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What are the three main branches of poker?

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Five playing cards showing a flush in clubs: king, ten, eight, seven, and five of clubs. — poker A poker hand containing five cards of the same suit but not in sequence is called a flush.

Poker is categorized into three main branches based on how cards are dealt and revealed during the game:1

Draw poker: Each player’s full hand remains concealed from the other players until the final showdown. Players are typically dealt five cards facedown and may discard and replace them to improve their hand.123
Stud poker: Some, but not all, of a player’s cards are dealt faceup, allowing opponents to see a portion of the hand.1
Community-card poker: Players are dealt individual cards, but they also use a set of shared cards dealt faceup on the table to form their best possible hand. A prominent example of this branch is Texas hold’em.14

Additionally, these branches can often be played as high-low or lowball games, where the pot is split between the highest and lowest hands or awarded to the lowest hand exclusively.1