Five Card Draw Poker
When the poker boom hit in 2003 after Chris Moneymaker famously won the World Series of Poker Main Event, Texas Hold ‘em was all the rage. But for many in the years prior, their introduction to poker came through a very different game.
Five card draw is a classic poker game. Most people learn to play as kids. It’s not only fun–it’s also easy to learn. For beginners, five card draw is the best place to start learning poker. How to Play 5-Card Draw Poker. If you have played any other form of poker, 5-card draw rules are similar in that the aim of the game is to make the best five-card poker hand.
Five Card Draw has always been one of the games that people would play around the house or at parties. For anyone that didn’t know how to play poker, the simplicity of the rules made it an easy variation of the game to start with.
It is one of the earliest forms of poker on record. In addition, it is one of the most famous as any movie that poker was a part of in the pre-poker boom era most likely featured Five Card Draw.
Five Card Draw is the game believed to have been played during the days of the Wild West when “Wild” Bill Hickok was famously shot to death while playing. As legend has it, he was holding two pairs, Aces and Eights, a hand that is now nicknamed “The Deadman’s Hand” due to this ominous occasion.
The game is no longer spread in brick and mortar casinos unless requested. Online you can find plenty of games, however. Luckily, if you’ve never played before, Five Card Draw is one of the more basic and straightforward forms of poker.
The best place to start when discussing the basics is the hand rankings. Before diving into how the game is played it is important to know what constitute a good hand so that you can determine what you should do when it is your turn to draw cards.
Five Card Draw follows the same high hand guidelines as all of its fellow poker game variants. To understand the hand rankings of a poker game take a look at the graphic below:
Five Card Draw will usually be played 6-handed. Because of the draw nature of the game, anything more than 6 and you risk not having enough cards in the deck to cover everyone’s draw.
The hand will start in one of two ways depending on the betting structure being used. In Five Card Draw you will sometimes see it played where everyone posts an ante, but the more popular way and the way that you will see it played online is that there will be a small blind and a big blind.
If you’re familiar with Texas Hold ‘em or Omaha than you know this format quite well. If you are new to poker entirely here is what we mean by small blind and big blind:
- Small Blind
- The small blind is the first forced bet by the first player on the direct left of the dealer. The amount of the small blind will be half of the big blind, which is considered the full bet amount.
- Big Blind
- The player to the direct left of the small blind will post the second forced bet known as the big blind. This big blind amount constitutes a full bet.
Once the blinds are posted the dealer deals each player five cards face down.
At this point, the first round of betting occurs, starting with the player on the direct left of the big blind. Once this round of betting has completed it is now time for the players to draw.
The Draw
The “draw” in Five Card Draw is the heart of the game. After the first round of betting, players have the option to discard cards they do not want and draw new ones from the top of the deck.
If a player likes the first five cards they were dealt they can choose not to draw any cards. This is known as “standing pat”.
After each player left in the hand has had a chance to discard and draw new cards, another round of betting occurs. After this final round of betting the remaining players table their hands and the player with the best hand is declared the winner.
The betting structure of Five Card Draw resembles that of Texas Hold ‘em. Each hand starts with a small blind and big blind posting their bets. The game can either be played in the fixed limit structure, or the no limit structure.
In fixed limit Five Card Draw, betting is done in increments of the big blind equivalent. In no limit Five Card Draw the only limitation to how much you can bet is the amount of chips in your stack.
Overview
By now you have found that the rules of Five Card Draw are fairly simple and straightforward. A quick recap of the game sequence is as follows:
- Each player is dealt five cards.
- A round of betting, starting to the left of the big blind occurs.
- Players discard the cards they do not want and draw new cards
- A round of betting starting with the first live player to the left of the dealer.
In Five Card draw you will most likely always be drawing cards. It is fairy rare to be dealt an extremely strong hand on the first deal.
For reference, take a look at this mathematical chart below of the chances of being dealt certain strong hands prior to the drawing round:
- Royal flush <0.001%
- Straight flush (not including royal flush) <0.002%
- Four of a kind 0.02%
- Full house 0.14%
- Flush (excluding royal flush and straight flush) 0.20%
- Straight (excluding royal flush and straight flush) 0.39%
- Three of a kind 2.11%
- Two pair 4.75%
- One pair 42.30%
- No pair / High card 50.10%
At this point it is pretty safe to say that you have a solid understanding of the rules of Five Card Draw.
To understand the game even deeper and to get some tips and tricks on how to be more profitable at the tables check out our Guide to Five Card Draw section and best of luck along the way.
Five-card draw (also known as a Cantrell draw) is a pokervariant that is considered the simplest variant of poker, and is the basis for video poker. As a result, it is often the first variant learned by new players. It is commonly played in home games but rarely played in casino and tournament play. The variant is also offered by some online venues, although it is not as popular as other variants such as seven-card stud and Texas hold 'em.
Gameplay[edit]
In casino play the first betting round begins with the player to the left of the big blind, and subsequent rounds begin with the player to the dealer's left. Home games typically use an ante; the first betting round begins with the player to the dealer's left, and the second round begins with the player who opened the first round.
Play begins with each player being dealt five cards, one at a time, all face down. The remaining deck is placed aside, often protected by placing a chip or other marker on it. Players pick up the cards and hold them in their hands, being careful to keep them concealed from the other players, then a round of betting occurs.
If more than one player remains after the first round, the 'draw' phase begins. Each player specifies how many of their cards they wish to replace and discards them. The deck is retrieved, and each player is dealt in turn from the deck the same number of cards they discarded so that each player again has five cards.
A second 'after the draw' betting round occurs beginning with the player to the dealer's left or else beginning with the player who opened the first round (the latter is common when antes are used instead of blinds). This is followed by a showdown, if more than one player remains, in which the player with the best hand wins the pot.
House rules[edit]
A common 'house rule' in some places is that a player may not replace more than three cards, unless they draw four cards while keeping an ace (or wild card). This rule is useful for low-stakes social games where many players will stay for the draw, and will help avoid depletion of the deck. In more serious games such as those played in casinos it is unnecessary and generally not used. However, a rule used by many casinos is that a player is not allowed to draw five consecutive cards from the deck. In this case, if a player wishes to replace all five of their cards, that player is given four of them in turn, the other players are given their draws, and then the dealer returns to that player to give the fifth replacement card; if no other player draws it is necessary to deal a burn card first.
Another common house rule is that the bottom card of the deck is never given as a replacement, to avoid the possibility of someone who might have seen it during the deal using that information. If the deck is depleted during the draw before all players have received their replacements, the last players can receive cards chosen randomly from among those discarded by previous players. For example, if the last player to draw wants three replacements but there are only two cards remaining in the deck, the dealer gives the player the one top card he can give, then shuffles together the bottom card of the deck, the burn card, and the earlier players' discards (but not the player's own discards), and finally deals two more replacements to the last player.
Sample deal[edit]
The sample deal is being played by four players as shown to the right with Alice dealing. All four players ante $1. Alice deals five cards to each player and places the deck aside.
Bob opens the betting round by betting $5. Carol folds, David calls, and Alice calls, closing the betting round.
Bob now declares that he wishes to replace three of his cards, so he removes those three cards from his hand and discards them. Alice retrieves the deck, deals a burn card, then deals three cards directly to Bob, who puts them in his hand. David discards one card, and Alice deals one card to him from the deck. Alice now discards three of her own cards, and replaces them with three from the top of the deck (Note: in a player-dealt casino game there is often a rule that the dealer must discard before picking up the deck, but this is a home game so we won't worry about such details).
Now a second betting round begins. Bob checks, David checks, Alice bets $10, Bob folds, David raises $16, and Alice calls, ending the second betting round and going directly into a showdown. David shows a flush, and Alice shows two pair, so David takes the pot.
Stripped deck variant[edit]
Five-card draw is sometimes played with a stripped deck. This variant is commonly known as 'seven-to-ace' or 'ace-to-seven' (abbreviated as A-7 or 7-A). It can be played by up to five players. When four or fewer players play, a normal 32-card deck without jokers, with ranks ranging from ace to seven, is used. With five players, the sixes are added to make a 36-card deck. The deck thus contains only eight or nine different card ranks, compared to 13 in a standard deck. This affects the probabilities of making specific hands, so a flush ranks above a full house and below four of a kind. Many smaller online poker rooms, such as Boss Media, spread the variant, although it is unheard of in land casinos.
Maths of Five-card draw[edit]
- Pre-draw odds of getting each hand
- Royal flush <0.001%
- Straight flush (not including royal flush) <0.002%
- Four of a kind 0.02%
- Full house 0.14%
- Flush (excluding royal flush and straight flush) 0.20%
- Straight (excluding royal flush and straight flush) 0.39%
- Three of a kind 2.11%
- Two pair 4.75%
- One pair 42.30%
- No pair / High card 50.10%