Make Stakes More Exciting with Greek Poker

To be the best in online poker games, you need to harness your skills in poker variants other than what’s commonly played opn online poker sites such as Texas Holdem Poker, Omaha Poker, or Five Card Stud Poker. By taking on new challenges, you learn new ways to improve your strategy, bluff against your opponents, and calculate your odds. Choosing to learn the different variations of Greek poker will offer you the chance to play with more exciting stakes and avail of priceless learning opportunities at the same time.

The Many Flavors to Greek Poker

If you think that Bombs and Elevator are the only poker variants to learn, think again because Greek poker has a lot more fun and challenging diversions to offer.

Gonia or Angle

Community cards forming certain angles are the basis of this particular poka variant. A right angle is formed by seven community cards, three for each side and one for the center. Players get three cards each and the winning hand is made up of at least two hole cards and three community cards from the same side. The center card can be considered a part of either side.

For hat-shaped community cards, five cards are used with one center cards and two cards for each row. This follows the kenda chroma or straight-flush hand order. Betting rules are similar to those used in traditional poker but may change depending on management policies.

Striptease

This Greek poker variation almost always makes use of the kenda-chroma hand order but may also adopt rules of the kenda-full or straight-full hand order on the odd occasion. No community cards are used in this game.

Players are first dealt with five or seven cards faced down. Rules get tricky from here and it is one reason why new players often require more time than usual to master the game.

The first player to commence the round makes a bet when his card is revealed. Let’s say he has drawn a K. The next player exposes his top card and gets a Q. He moves on to his succeeding cards until he gets something better. Let’s say he gets another Q. He now has a pair of Qs, certainly better than a K single. He makes a bet and the third player exposes his top card. The cycle continues until all cards are revealed and the best hand is determined.

Chemin de Fer

This game makes use of the tria-full hand order. Seven community cards will be at play together with three hand cards. Community cards are dealt face down, slightly covering the one to their left, and have a specific arrangement on the table: the first 2 cards make up a vertical row, the third goes horizontal, the following two makes up another vertical row, and the last pair makes a horizontal column.

Players will be provided with two chances to replace hand cards with new ones.

The first round of betting takes place when all community cards are still unexposed. The next takes place when the first vertical pair is revealed. When the third card is exposed, players are offered a chance to replace a hand card. Betting resumes on the next pair of cards. The last pair is revealed and players are offered the final chance to replace a hand card.

More Greek Poker Games to Enjoy

If singles, doubles, cuckoo, and bombs are the only Greek poker variants you know and you’d like to expand your knowledge and experience, here are more poker variations to enjoy – some of which you might even have the opportunity to play online on poker sites.

Bombs with a Hat

If you’re familiar with the rules for playing bombs then learning this particular poka variant won’t be a hardship. The only difference between bombs and this game is the presence of one or two wildcards, also referred to as hats.

There are three acceptable hand combinations for bombs with a hat. The first combination would make use of 2 of the player’s cards, one wildcard, and two from a bomb. The second combination would make use of 2 of your cards and the rest from the bomb. The last will make use of all three of your cards, one wildcard, and one from the bomb.

Whether tria-full (three-full) or kenda-chroma (straight-flush) is used will depend on the hand combination allowed and used by the player.

Asanser or Elevator

One card is dealt to each player at the start of the game, followed by two board cards and forming a row of its own. Players are dealt another card, followed by two more board cards. By this time, you’d have three rows and two columns on the table. Players get another card before two cards are once more added to the table, creating two columns with three cards each. A wildcard is finally added at the middle of the two rows.

Winning hands are composed of either two hand cards and three board cards or vice versa. Community cards used in a hand must belong to the same row. The wildcard may be used in combination with either row. Finally, elevator is judged according to kenda chroma due to the number of cards available for play.

Pyramida or Pyramid

The game begins with players getting three cards each. On the table, a pyramid of cards are laid down – one card on top, two cards on the second and continuing on with the bottom row containing four cards.

A winning hand must be composed of at least two hand cards and two or more community cards. Players however can only use one card from each pyramid row. Community cards are revealed row per row, starting from the bottom.

Nekrotafeio or Cemetery

Players are dealt three to five cards each, depending on the number of persons playing at the table. Next, two rows of 5 face down cards are dealt on the table.

One card from each row is first revealed. The card with the higher value is considered the good row. The other row will then be considered the bad row and all cards held by the player that match those in the bad row would have to be discarded.

To make things more exciting, the deciding factor on which row is good or bad can depend on the last rather than the first card revealed. Cemetery is always played according to kenda chroma.

Different Types of Greek Poker

In the world of poker, there’s almost no end to what you have to learn and master in order to be consistently on the top of your game. This is especially true with poka or Greek poker, when new variations seem to crop up everday.

Basics of Greek Poker

Greek poker or poka is actively played in Greece but is slowly finding its way to other parts of the world. Three hand orders are used in poka, and you have to familiarize yourself with each and every one of them before you can proceed to learning the different poker variants that make up poka.

Types of Greek Poker

Monos or Singles

A tria-full or three full is often used for this type of poka. The dealer deals each player one card and betting commences as the dealer reveals a community card. When three community cards have been dealt, players are dealt another card. Afterwards, betting resume as two more cards are added to the table separately. Singles is the only game where players favor the tria-full hand order.

Diplos or Double

This poker variant adheres to the same rules used in Monos except that this time, once the third community card has been revealed, the dealer deals players with two and not just one more cards. This will bring up the total number of cards available to players to eight. Players are required to use at least two of his own cards to form his own hand.

Diplo Tampo or Double Tableau

In this game, two rather than just one set of community cards are used. Players have to decide then which set they’d prefer to use in combination with his own cards. He must use at least two of his own cards. Furthermore, players are prohibited from combining cards from different sets of community cards.

Mpompes or Bombs

This is one of the most popular variants of Greek poker. Players are dealt one card each before the dealer lays out a bomb. A bomb is made up of three cards - although it could be more, depending on the rules of the game – revealed to the players concurrently. The dealer then proceeds to dealing each player another card before laying out another bomb.

When the third bomb has been laid out, it’s up to the dealer or management rules if two triple or quadruple bombs would follow. Betting takes place between explosions. Bombs explode one by one and players must form a hand by combining at least two of his own cards with one of the bombs on the table.

Mpompes Me Kapelo or Bombs with a Hat
This game is like playing bombs with a twist. Bombs are still made up of three or four cards. A kapelo or hat, on the other hand, may be one or two wildcards dealt on the table. A winning hand is composed of at least two of the player’s cards combined with cards from one bomb and, if he so chooses, one of the wildcards.

It will take a bit of time to look for websites offering Greek poker games online, but at the meantime, you can divert yourself by playing it with your friends. Good luck!

Understanding Greek Poker

If you’re tired of playing Texas Hold’em, Five Card Stud, and Omaha over and over then don’t worry because there are many other poker variants to learn, play, have fun with, and of course, win money from as well. And speaking of new variants, care to give Greek poker a try?

What is Greek Poker?

Greek poker is also known as poka. Numerous poker variations are played in Greece, and a handful of them have already found their way in gaming websites. Some of the games combine rules between American and European poker. The rest are conjured by the active imagination of Greeks.

In Greece, poka is often played at home, typically during the holidays. In the old days, poka was also played in illegal gambling establishments. The word ‘poka’ actually comes from the way Greeks once used to try adapting the word ‘poker’ and imitating the way Americans pronounce it.

How Poka is Played

Poka is commonly played between three to six persons. In contrast with traditional poker, however, dealing in poka is done in a counter-clockwise direction. Moreover, the player seated at the dealer’s left is required to cut the deck prior to dealing.

Hand Order in Poka

There are three types of hand order used in poka.

Kenda-Full
Also known as straight full, this hand order is the least used in poka and is often used when variations of American poker games like Texas Hold’em or plain vanilla poker is played. In kenda-full, a full house beats a flush while a straight counts higher than three of a kind.

Tria-Full
Also known as three-full, three of a kind beats a straight this time but full houses still count higher than flushes. Two popular Greek poker variants, cuckoo and bombs, generally adhere to this order.

Kenda-Chroma
Finally, there’s kenda-chroma, also known as straight-flush, and is similar to kenda-full. It is characteristically used with vanilla poker. A straight is still a better hand than three of a kind but flushes beat full houses.

Dealers generally make the decision on which hand order to use for the game. There are, however, rules to help determine which hand order is the right choice for the game. These rules mostly depend on the number of cards. Let’s say a player has eight or more cards in total and by combining those he’s holding and those displayed on the table. In such a case, the dealer will often go with a tria-full hand order. If there are seven cards or less, however, then the dealer will most probably use a kenda chroma.

The number of community or board cards can also dictate the type of hand order used. Five or more cards on the table will generally require a ‘tria full’. Tria full is used when there are a greater number of community cards since players have more chances to get a straight.
Kenda chroma, on the other hand, is used for anything less than five.

Not all websites offer Greek poker to players so you’ll have to be a bit more patient when searching for gaming sites that do feature them.