If you’re someone who enjoys poker online , it’s likely that you have sat down to play at a community card poker game, as they’re the most popular variations of the game that are currently being played around the world. What makes a community card poker game? Wikipedia states that it refers to “any game of poker that uses community cards (also called “shared cards” or “window cards”), which are cards dealt face up in the center of the table and shared by all players.” In other words, you share cards with others so you know what they have – and vice versa. It was a change to the game that radically transformed poker from its stud game origins into something more robust and fun for many people.
As you can probably guess, the most popular community card game today is Texas hold ‘em, which came from Texas sometime in the 1920s. In Texas hold ‘em, players are dealt two hole cards before the first betting round. After the initial betting round, the “flop” is made and three cards are dealt to everyone on the board. A second betting round takes place as everyone sees the possibilities for their hand and then the fourth community card (“the turn”) is dealt. Another round of betting and then “the river” is laid on the board and a final round of betting based on the five community cards and each player’s hole cards commences. Unlike the also-popular Omaha poker, a player may use both, one, or none of his hole cards in the final hand. That’s right – theoretically, someone could out-bluff someone and win just with the cards on the board.

Omaha poker is very similar to Texas Hold ‘Em with two key differences: each player is dealt four cards to his private hand instead of two and at the showdown, each player’s hand is the best five-card hand he can make from exactly three of the five cards on the board, plus exactly two of his own cards. There are frequently pauses in Omaha games to see if a better hand could be made with the cards available than another while still sticking to these restrictions.
These are just two of the most popular versions of community card poker. There’s an entire catalog of variants and sub-variants. For instance, Pineapple uses three cards in the initial deal, one of which is discarded before the flop, when regular Texas holdem play begins while Crazy Pineapple lets players discard their third card after the flop is played out. Australian casinos have Manila and Pinatubo and home games like Cincinnati, Iron Cross, and Chowaha keep poker afficionados busy until the wee hours of the morning.
These are just a few of the community card poker games that are enjoyed by people around the world. Look around and talk to others; you might find out that there’s a game of Spit In The Ocean is waiting for you to try out.