TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

Omaha Hi/Lo and the standard five-card and seven-card variations have always been popular home games, but these days, thanks partly to the influence of poker on TV, Texas Hold'em rules. It's a "community card" game, in which five cards are dealt face-up in the middle of the table and shared by all the players. Each player has two cards of his or her own, and combines them with the five "community" cards to make the best possible five-card hand.

But not everyone is a fan. "A Friendly Game of Poker: 52 Takes on the Neighborhood Game." "And that seems like, if you're getting together with your buddies, a really boring way to do it."

The best home games, have "some kind of absurdity to them." Options include:

ANACONDA: Players "pass half of their hands to the other guy."

AUCTION: Players auction off the cards, producing a very large pot.

BURN: A five-card stud variation that's called Burn "because if you're going for a flush, people can see four of your cards," Austen says. "And if you buy a card and you've got four spades and a heart comes up, you're visibly burned; everyone knows you've lost."