How To Play 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 has always been one of the games that people would play around the house or at parties. Draw Poker is one of the oldest forms of Poker and is still a popular variant of the game today. Although it has been surpassed by other games such as Texas Holdem and 7 Card Stud you will still find Draw games being played in both online and in offline casinos. A game of five card draw requires at least two players, though you can play with up to eight people. You will need a regular deck of cards and a set of poker chips. You don't need a fancy poker table, either. Your dining room table, a picnic table, or any flat surface that you can all fit around will work just fine.
If you want to learn how to play the simplest form of poker, Five Card Draw is the right choice. Most new poker players resort to this version before they go on to playing other varieties of the game. You may not find it often at casinos, but it has been around for long definitely a useful poker game to learn.
Make sure that you do some reading before you join the poker table. Get to know the essentials of the game to get a general idea how to approach play. Go over the rules and try to remember the highlights and main points. Draw poker is typically played with 6 players at a table, and it can be a limit, pot limit or a no-limit game.
Here is our beginner guide to Five Card Draw poker.
Make sure that you do some reading before you join the poker table. Get to know the essentials of the game to get a general idea how to approach play. Go over the rules and try to remember the highlights and main points.
Draw poker is typically played with 6 players at a table, and it can be a limit, pot limit or a no-limit game. It uses a standard 52-card deck, shuffled before every hand.
Standard hand rankings still stand; make sure to review them before playing. The highest rank is the Royal Flush (10, J, Q, K and Ace of the same suit), while the lowest is the High Card (no combination formed, the highest card determines the hand value).
The objective is to complete the best 5-card poker hand (being a draw game, initially dealt cards can be discarded and replaced with new ones).
The session begins with the Big Blind and the Small Blind. This helps stimulate the action. The bets are assigned to the players to the left of the dealer. Once both Blinds are placed, the dealer can begin to distribute cardsstarting with the player to the left.
The hands are underway and each player receives 5 cards facing down. When the circle around the table is complete and every player has a hand to play, the first round of betting ensues.
The player to the left of the Big Blind gets to take action first. Available options include folding their hand, calling the current bet or raising it up.
If nobody raises, the player who placed the Big Blind receives the opportunity to check (make no bet, but still retain their hand and not fold).
After the first round of betting is complete, the players enter a stage where they have the option to discard any or all of their cards. Should they opt to do so, they can draw new ones.
Those who prefer not to discard anything, they should go for the option “Stand Pat” when it’s their turn to act.
Once the draw is concluded, another round of betting takes place. It is the final round of betting, during which players have the option to bet and take actions as before.
If there are at least two players left in the game after this, the remaining hands go into the showdown. If everyone has folded and one player remains, he or she wins the pot.
The showdown is the final stage of the game during which hands are compared. The player with the best 5-card poker hand wins the pot.
Should there be a tie between two final players, they will split the pot in two equal halves.
Not to be confused with Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Draw is a poker variant that closely resembles Five Card Draw. The only difference is that each player is dealt seven cards rather than five cards.
Seven Card Draw is a relatively obscure variation but it’s still occasionally found in home games. Seven Card Draw was designed to address one of the biggest complaints players have of Five Card Draw: the game doesn’t have enough big hands.
In Seven Card Draw, the players may choose any five of their seven cards to create the best five card hand possible. In this version of draw poker, you’ll see strong hands more often and generate more betting action.
Antes and Blinds
Seven Card Draw can either be played with antes or blinds. In the ante system, each player must place a small bet at the beginning of every hand. This bet is usually equal in size to 10% of the small betting limit. In a $10/$20 game, the antes would be $1.00.
Other times, players can use the same blind system that Texas Hold'em uses. In the blinds system, the player to the left of the dealer posts the small blind, which is equal in size to half the minimum bet. The player to the left of the small blind posts the big blind, which is equal in size to one minimum bet.
In a $10/$20 game, the small blind would be $5 and the big blind would be $10.
Dealer
If a full time dealer is used in the game, a small button is used to represent the dealer’s position at the table. The dealer’s button moves one seat to the left at the beginning of each hand. The purpose of this is to denote position and to ensure each player pays the blinds once per orbit.
At the beginning of each hand, the dealer deals the cards face down, one at a time, beginning with the player to the left of the dealer and going clockwise around the table until each player has seven cards.
First Betting Round
After all the cards have been dealt, the players now have a round of betting. This round begins with the player to the immediate left of the dealer. This player may call, fold, or raise. All bets in this betting round are placed in increments of the low betting limit. In a $10/$20 game, each bet and raise would be placed in increments of $10.
The action then continues clockwise around the table with each player having the same choices. If any player raises, the other players must at least match that raise to stay in the hand. The action continues clockwise until all the bets have been matched.
Draw
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After the first betting round, the players may now discard up to four cards and receive new cards in exchange. Players may also “stand pat” and not draw any cards if they so choose.
Second Betting Round
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The second betting round begins with the first remaining player to the left of the dealer. This time all bets are placed in increments of the high betting limit. In a $10/$20 game, all bets would now be placed in $20 increments.
The first player may bet, check, or fold and then the betting continues clockwise around the table. Once again, if any player bets or raises, each of the other players must either match that amount or fold their hands.
Showdown
Any players remaining after the last betting round now show their hands. The player with the best five card poker hand, using any combination of the seven cards in his hand, wins the pot. If there is only one player left after the last betting round, that player may take the pot without showing his hand.