Just Poker Talk

5 Card Draw is a very common and popular game in the poker world. It is a common game with children who just learning card/poker games as it is perhaps the easiest well known poker game to learn. The two main differences between it and Texas Hold’em are that each player receives five initial cards and ends with five cards from which they can make a hand instead of two hole cards and seven total cards in Hold’em, and that each player is allowed to exchange the cards they are initially delt for other cards (inplace of having any community cards or cards which would make the hand larger than five (as in Stud).

Learning the rules can be easily done just by reading this entry, but it takes much longer to learn how to win, and a lifetime (if you are lucky) to master.

Before I start with the rules, it is important to first grasp what hand will be the “winner”.

The winner:

First off, in order to make a winning hand, you must use all five of your five cards (a given, as you cannot NOT use them as they are all in your hand! lol) to make your 5-card hand. Even if you only make a pair, you still have a 5 card hand, the three highest cards left would fill out your hand and they would act as kickers.

The hand ranking is the same as any poker match, from high card to a royal flush.

A low pair will almost, if not never, win. Because each player is dealt five cards, there are many cards in play which almost always leads to a pair at the initial dealing for at least one player at the table. Add to that the fact that any number of cards can be exchanged, and two pair and sets become commonplace.

The best hand at the conclusion of the final round of betting takes the pot.

The start:

Before any cards are dealt, the blinds are posted by the players after the button. The button is just that… a round button which moves one space to the left each hand. The person directly to the left of the button is the small blind, and the next person is the big blind. So in a “5/10″ game, the blinds are 5chips and 10chips. Blinds exist to induce action.

Note: I am putting in the size of the big blind out of position because of an online poker rule that states if it is your first hand at the table you must post the big blind no matter where you are in relation to the button.

Here is an example:

The Deal:

Next, each player is delt five cards face-down which only they can see. This is also shown in the above image. Based on how good your cards are, you may wish to either fold, check, call or raise. The following image shows my five hole cards, and that I raised the blind to 120. Raises and reraises can occur at any time, and is the most important part of the game. Knowing when to bet, raise and fold is eveything in poker. My pair of Aces is not the greatest hand to raise with, but it is rather nice, and since this is playmoney, I wanted to try and win to show off. =)

Here is the raise:

The Draw Part 1:

“The Draw” is what gives this game its name. After the first round of betting, each player has the option of drawing, or throwing back cards in exchange for new cards, anywhere from 0 to all 5 of their hole cards. In the following image you can see that two of my five cards are raised; those are the two I am drawing or throwing away. It may seem odd that I am not throwing back the 10 as well, but that falls under my strategy which as I will mention at the end of the this post will be covered in a later entry.

Here are the cards I am throwing away:

The Draw Part 2:

Once you draw your cards, you get new ones back, as seen in the image below. I threw away two “junk” cards and got two Jacks in return to give me top two pair. Once everyone has drawn their cards, the second and final round of betting takes place (hence this being an “easy” poker game: only two rounds of betting and only one card exchange/flop/etc.). It is not shown in the below image, but I raised the pot 500 with my top two pair, which caused one of the players to fold and another to call.

Here is the image of my nice new jacks:

When the betting is complete, if there is more than one person left in the hand (as was the case this time), their hole cards are turned over and the winner is given the pot. If only one person remains due to a fold, then they only need to show their cards if they feel like it (most commonly done when showing off a bluff on a large pot to try and get your opponent on tilt), or otherwise they can Muck their cards which means they keep them face down while tossing them to the dealer.

In this example, since someone called my raise, we both showed our cards. I showed my two pair (aces high) and my opponent showed his hand which turned out to also be two pair (kings high). He called the large bet with a strong hand, but his kings were beat by my aces and I took the pot.

Here is the image:

Conclusion:

I hope this helps in your understanding of the rules of 5 Card Draw. It is a rather straight-forward game that can be picked up after only watching a few hands. As with all forms of poker, the best way to learn is to play.

I will cover the strategy of the game in a later post, but since everyone has their own way of thinking, it is best to get out there now and find your own. Get the family or friends in a friendly game, or hop online and learn with playmoney chips (which I do not recommend aside from learning the rules, as learning strategy is near impossible with the reckless play exhibited by people who play with playmoney).

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