Gambling on poker has been popular in Ireland for many years, but the increasing availability of online casinos has provided an extra boost to the numbers now playing poker. Poker gambling has also developed a number of different formats over the years, with the Texas Hold’em format now generally considered to be the most popular form of poker gambling. Certainly for any poker gambler wanting to play tournament poker, Texas Hold’em is nearly always the poker format being used. This includes the Irish Open which is now one of the prestige poker tournaments in the world. Texas Hold’em is a form of community card poker with two cards dealt to each player face down, and five community cards dealt into the middle of the table face up, one at a time after each gambling round. This means that there are five gambling rounds for every hand, which of course tends to result in bigger pots and explains the popularity of this form of poker gambling amongst the keener players. There are however a number of other forms of community card poker available at the online casinos, including Red Dog, Omaha and Pai Gow, and for those of you who are not familiar with these forms of gambling on poker we have included brief descriptions on our individual games pages. Gambling on poker at the main online casinos is not restricted to community card poker however, and many online casino sites also offer Stud poker and Draw poker as alternatives. For gamblers who are relatively new to poker gambling, Stud poker and Draw poker are probably both good poker formats to start learning because there are less gambling rounds in each hand and potentially less risk of being tempted to go too far. All of these forms of poker gambling are explained in our games pages, and if there are some you’ve never tried take a look and have a go. There is no doubt that gambling on poker is growing rapidly at the online casinos, so if you want to get involved, have a look at our games pages, log on to one of our recommended sites and give it a whirl.