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The game of poker has many variations, most of them 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.

Games can be divided into the following groups:

• DRAW POKER VARIANTS: This class of games includes all games in which players receive their full complement of cards at the initial deal, then exchange some of them during the course of play. This group includes: 5 Card Draw, Anaconda, DogButt, Don Juan, California lowball, Q-Ball, Monkey Love, etc.
  
  
• STUD POKER VARIANTS: Games in which each player receives a combination of face-up cards and face-down cards in multiple betting rounds. Stud games are also typically non-positional games, meaning that the player who bets first on each round may change from round to round (it is usually the player whose face-up cards make the best hand for the game being played). This group includes: Seven-card stud, Five-card stud, Razz, Mississippi stud, Mexican stud, Let it ride, Caribbean Stud, Pai Gow, etc.
  
  
• COMMUNITY CARD POKER VARIANTS: Games in which each player's incomplete hidden hand is combined with shared face-up cards. This group includes: Texas hold'em, Pineapple, Omaha hold'em, Manila, Tic Tac Toe, etc.

It is not uncommon for players in home games to invent ad-hoc variants during a playing session. Such games rarely achieve the popularity of the well-known variants, for the good reason that the well-known variants have been selected for playability over many years.