown once you know your family, our poker variants guide walks through each one individually.
Draw Poker: The Original Family
Draw games deal every player a complete hand face down, with no shared cards on the table at all. Players then get one or more chances to discard and draw fresh cards before a final betting round. Five card draw is the best-known example, and it's the format most home games and old Western films picture when they say 'poker.' In my experience teaching new players, draw is often the easiest entry point because there's no board to read yet, just your own hand.
Stud Poker Variations
Stud games deal a mix of face-up and face-down cards over several betting rounds, with no draws and no community cards. Seven card stud dominated American casinos for decades before hold 'em overtook it in the 1980s and '90s. Razz, a lowball stud variant, and stud hi-lo split-pot games branch off the same core structure. Because part of every hand is visible, stud rewards players who track exposed cards closely, which is a different skill set than reading a shared board.
Community Card Games: Hold 'em and Omaha
Community card poker deals each player a small private hand, then reveals shared cards in the middle that everyone can use. Texas hold 'em, with two hole cards and five community cards, is by far the most-played variant worldwide today. Omaha uses four hole cards instead of two and requires exactly two of them in the final hand, which changes the math and the strategy considerably. Both games power the bulk of modern online traffic and nearly every major televised tournament.
Lowball and Mixed Poker Formats
Lowball flips the usual goal: the worst-ranked hand wins the pot instead of the best one. 2-7 triple draw and A-5 lowball are the two common scoring systems, and both appear in mixed-game rotations like H.O.R.S.E. and 8-Game, where the format changes every set number of hands. These rotations exist largely because serious players wanted a single format that tests every skill at once, rather than specializing in just one variant.
| Family | Shared Cards? | Example Games |
|---|---|---|
| Draw | None | Five Card Draw, 2-7 Triple Draw |
| Stud | None (some face-up) | Seven Card Stud, Razz |
| Community Card | Yes, shared board | Texas Hold 'em, Omaha |
| Lowball / Mixed | Varies by rotation | H.O.R.S.E., 8-Game |
Fastest Way to Learn a New Family
However you choose to study a new variant, most players eventually lean on some kind of practice tool alongside actual table time. Away-the-table trainers like GTO Wizard or solvers such as PioSolver are common choices for building skill that sticks after you close the app, and they're worth exploring before you touch anything designed to run during a live hand. Real-time assistance software like NZT Poker exists too, but it operates during the hand itself rather than as study material, and that distinction carries real account-risk implications you should weigh separately from choosing a game family.
How to Pick Your Next Poker Game Variation
If you already play hold 'em, Omaha is the most natural next step since it shares the community card structure but forces new hand-reading habits. Players who enjoy tracking visible information often gravitate toward stud, while those who like pure hand-versus-hand play tend to prefer draw. Mixed rotations suit players who want variety in a single session rather than specializing. Most poker rooms and clubs spread at least a few of these formats, so trying one is usually just a table search away. For the canonical rule set, see list of poker variants.
Want the Full Variant-by-Variant Guide?
See rules, hand rankings, and strategy notes for each individual game covered here.
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