Guide to Five Card Draw

Five Card Draw is a game that many players cut their teeth on when playing poker for the first time with their family or in their college dorm.

At least pre-poker boom anyway. Nowadays, online poker rooms are probably the only place you’re going to see the game spread.

If you’ve never played the game before, or if it has been years since you last have, you’re going to want a little primer on how to pull up a seat at a table and play effectively.

Given that there is really no information about your opponent’s hand available in terms of exposed cards, strategy in Five Card Draw can be somewhat different than you’re used to.

Also, if need be take a look at our Rules of Five Card Draw if you’re unsure of how the game is played.

One good thing about the game of Five Card Draw, is that from a rules and format standpoint, it is a pretty basic game. There are really only two or three times that you really have to make a decision in any given hand.

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 constitutes 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.

If you’re familiar with Texas Hold ‘em or Omaha then you know this format quite well. If you are new to poker entirely here is what we mean by small blind and big 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.

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.

When all players are dealt their first five cards we are faced with our first decision. If you’ve been dealt a pair or three of a kind it would be wise to put in a raise. At the beginner levels of the game you are often going to be called by weak hands like three-flushes or even Ace highs.

Anytime you start with any semblance of a made type of hand you should raise.

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.

This is the first time you’re really going to be able to get an idea of what your opponent might be holding or drawing to. A good baseline to start at is to draw in the following manner and assume the same from your opponents:

Initially, a good place to start is to assume that they are drawing in the same fashion that you are. But there can always be more to it, and not everyone plays the same. Also, you have to switch up your name from time to time.

So how should we assess our opponent’s draws?

After a round of betting it’s time to table your cards. In the above scenarios you are likely going to be able to put your opponent’s on a hand by the way the betting plays out. Busted straight and flush draws are likely to fold while any made hand will look to push the action.

If everyone checks after their draw it is usually wise to fire a bet as most likely everyone caught bad.

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.

While the above is a great approach for beginners, there are a few extra tricks to have up your sleeve when it comes to Five Card Draw.

This is a great play to implement from time to time as players are likely to put you on a straight or flush draw if you draw only one card. Two pair is another hand they might put you on in this situation. Therefore, a player with a strong two pair is likely to pay you off at showdown.

Additionally, if players are hoping you missed your straight or flush draw, it’s very possible they will bet into you with hands like one or two pair and you will get paid off.

“Standing Pat” means not drawing any cards. Players do this when they are dealt a made hand like a straight or flush. When there are weak players in the blinds you should sometimes take a stab at stealing the blinds and bets by raising before the draw and then standing pat.

Players will immediately defer to you when it comes time to bet after the draw. Another strong bet is likely to take it down. Even trips have to be weary of a hand that stood pat the whole way through.

When you have position and are last to act after the draw, you get to take into account everyone’s action and assess how they fared with their new cards. If no one is showing strength it’s likely they missed or are stuck with a weak pair. This is a great time to fire off a bluff no matter what you have.

In Five Card Draw a lot of players will check when given the option so you have to bet your strong hands. If you players aren’t betting, you should be stealing.

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:

In Five Card draw you will most likely always be drawing cards. It is fairly 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:

As you can see, even the basic strategy to Five Card Draw can be pretty basic.

The essence of the game is the draw and it will tell you just about everything you need to know about your opponent’s hand.