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Poker is one of the most popular card games ever and is played in various guises in countries across the globe. The online gaming revolution has started to change the way people gamble and poker games are now freely available for online play at a myriad of online casinos and bingo sites. 
Although the basic principles of poker are fairly simple there are literally hundreds of different variations of the game that are played online or in casinos across the world. Most know the more familiar variations such as Texas Hold 'em, 7 card Stud, Omaha Hi Lo and 3 card stud and few have ever heard of dubiously named games such as Pregnant Threes, Heinz 57, Homicide, Murder, Snowmen & Hockey sticks, Breed the Heifer or Stormy Weather.
It would be great to consider some of these lesser known games in a later article but for now we'll briefly look at three of the most popular poker games commonly played online - Omaha High, 7 card stud and basic 5 card Draw Poker.
Omaha High
Omaha High is what is known as a Community game or a game that uses a group of cards dealt face up in front of the dealer and used as "community" cards by all players. Players then use the cards dealt them and the community cards to make up a winning hand. Each player at the table gets a turn to deal a game and the active dealer is usually indicated by a small disc known as a dealer button. 
Seven Card Stud
Seven card stud is a fairly simple game and is extremely popular. The games begins with a three card deal to each player 2 face down and one face up. The player that has the highest face up card starts the first betting round. Thereafter another 5 rounds of one face up card deals and betting concludes the dealing. At the end of the dealing/betting round the players assemble a 5 card hand from the seven dealt and the best hand wins based on standard poker rankings.
5 Card Draw Poker
This is another very popular and simple poker game that starts with the dealer dealing each player 5 cards face down an establishing whether there are to be wild cards and how many "draws" there will be. For example a "no wilds, 2 draws of 2" would signify a no wild card game where each player got to discard and draw a maximum of two cards twice.  There is usually a betting round before and after each draw and once all players have used their draw opportunities the game outcome is based on the best hand at the table. 
As mentioned, there are simply too many poker variants to cover in the space allowed which is perhaps why this old time favourite is so popular as an online and live game.