Variations of Poker: Community Card Poker
In what comes as a total surprise to those unfamiliar with the various games, Community Card Poker refers to any game of poker that uses “shared cards” or “window cards”, also more commonly known as its namesake “Community Cards”. Community cards are put into use by all active players, being accessible from a face up pile dealt in the center of the playing table.
Generally, Community Card poker is one of the “big three” top level variants (those being Stud Poker, Draw Poker, and Community Card Poker)
Chances are, if you are a well-seasoned poker player, then you are familiar with the concept of community card poker (does Texas Hold Em’ sound familiar to you? That’s the best and most popular variant of the game out there today.)
When participating in one of these games, each player is dealt a private - yet incomplete - hand. For example, Texas Hold Em’ deals two cards to players. These cards are known as “hole cards”. These cards are then combined with the community cards in the center of the table, completing a player’s hand. A good example is four community cards – 2 aces, a ten, and a six – this means *everyone* can use those cards (so someone with a pair of aces as their hole cards has 4 aces… someone with a pair of kings has two-pair – Aces and Kings.)
Community card sets are known as a “board”. The board may be dealt as intricately as a specialized pattern or may be more to the point (like a simple line.) The rules of each individualized game balances out how these patterns work with player hands.
In home play, it is fairly standard to use an ante style of play. Casino and tournament play, however, prefer to adopt blinds for their games, with fixed limit games being their forte. In this style of play, no limit and pot limit games are less common (however, it should also be noted that while fixed limit games are more common, most of the big Texas Hold Em’ tournaments are no limit, which leads people to incorrectly believe it the most popular.)
In community card poker (as in stud poker), subsequent betting rounds will often have a higher betting limit than the earlier betting rounds. However, unlike stud poker, each betting round begins with the player to the dealer’s left, so community card games are known to be positional games.
It should be also noted, however, that many community card poker games play better as high-low split games, with ace to five low values. But don’t think that this is a concrete rule, as not all lowball values are ideal for community card play.
When players do try out high-low split games, there is normally a minimum qualifying hand for low (which is often an 8-high). This can sometimes be impossible, however, depending on the community cards (thus making it more interesting.)
Community card poker plays extremely fast and loose, and also is ideal for TV, thus leading to its incredible popularity.
