The card game of poker has many variations, most of which were created in the United States in the mid-1900s. The standard order of play applies to most of these games, but to fully specify a poker game requires details about which hand values are used, the number of betting rounds, and exactly what cards are dealt and what other actions are taken between rounds.

Popular poker variants[edit]

The three most popular poker variants are spread in casinos and poker rooms worldwide and can be divided into the following groups:

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• Draw poker: Games in which players are dealt a complete hand, hidden, and then improve it by replacing cards. The most common of these is five-card draw.
• Stud poker: Games in which each player receives a combination of face-up cards and face-down cards in multiple betting rounds. The most common of these are five-card stud and seven-card stud. These two variants are further played in other different formats.
• Community card poker: Games in which each player's incomplete hidden hand is combined with shared face-up cards. The most common of these are Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold 'em.

Here are more common rule variations:

1. Lowball: The lowest hand wins the pot. There are different rules about whether or not aces count as low, and the effects of straights and flushes. The most common variants are Razz and 2-7 Triple Draw
2. 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.
3. Players can pass cards to each other. An example of this would be Anaconda.
4. Kill game: When a fixed limit game is played and a player wins two pots in a row, the stakes are doubled. In some split-pot games, a player winning both halves of the pot may also cause a kill. In some variants of Lowball, a player may choose to kill by placing a double bet after seeing his first two cards.
5. Wild cards are added. This can range from simply making deuces wild to the 7-card stud variant named baseball.
6. A twist round in which players can buy another card from the deck. If a player does not like the purchased card, the player can purchase another one by adding money to the pot. This is sometimes called a 'tittle.'
7. 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 a player must use both hole cards.
8. Roll your own is played in stud games, and allows the player to determine which of his or her cards are turned up and visible to the other players. In a game like Seven-card Stud, the 'roll' action only applies to the first 3 cards, all of which are dealt face down. Each player then determines which card to expose. Play then continues as with regular Seven-card Stud. But a game like Mexican stud applies the roll option throughout the game. Two cards are dealt face down, and the players roll one card up. The game continues just as in Five-card Stud, except the cards are dealt face down, and each player then decides which of the two down cards is exposed.^[1]

Mixed poker games[edit]

Poker can be played in a mixed game format, for example one half-hour of Texas hold 'em followed by one half-hour of Seven-card stud. There are many types of mixed poker games. The most notable mixed poker variation is H.O.R.S.E. poker. H.O.R.S.E. is a mix of Texas hold 'em, Omaha high-low, Razz, Seven-card stud and Seven-card stud Eight-or-better. Each game will usually be played for a fixed number of hands or time and then the players will move on to the next game.

Other mixed games include:

• H.O.S.E. – same as H.O.R.S.E., except without Razz.
• H.O.E. – same as H.O.R.S.E, except no Razz or Seven-card stud.
• H.O. – Texas hold 'em and Omaha high-low
• O.E. – Omaha high-low and Seven-card Stud Eight or better.
• H.A. – Pot limit Texas hold 'em and pot limit Omaha.
• Omaha High-low Mixed – Fixed limit Omaha and pot limit Omaha high-low
• Holdem Mixed – Fixed limit and no limit Texas hold 'em.
• Eight Game Mix – Fixed limit 2-7 Triple Draw, fixed limit Texas hold 'em, fixed limit Omaha Hi-Low Eight or better, Razz, fixed limit Seven-card stud, fixed limit Seven-card stud Hi-Low eight or better, no limit Texas hold 'em and pot limit Omaha.
• Ten Game Mix (introduced at 2011 World Series of Poker) – No limit Hold'em, fixed limit Seven-card Razz, fixed limit Hold'em, fixed limit Badugi, fixed limit Seven-card Stud, no limit 2-7 Single Draw, fixed limit Omaha Hi-Low eight or better, pot limit Omaha, fixed limit 2-7 Triple Draw and fixed limit Seven-card stud Hi-Low eight or better (played with 6 players on a table).

Specific poker variant games[edit]

Some poker games don't fit neatly into the above categories, and some have features of more than one of these categories. These variants are most often played in home games, usually as part of a dealer's choice format.

High Chicago or Low Chicago[edit]

Either of these two versions can be played in any stud high game. In High Chicago, or sometimes simply called Chicago, the player with the highest spade face down (referred to as in the hole) receives half the pot. In Low Chicago, the player with the lowest spade in the hole receives half of the pot, with the A♠ being the lowest. If the player with the highest hand also has the highest/lowest spade in the hole, then that player receives the entire pot - having won both sides of the bet.

Follow the Queen[edit]

This 7-card stud game uses a wild-card designated as whichever card is immediately dealt (exposed, or face-up) after any queen previously dealt (exposed). In the event that the final card dealt (exposed) is itself a queen, then all queens are wild. If no queens are dealt (exposed), then there are no wilds for that hand. Betting is the same as in normal 7-card stud games. Follow the Queen is a typical game variant in Dealer's Choice poker games.^[2][3]

Countdown[edit]

In this 5-card game, the dealer gives each player 5 cards face down. After the first round of betting, each player may choose to replace zero to three cards. A second round of betting follows and then players may opt to replace zero to two cards. Upon completing another round of betting, each player may replace one card of the cards in their hand. After a final round of betting, any remaining players show their hands, and the highest 5 card hand wins. The cost of cards doubles each round. For example, if the dealer says each replacement card costs $10 in the first round, then each card costs $20 in the second round, and $40 in the final round. When players purchase cards to replace ones in their hand, they put the cost of the cards in the pot.^[4]

This game will only work with 4 players (or fewer) otherwise you will run out of cards.

Billabong and Shanghai[edit]

Just as Oxford stud is a mixed stud/community card version of Texas hold 'em, Billabong is a mixed version of Manila. Each player is dealt two down-cards and one up-card. Low up-card starts the betting with a Bring-in if you are playing with one, otherwise high card starts the betting. Next, two community cards are dealt, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the best exposed partial poker hand (counting the community cards, as in Oxford stud). Then a third community card is dealt, followed by a third betting round. Finally a fourth community card is dealt, followed by a fourth betting round and showdown. Each player plays the best five-card hand he can make from the three in his hand plus the four on the board in any combination.

Shanghai is the same game with an extra hole card, but no more than two hole cards play. That is, the game begins with each player being dealt three down-cards and one up-card; each player must discard one of his hole cards at some point during the game as determined ahead of time. The most common variation is to discard immediately as in Pineapple; the second most common is to discard just before showdown as in Tahoe.

Guts[edit]

Guts is a family of games that are cousins of poker rather than poker variants. They usually involve hands of 3 or fewer cards, ranked similarly to hands in poker, and multiple successive rounds of betting each of which consist of the decision to be 'in' or 'out', and each with its own showdown. The losers of rounds of guts generally match or double the pot, which grows rapidly.

Five-O poker[edit]

Five-O Poker is a heads-up poker variant in which both players must play five hands of five cards simultaneously. Four of the five cards in each hand are face-up. Once all five hands are down, there is a single round of betting. The winner is determined by matching each hand to the corresponding hand of the opponent. The player with the stronger poker hand in three (or more) out of the five columns, wins, unless a player folds on a bet that was made. If a player beats their opponent with all five hands, this is called a “Five-O” win.

Chinese poker[edit]

Chinese poker is a 2-4 player poker game with thirteen cards. The idea is to make three poker hands with increasing rank : two with five cards and one with three cards. If one of the hands does not adhere to increasing rank (i.e. is mis-set), the hand is declared dead and results in some sort of penalty.

Kuhn poker[edit]

Kuhn poker, using a three card deck, is more of game theory problem than an actual game people play, but it can be played by two players.^[5]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Pagat.com: Roll Your Own
2. ^Pokernews.com: Fun Home Poker Game Rules - Follow the Queen
3. ^Pokerrules.net: How to Play Follow the Queen
4. ^Pokerrules.net: How to Play Countdown Poker
5. ^'A Parameterized Family of Equilibrium Profiles for Three-Player Kuhn Poker'(PDF).

In the wonderful world of mechanical keyboards, there is a form factor for everyone. From the bog-standard full-size to the gamer-oriented tenkeyless keyboards, you’ll be hard-pressed not to find a suitable form factor for you. For a long time, the 60% keyboard was just that for me. However, I see a lot of beginners mistaking the 60% for a tenkeyless and even some that have never seen a 60% keyboard at all. Add its close sibling, the 65%, to the mix and the soup is ready.

In this post, I will hope to clear up some of the mystery and answer a couple key questions such as:

1. What are the advantages of 60% keyboards?
2. Are 60% keyboards good for gaming?

Without further ado, let’s get into the nitty gritty, starting with the basic 60%.

The 60% keyboard

In respect to its name, the 60% keyboard covers right about 60 percent of the full-size keyboard. In practice, this means that you’ll have direct access to all buttons in what is called the alphanumeric cluster. The image below will illustrate what I mean if the terminology is unclear to you:

Those of you who have never seen this before might be wondering what the point of going so minimalist might be. You might notice that the pure 60% form factor has no arrow keys, no F-row and no navigation cluster, and you would be right. All of these functions are accessible, but not with dedicated keys. You are giving up quite a lot to reach this state of minimalism. Let’s go over some of the 60% keyboard advantages and conversely, disadvantages.

60% keyboard advantages

If I had to pick a main attraction of of 60% keyboards, it would simply be their size. The first thing you’ll notice with a keyboard this small is simply how much mouse space you have.

Size

By taking away the numpad and the navigation cluster, you gain about 15 centimeters (that’s about 6 inches in freedom units) of horizontal space for your mouse, while keeping the keyboard in the same spot. This allow you to keep your hands closer together, which is both more ergonomic, and more comfortable. Ever seen esports professionals angle their keyboard like this?

That’s because they’ve grown accustomed to narrow desks in LAN setups and they needed to figure out a way to get more room for the mouse. Considerably angling your keyboard recovers some space for the mousepad. With a 60%, this problem is practically deleted from existence.

The small size also lends itself to taking it on the go with you. If you do a lot of typing on your laptop, you might want to consider a 60% keyboard to go along – it barely takes space in your bag and will surely feel nicer to type on than the chiclet keyboard of your laptop.

Options

The 60% keyboard also lends itself well to customization. They usually come with standard layouts and thus they enjoy the luxury of being compatible with basically every single custom keyset ever made. There are also a number of 60%-only keysets being made, which naturally sets you back less money since they only come with enough keys for a 60% keyboard.

Custom cases are also abundant for 60% keyboards, as they all use the standard screw placements and for this reason, you have a lot of options to turn your keyboard into something unique.

The other nice thing about them is that there are a lot of options available, and some are a whole lot cheaper than usual full-sized keyboards. Popular budget options for example are the Anne Pro 2 and the (now old) Poker 2.

Programmability

Since the 60% form factor has to compromise so much to get the minimalist physical appearance, the keyboard manufacturers have come up with a simple solution: a programmable layer. This usually takes the form of a PN-key and by holding it, the functions for each key change. Virtually all 60% keyboards have this functionality and the best part is that you can program the layer however you want with a few simple keypresses. They can usually be adapted to recording simple macros as well, right there on the keyboard without any need to install complicated software.

The programmable layer is both a solution to a problem, as well as a unique advantage in that you can modify and tune the layout to your liking.
Disadvantages

Now, for the other side of the coin. The keyboard giveth, and the keyboard taketh away.

I feel like while the size makes for the main attraction, it also makes for the form factor’s biggest and only downfall. The size means that you lose dedicated keys for the F-keys, the navigation cluster (the arrow keys and the bunch of navigational buttons above them) and the number pad. You still have access to all of these functions, it’s just not as convenient as it is with a full-size keyboard.

The F-keys, for example, are usually accessed by holding an FN-key (you’ll be familiar with this if you’ve ever used a laptop) and pressing the numbers 1-9 and the symbols that make up the rest of the row. Similarly, the arrow keys are often accessed by holding the FN-key and mimicking the arrow keys elsewhere on the keyboard. All of this requires some finger-acrobatics and puts your pinky to the test since it needs to hold either the PN, or the FN-keys to access different functionalities.

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Should you get one?

Most people are put off from the 60% simply because it has no dedicated arrow keys. If that’s the case for you, you could just get a tenkeyless keyboard, which has the F-row as well as the navigation cluster, sacrificing only the number pad.

But another challenger just might have an answer for you, and that is the 65% keyboard.

The 65% keyboard

The 65% keyboard is a godsend and a saving grace for most people that just can’t get used to the 60% keyboard. This is because the 65% keyboard is basically a 60% keyboard with arrow keys. It comes with it’s own set of advantages and disadvantages, but most of what I said about the 60% keyboard, applies here as well. Here’s an image of a fairly popular 65% keyboard, the Tada68:

As long as the keyboard is a 60% keyboard with arrow keys, the official designation for it is the 65%.

65% keyboard advantages

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Size

Since the 65% is very close to a 60% in physical size, the same advantages apply. You’ll get the same ergonomics and added mouse space. Furthermore, the 65% might make for an even better laptop-companion, since it comes with a rudimentary nav cluster, something I find invaluable when working on a laptop.

Arrow keys

The single advantage over the 60% are the dedicated arrow keys. If you feel like you can’t get used to the FN- and PN-layer jiggling to access your arrow keys all the time, the 65% keyboard is right for you. The close proximity of the arrow keys to the alphanumeric cluster might put you off for a while, but it’s easy enough to get used to.

Disadvantages

The 65% keyboard trades off some things in order to fit in the arrow keys, and this is its only disadvantage when compared to the 60% form factor.

The first downside is that there aren’t very many options if you’re looking for customization. Fitting in the arrow keys often means that the right side modifiers are squished, and that the nav cluster keys are on the incorrect rows, resulting in custom keysets to either not fit, or look funny when they do. Some 65% keyboards avoid this by leaving weird gaps around some of the more ill-fitting keys, like the Varmilo VA68 below.

Going for a 65% also means that you’ll be hard-pressed to find custom cases that fit. Some keyboards, like the Tada68 have optional aluminum cases that you can order it with, but most times you’re stuck to the plastic default case the keyboard ships with.

Should I get one?

If the only thing keeping you from 60% keyboards is the lack of arrow keys, you should go for the 65%. Just keep in mind that further customization might prove a little bit difficult, if you’re into that sort of thing.

In my opinion, 60-65% keyboards represent peak performance for gamers, especially if you primarily play MOBA or FPS games, which usually don’t have too many keybinds for you to worry about. I find that very few games nowadays utilize the F-row, and for that reason I am happy to toss it to gain access to the space savings these keyboards offer.

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If you absolutely can’t live without arrow keys, the 65% is an ideal choice for you. If even that is not enough, you might want to move to even bigger keyboard layouts.