Pik-poke(t): What Is Poker?

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Let us admit, we're used to a little bit of poking or nudging. At home, work, clubs, shops, on roads, off roads ; just about anywhere and everywhere. But what if poking could earn you some money? You wouldn't want to miss out on it! It's probably this deadly combination of poke, bet, and earn that found its true meaning in one of the most popular card games in the world - poker. And, it's popular enough to have found an entire space dedicated to the game on the uber-popular social network of - Facebook.
Like many others, poker too is a game based on three S's - strategy, skill and stroke of luck. Its game play is fairly simple. Make the best of hand sequences (flush, straight, pairs etc) while you keep placing strategic bets. The lesser the chances of getting a certain hand, the more likely it is to get you closer to the pot. And luck, well, it's by chance, with practice!
Having been around for decades, xxx has undergone countless variations that keep taking shape on casino tables across the globe, depending upon terms like: what hand values to count, how many rounds to bet in, and, of course, whatever rules the ...
... dealer dictates. Out of the innumerable versions that the game has, three are identified the most:
Draw - dealing with a complete hand, face-down.
Stud - having a combination of few face-up and few face-down cards in multiple bets.
Community card - where face-up cards get to be combined with a player's hidden hands.
A mention of the common forms of these versions will make things a lot clearer and yes, alluring enough for some of you to hit the poker tables at the nearby casino right away. Jackpot is a draw form where each player has the right to not open if he lacks a pair of jacks in a deal. Five-card stud has each player getting one card face down, and then each one card face up. Seven-card stud has players receiving two cards face down and then one card face up every rotation.
However, nothing beats Texas hold' em and Omaha hold' em in terms of fame. Both are community card games. Texas hold'em has players using a combination of the five community cards with their own cards to make a better hand; whereas, Omaha sees players making their best hand using two of the four cards they are dealt, along with three from the five community cards.
Having the highest hand win is common to every card game, but there is an exception to that in poker. It's called Lowball, where the lowest hand gets to win. You can also play High-Low Split where money splits between the highest and the lowest hands.
But, that's not likely to be the end of it. Versions will continue to acquire newer rules at newer spots, making the game more complex, yet exciting. And if you learn a lot of these versions, your best bet is to switch them from deal to deal. So, whether you play it safe, or bluff out loud, the target remains unchanged. After all, it's always all about money, honey! Isn't it? Not to mention, the perks you get with Strip Poker.