Playing the Tic Tac Toe Poker

The Tic Tac Toe poker is one of those fun home games which is slowly being accepted by some casinos and gambling houses. It is named after the popular game of Tic Tac Toe in which a person must form three aligned figures to win. In the Tic Tac Toe poker, the player must utilize three aligned community cards out of the nine community cards.

With its rising popularity, there might come a time when the Tic Tac Toe poker may no longer be classified as a home game. And Tic Tac Toe poker may even be played in tournaments. In the meantime, Tic Tac Toe is still a home game of poker. Yet it has several variations. The simplest variation of the Tic Tac Toe poker is played this way:

Similar to many standard community card games, the first step in Tic Tac Toe poker requires each poker player to have two personal cards. Then, the dealer places three community cards in one straight row. These three community cards form the top row of the 3x3 board that will eventually be formed. Once the three community cards are placed, the first betting round is carried out.

After the first betting round, the dealer reveals three more community cards in a row. This second batch of three cards forms the bottom row of the 3x3 board. With six community cards, the poker players have another betting round. After this second betting round, the dealer reveals two more community cards. One of these cards is placed on the left edge of the middle row, and the other is placed on the right edge of the same row. There are now eight community cards and four rows that can be used by the players, two vertical rows and two horizontal rows.

Then, a third betting round happens. After which, the last community card is revealed. This last card is placed at the center, completing the 3x3 board. This last card also adds four more options: one vertical, one horizontal, and two diagonals. When the board is complete, the last betting round occurs and this is closely followed by a showdown.

At showdown, the best hand is formed using the two personal cards and three community cards that must be found in one row. If the cards are not on the same row, then a poker player cannot use them together.

A variant of this poker game involves either three or four community cards dealt to each poker player. But, like Omaha Hold'em, the poker player must utilize exactly two personal cards together with three aligned community cards.