Popular Casino Card Games Besides Blackjack

Although blackjack is extremely popular for its low learning curve and ease of play, there are other card games that casinos offer. The most notable is poker, of which there are many variants. Another, even simpler card game than blackjack, is war.

Poker

Poker has had many variants but the most popular version played is Texas Holdem’. Like all versions of poker, the player tries to gain the highest value hand of cards based on preset combinations. Four of a kind is all the suits of a particular card, full house is three of one card and two of another and a flush is the all cards in the hand of one suit, for example. Through the course of building the best hand they can, players bet according to how valuable they think their hand is or could be when compared to the other players. Texas Holdem’ differs from other poker variants in that players have two cards to themselves that are secret and then share of pool of five cards that are gradually revealed. Betting is preformed before each set of cards is revealed.In other versions of poker, like five card stud, players have the option to change the cards in their hand by discarding cards and gaining a same number of cards in exchange, trying to get a higher value hand. In these versions, the player only has available to them the cards that are in their hands with no shared pool of cards.With all versions of poker, there isn’t a house and the pot can be won by any player around the table. The casino will, however, offer an unbiased dealer or host poker tournaments, and in this way be profitable from poker.

War

War can be thought of as an extremely simplified version of Blackjack. War is played against a casino dealer, or the house. A bet is placed prior to playing and directly afterwards, the player and dealer both flip a card. if the players card is higher, they win. If it is not, the house takes the bet. If the dealt cards are the same, a ‘war’ is preformed where four additional cards are flipped by each the player and the dealer, the fourth being compared and the pot going to the higher card.