How To Play Five Card Draw Poker For Beginners

In this form of poker all cards are dealt completely unseen by your opponents. This makes 5-card draw a game of reading your opponents tendencies as well as knowing the poker hand odds. 5 Card draw can be played with fixed limit, pot limit or even no-limit betting structures. Sites offering 5 Card Draw. Welcome to Poker 101 for dummies – where beginners learn to play poker. Poker 101 will give you a grounding in the mechanics of the game and get you started with some winning strategies. Read through the following pages to get an understanding of all poker related info plus lots of extra tips and tricks.

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. 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” 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 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.

Basic Strategy

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.

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.

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:

• If you are dealt a pair, draw three to try for trips or two pair
• If you are dealt trips, draw two and try for quads or a full house
• If you are dealt four to a flush or a straight, draw one and hope to catch
• If you have absolutely nothing it is best to fold

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?

• Draw 4 – If your opponent draws four cards they are most likely holding an Ace and looking to make a pair.
• Draw 3 – Usually this is indicative of your opponent holding a pair and looking to make trips or two pair. It doesn’t happen often, but there will be times where a weaker player may hold on to a suited Ace and hope for a lucky draw.
• Draw 2 – Most of the time when your opponent draws two cards they are holding trips and looking to land quads or a full house. In some instances they might be holding a pair with an Ace. Weaker players will sometimes draw two when they are holding a three-flush or have three cards to a straight.
• Draw 1 – There are pretty much only two options when a player draws one card, either they have a straight or flush draw or they are holding two pair. There is there ver slim chance that they are holding four of a kind and are drawing a card just for the fun of it. But for the most part you can rule that out.

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.

Free Draw Poker Online

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

Advanced Tactics

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.

How To Play Five Card Draw Poker For Beginners Beginner

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.

Recap

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.