One of the most significant effects of the rise in popularity of online casino gambling in Ireland has been the return of poker gambling to our shores. The lack of opportunities for gambling on poker at the few land based casinos meant that poker gambling was confined to domestic games amongst friends. Nowadays all the major online casinos offer a variety of poker games for our entertainment, the current favourite format being Texas Hold’em which is the form of poker gambling used in all the major poker tournaments around the world including the Irish Open. Texas Hold’em is a form of poker in which each player is dealt two cards face down followed by five community cards dealt into the middle of the table, with a gambling round between each card dealt. We have detailed all the rules of Texas Hold’em and the most popular alternative poker formats in our casino games pages to assist any new entrants to the world of poker gambling in their learning process. Unlike many of the other gambling games which can be found at the online casinos, gambling on poker does reward the more experienced gamblers, and this is particularly true of the poker gambling formats with multiple betting rounds and community cards. Other poker formats which fall into this category include Omaha poker, Red Dog and Pai Gow, all of which involve the use of community cards. For new online gambling fans who want to try gambling on poker, most online casinos also offer 5 card Draw poker, the game we most associate with the old western films , and 5 or 7 card Stud poker. These poker gambling formats tend to be a more suitable introduction to poker gambling for inexperienced gamblers and we would suggest they form a good learning environment.