Five Card Draw

By Wagercomms

The Game

Five Card Draw, the game recognised by many as the game first played among friends, and it's an easy game to learn, but takes time to master. Five Card Draw is played with up to eight players, using one deck of cards with joker excluded, but the joker can equally be included. The game was widely popular until the introduction of Seven Card Stud, but even so it remains a classic game of poker.

How to Play Five Card Draw

Five Card Draw is played with blinds, just like flop games and each player is dealt five cards face down, the players hole cards, and no community cards are used. The aim of the game is to build the strongest five card hand, beating your opponents. In brief the game is played accordingly to... (1) Posting blinds (2) Five cards are dealt to each player (3) Betting round one, beginning with the player to left of the big blind (4) Draw (5) Betting round two, beginning with the player to left of the button (6) Showdown, determining the winner.

The Rules

Five Card Draw begins with two players posting the big blind and small blind. The first player left of the dealer pays the small blind, the next person pays the big blind, which is double the small blind. Each player is then dealt five cards, face down. The first player after the big blind has the option to fold, call or raise. The game then continues clockwise around the table until the betting round is complete.

The Draw

An exciting part of the game and with the first round of betting being complete there is a draw, that is each player determines which, if any, cards he or she wishes to discard, and the player have the option to exchange any of its five cards, or non at all.

Second Betting Round

Once the draw/discard procedure is complete there is second round of betting, starting with the first player to the left of the dealer (button) that is still in the game.  

Reshuffle Rule

As in Seven Card Stud it is possible for more cards to be needed than what are remaining in the deck, i.e. eight players times 5 cards each equals 40 cards. In this case, the cards remaining together with the cards discarded are used as a "new" deck and reshuffled, and the game play continues using the "new" deck.

Joker

The joker, commonly excluded but can also be included as a "wild" card. If included the joker can only be used as...

a) Ace, can only be used to complete a straight, flush or straight flush.

b) Flush, the joker will be the highest card of the flush, not present in the hand.

c) Five Aces is the best possible hand, i.e. four aces and the joker.  

Online, as well as land based, players will be informed whether the joker is in play or not.

Hand Rank

The game outcome is determined per the following poker hand ranking.

Five Aces                 A, A, A, A plus Joker (if used)

Royal Flush             A, K, Q, J, T in same suit 

Straight Flush         Five cards in sequence, same suit

Four of a Kind         Four cards of the same rank 

Full House               Three of a kind and one pair 

Flush                         Five card of the same suit

Straight                    Five cards in sequence, no suit

Three of a Kind       Three cards of the same rank

Two Pairs                 Two different pairs

One Pair                   One pair plus three odd cards

High Card                Five cards, nothing of the above

The Showdown

Determining the winner is the best five card hand. If two or more players have the same value, the pot is split equally between the player. There is no precedence of suit for the purposes of winning the pot.

In a game of five player and four folding on the second betting round there will no showdown, as the remaining player in the game wins by default poker rules.

Fixed Limit vs. Pot Limit

Fixed Limit and Pot Limit have the same game structure, but their respective betting structure is very different. Fixed Limit have a firm betting structure, determining when and how much you can bet. Pot Limit have a betting structure that is capped at the current pot size, and there is really no other restrictions.

Fixed Limit poker also allows for a maximum of four bets in each round (bet, raise, re-raise and the cap. After the cap, the third raise in the betting round, no more bets are allowed. While in Pot Limit the games have an unlimited number of bets and raises