A freeroll is a situation that arises during poker play (usually when only two players remain) before the last card has been dealt, in which one player is guaranteed to at least split the pot with his opponent no matter what the final cards are, but where there is some chance he can win the whole pot if certain final cards are dealt. This most commonly occurs in a high-low split game where one player knows that he has a guaranteed low hand made, his opponent cannot make a better low no matter what the last card is, but the player who is low might possibly catch a lucky card that gives him a straight or flush, winning high as well.

Here’s an example from Texas hold’em: Angie holds K♣ 10♣, and Burt holds K♥ 10♥. After round three, the board is A♣ Q♠ J♥ 4♣. Both players have an ace-high straight, the current nut hand, and so they will most likely split the pot. But if the final card happens to be a club, Burt’s straight will lose to Angie’s flush. There is no other possible final card that will give Burt more than a split; only Angie can improve, so she is freerolling Burt.

If a player knows he has a freeroll, he can raise the pot with impunity, and often a less-skilled opponent with a good hand who does not realize that he is on the wrong end of the freeroll will continue to put in raises with no possible hope of gain.

In Hold’em, it is possible to know you have a freeroll without seeing your opponents cards. After the turn if the board has two aces and two kings all of separate suits, and you hold hold AK, you are guaranteed a minimum of a split. However, there is a possibility of you getting the nuts, with a guaranteed winning hand, if an Ace or a King hits on the river.

The term is also used to describe a tournament with no entry fee.

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In traditional poker games, the player with the best traditional hand wins the whole pot. Lowball variations award the pot to the lowest hand, by any of several methods). High-low split games are those in which the pot is divided between the player with the best traditional hand (called the high hand) and the player with the low hand.

There are two common methods for playing high-low split games, called declaration and cards speak. In a declaration game, each player declares (either verbally or using markers such as chips) whether he wishes to contest for the high hand or the low hand. The lowest hand among those who declared low wins that half of the pot, and the highest hand among those who declared high wins that half (for further details, see declaration). In a cards speak game, all players simply reveal their cards at showdown and the hands are evaluated by all players; high hand wins half of the pot and low hand wins the other half.

Especially when using the ace-to-five low method, it is possible for one player to have both the low hand and the high hand, and therefore win all of the pot (called “scooping,” “hogging” the pot, or “going pig”). In the event more than one player ties for either high or low, the pot can be further split into quarters or smaller fractions. For example, if one player has the high hand on showdown, and two other players tie for the best low hand, the high hand wins half of the pot and each low hand wins only a quarter of the pot.

It is common, especially in cards speak games, to require a certain hand value or better to win the low half of the pot, called a qualifier. For example in an “eight or better to qualify low” game, a player with an eight-high hand (or better low such as seven-high) is entitled to win the low half of the pot (assuming his hand defeats all other low hands), but a player with a 10-high or 9-high hand cannot win, even if his hand is the lowest. In this case, the high hand wins the entire pot. There is generally no qualifier to win high, although one common variant is any pair/no pair, where a hand of at least a pair is required to win high and any hand with no pair is required to win low.

In high-low split games where each player is dealt more than five cards, each player chooses five of his cards to play as his high hand, and/or five of his cards to play as his low hand. The sets may overlap: for example, in seven-card stud played high-low split, a player dealt 7-7-6-4-4-3-2 can play a high hand of 7-7-4-4-6 (two pair, sevens and fours) and a low hand of 7-6-4-3-2 (seven-high).

Note that bluffs can be especially powerful in high-low split games, because a player making a successful bluff wins the whole pot rather than having to share it. This fact also makes bluffs less likely to succeed.

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Anaconda is a variety of the card game poker. It is played like five-card draw, but with 3 significant alterations: No more than 6 people can play at one time.

1. Each player is dealt 8 cards at the beginning (best 5 card hand wins)
   • After looking at their cards, each player chooses 3 cards that they do not want. These cards will get passed to the player to their left. (Make sure it is understood that you pass your 3 cards BEFORE looking at the three cards that were passed to you, which prevents players from getting an unfair advantage.)
   • After looking at their 8 cards, which include the three received from the other player, players now pass 2 unwanted cards to the person on their left.
   • After looking at their cards, players pass 1 unwanted card to their left.
2. The passing is done, and players pick their best 5 card hand. The three unwanted cards are removed from the hand and placed in a discard pile.
3. Betting begins now, if you are betting.
4. (optional). A betting variation is available to anaconda. Each player places their 5 cards in front of them. One card is turned over and a round of betting then follows. This happens until one card is left. After that, players turn over their final card and decide who wins.

(Traducere şi adaptare din Wikipedia sub licenţa GNU)

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There are many types of poker games. While poker was originally played with each player receiving five cards and only one betting round, it has expanded to include hundreds of variants. Currently, the most popular one is Texas Hold’em, but other variants are very popular.

Here are some common rule variations:

1. High-low split: the highest and lowest hands split the pot. Generally there is a qualifier for the low hand. For example, the low hand must have 5 cards with ranks of 8 or less. In most high-low games the usual rank of poker hands is observed, so that an unsuited broken straight (7-5-4-3-2) wins low (see Morehead, Official Rules of Card Games). In a variant, based on Lowball, where only the low hand wins, a straight or a flush does not matter for a low hand. So the best low hand is 5-4-3-2-A, suited or not.

2. Players can pass cards to each other. An example of this would be Anaconda.

3. ‘Kill game’. When a fixed limit game is played and a player wins two pots in a row, the stakes are doubled.

4. Wild cards are added. This can range from simply making deuces wild to the wild 7-stud variant of baseball.

5. A twist round in which players can buy another card from the deck. If a player does not like their card, they can purchase another one by adding money to the pot. This is sometimes called a “Tittle.”

6. A stripped deck may be used. Poker was first played with only 20 cards. In the spirit of poker history, players will sometimes only play with a stripped deck. A popular poker game in Spain is played with cards 8-A. It is played similar to hold’em, except that one card is dealt at a time and you must use both of your hole cards.

7. Each player is dealt a certain amount of cards. Then there is usually a number of community cards that all players can use. When forming a poker hand a player may use cards from his hand and the “community cards”. Examples of community card poker include Texas hold ‘em and Omaha hold ‘em

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.