The "I've Got 5 Minutes to Learn" Poker Guide
Sometimes you may find yourself about to play a new poker format despite not really knowing how to play. Maybe a friend coerced you to join in, maybe you just fancied trying something new, but if you're looking to learn a new game in the next five minutes, this is the guide for you!
When I first start playing a new poker variant, I like to make some quick bullet point notes on some of the key basics that I've picked up, what seems to work, what doesn't. It helps me form a quick framework from which I can work with until I develop a deeper understanding of the game.
Obviously, the more you learn the more involved the thinking process gets but as a quick guide for beginners, this will get you going until you figure it out for yourself.
I am assuming you already know how to play No Limit Texas Hold'em, which as we all know is just about winning flips.
Limit Hold'em:
In fixed limit hold'em, you can't bet whatever you want, you can only raise 1 big blind at the start, then 2 big blinds on the later streets. Because of this, it's much harder to bluff or bully someone out the hand, so you should concentrate on just playing and making good strong hands.
Raise good hands preflop, call decent pretty ones. If you miss the flop then fold. If strong bet, if okay call. No bluffing or fancy play.
Pot Limit Omaha:
This is a bit like the Hold'em format but you get dealt 4 cards instead of 2. You MUST USE TWO of those cards, you can't just play the board, you can't use all four, TWO of those 4 cards will be in your final hand, it can be any two at any time but you MUST USE TWO.
Because everyone gets more cards, the winning hand is generally better than it would be in hold'em, so you're looking to make straights or better, ideally the nuts or close to it in any given situation.
My tactics when I first began to play omaha were:
- See as many flops cheaply as you can
- On the flop, if you have the nuts, close to it, or a big draw to the nuts, keep betting pot*
- Only stop betting pot if an opponent reraises, because they may well have the nuts, unless of course you have the nuts then carry on potting. This included pot betting the river even if you missed your draw.
*In "pot limit" you are limited to betting no more than what's in the pot already but if you're playing online, you just need to click the pot/max button or move your slider all the way.
A friend recently said to me "you always want to have an 'AND' in omaha", and I like that. So you've flopped two pair? Fine. But if there's lots of money going in, you'll need to add AND a straight draw or AND a flush draw to that. It's a good heuristic.
Pot Limit Omaha 8/HiLo:
Similar to normal omaha except half the pot goes to the lowest hand (A2345), so ideally you want to win both high and low pots (you can use any combination of your four cards, any two for the high hand and any two for the low), but you really should be aiming for the nuts on one of them.
Only a hand of five cards 8 or lower count as a "low" which means sometimes there might not be a low hand at all, and the whole pot will go to the high hand.
Don't play an 8 based hand, by that I mean any 4 cards that revolve around the middle of the deck, a hand like 789T would be good in regular omaha but not so much in O8 because if there is a low pot, you'll have the worst low possible and if you connect with high cards, also the worst end of a high hand straight. So really you want a hand with a couple of low cards, ideally a suited ace and then something to make a good high hand.
Courchavel
Courchavel is omaha 8 / hilo but with two key twists:
- You get dealt five hole cards instead of four. This means that the winning hand will inevitably be stronger than in four card omaha. You should be aiming to make the either the nuts high hand or low hand, with at least something to showdown for the other half of the pot.
- The first flop card is shown face up from the start of the hand. Make sure this helps your hand before you enter the pot. If there's an ace showing and you have 23xx then this is looking very promising for you winning the low but if you have KKxx, then you can assume someone has an ace and your kings are pretty much beat already.
No Limit Omaha 8/HiLo Turbo Progressive Knockout:
Do not register. Do not encourage this nonsense.
Badugi:
You get dealt 4 cards and the aim is to have one of each suit, which is a "badugi" and the lowest badugi wins but pairs count against you. So 2♠️4♥️6♦️J♣️ is a badugi and would beat 2♠️4♥️6♦️6♣️ even though it's four lower different suit cards. If nobody ends the hand with a badugi, then it goes to who has the best 3 carded hand, which happens often.
You get three rounds of betting and three rounds of swapping cards to try and make the best badugi.
If you want to play a hand, ideally you want to have three low cards already, so you have three chances of getting a helpful new card, but if you've got two good cards (A,2,3 or 4) to start, then getting to the first draw cheaply is fine.
If you have a 7 or lower badugi you should get as much money in as you can. An 8 high badugi is decent and worth betting unless you get reraised. Anything else be cautious, it's very much situation dependant and I would avoid getting too involved unless shortstacked.
Watch how many cards other players draw to get an idea of how strong there hand is. If someone "stands pat" they don't want to swap any cards, which suggests they have a 4 card badugi.
I've found you get two kinds of players in badugi, ones who will only bet a lot with made badugi hands and ones who will aggressively bet while drawing to low hands, once you identify who is who, it makes playing against them much easier.
You can get either fixed limit or pot limit versions of badugi. Playing limit is very much about making very strong low hands and value betting, whereas pot limit allows more bluffing and bullying players out the hands.
No Limit 2-7 Single Draw:
A friend coerced me into playing a single draw tournament one night and I ended up finishing in second place. I followed his "5 minute" guide and it worked out pretty well. Oddly enough he didn't seem to follow his own advice and didn't do as well. This is what he said:
You get dealt 5 cards and you're trying to make the best low hand, aces are high and straights and flushes work against you, so the best possible hand is 23457 (with no flush). You get one chance to draw new cards, sandwiched between rounds of betting.
The aim is to get a 7 high hand, and if you do get as much money in the middle as possible. An 8 high hand is pretty good, just be a little cautious if there's a lot of action. A 9 high is the worst hand you'll want to have at showdown and should be looking to get to there as cheaply as possible, otherwise you're beat anyways.
You only get to draw new cards once, so you only want to draw one card to that 7 or 8 high hand, but two is sometimes ok if there's no raise and you have very good low cards already and are in position.
There is also a bluffing element to this game, because very often you or your opponents aren't going to get those perfect cards when drawing, so you might end up with a pair or queen high hand that will need to be bluffed for any chance of winning, but I didn't get into that side of things on my first attempt and it seemed to keep me out of trouble.
Fixed Limit 2-7 Triple Draw
Triple draw is very much like single draw except, as you may have guessed, you get three chances to draw new cards. The aim is much the same as above but because its limit betting and there are a bunch of draws you can be more liberal with your draws and starting hands as you have more chances to "get there":
You get dealt 5 cards and you're trying to make the best low hand, aces are high and straights and flushes work against you, so the best possible hand is 23457 (with no flush). You get three chances to draw new cards, sandwiched between rounds of betting.
The aim is to get a 7 high hand, and if you do get as much money in the middle as possible. An 8 high hand is pretty good, just be a little cautious if there's a lot of action. A 9 high is the worst hand you'll want to have and should be looking to get to showdown as cheaply as possible, otherwise you're beat anyways.
Stud
I don't "get" stud. I've played it many times, mainly as part of HORSE and 8-game tournaments, and I want to understand it, I want to be a "complete" player but I just do not understand what I'm meant to be doing.
Each hand you get dealt two hole cards only you can see and one card face up for all to see. Unless you fold, you'll end up getting four face up cards, and then one last hole card that only you can see. And like many poker games, the aim is to have the best five card hand at the end (same rankings as holdem) or bet your opponents off their hands. After each round of cards that are dealt, there's a round of fixed limit betting. Unlike in holdem where the blinds move round the table in sequence, in stud the player with the lowest first face up card posts the "bring in", which is like the blinds. You can choose to post a small "blind" or a big "blind" but you should always make it the smaller amount.
What I have found that works best for me is to simply be an absolute nit when it comes to stud. If I don't have at least a medium pair in my first three cards, then I'm folding. Maybe I'd play three suited cards too if one of them is an ace but that's it. I've lost so many chips chasing draws that never get there. So I'm afraid I don't have much of value to offer on the subject of stud. If anyone out there can offer a quick stud guide, please let me know.
Razz
Razz falls under the umbrella of being a "stud" game, I guess because of the format but unlike actual stud, I am reasonably competent at it.
Each hand you get dealt two hole cards only you can see and one card face up for all to see. Unless you fold, you'll end up getting four face up cards, and then one last hole card that only you can see. Unlike stud, the aim is to have the lowest five card hand at the end (A2345 being the best hand) or bet your opponents off their hands. After each round of cards that are dealt, there's a round of fixed limit betting. Unlike in holdem where the blinds move round the table in sequence, in stud the player with the highest first face up card posts the "bring in", which is like the blinds. You can choose to post a small "blind" or a big "blind" but you should always make it the smaller amount.
As you can see many of your opponents cards, it gives you a good indication of where you are in the hand at any time. You're aiming to have five cards 8 or lower (with no duplicates), so if your first three cards aren't three different 8 or lower cards, just fold. I would assume any opponent in a raised pot also has two 8 or lower hole cards, so based on this you can literally see who is ahead of you and who is behind you for most of the hand. Check, bet or fold accordingly.
Stud 8 or Better / Stud Hilo
The bastard child of stud and razz. This is one of those games where half the pot goes to the high hand and half the pot goes to the low hand, but only if the lowest five card hand is 8 high or lower.
Plays as stud and razz noted above, two hole cards and one face up cards, three more face up cards, one last hole card, round of betting after each is dealt. But as noted above, I don't really get stud, so I tend to play really tight, only playing the prettiest looking starting hands.
HORSE
HORSE comprises of five different poker games, played as a level of each before looping back to the first one again, all played with "limit" betting. The games are:
Hold'em
Omaha 8 (hilo)
Razz
Stud
stud Eight or better (hilo)
8-Game
Unsurprisingly comprises of eight different poker games, played as a level of each before looping back to the first one again. The games are:
Limit 2-7 Triple Draw
Limit Hold'em
Limit Omaha Hilo (8 or better)
Limit Razz
Limit Seven Card Stud
Limit Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better
No-Limit Hold'em
Pot-Limit Omaha
I find that after six rounds of limit games, when it gets to the no-limit hold'em, people go a bit mad with the sense of freedom, so just be aware of that.
Short Deck / Hold'em 6+
I wrote a blog about the wonder of short deck poker a while ago. It's basically just no limit hold'em with all the 2,3,4,5 cards removed from the deck. Aces still count as both the low card and the high card, so you can make an A6789 straight and a TJQKA straight. And I guess because of some mathematics, a flush beats a full house in this game.
Different sites have different antes, so depending on where you play, you might get some very favourable pot odds at times because lots of people aren't paying attention to that.
In normal hold'em, you can calculate your odds of hitting your outs by multiplying your 'outs' (the cards you need to be a winner) by 2 if it's just the next card, or by 4 if its the turn and river still to come. In short deck / hold'em 6+, you can do the same thing but instead of 2 and 4, its 3 and 6.
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