Five Card Draw Poker Games
| Number of players | 2-8 |
| Starting Hand | Five cards dealt face down |
| Betting Rounds | 2 |
| Winning Poker Hand | High hand |
| Variations | |
| Wild Cards | Use of wild cards permitting five-of-a-kind hands |
| High/low | The pot is split between the players who hold the highest lowest hands |
| Lowball | Lowest hand wins |
| Double Draw | Adding an additional draw followed by a third round of betting |
Overview:
The most basic of all the poker games is the Five Card Draw and the one with which most of us are familiar It is usually the first poker game a player learns, and it's the one that is most commonly played in wild west movies. Despite appearing a simple game on the surface the Five Card Draw poker game actually requires an immense level of skill to play successfully. As such, the game has all but vanished in casinos in favour of games that encourage more of the entry level players to compete.
The Deal:
The game begins with each poker player being dealt five face-down cards. The cards are dealt one at a time. The remainder of the deck is placed away from the game and is frequently protected by placing a marker (usually a chip) on its top. Whilst taking care to keep them concealed from the other players, they pick up their cards and view them.
The First Betting Round:
When the cards have been dealt the first betting round commences. As is the case with most games, the betting begins with ate player to the left of the dealer. If at the end of the first betting round more than one player remains in the game, the draw phase of the game begins.
The Draw:
Each remaining player expresses how many of their cards they wishes to replace. They may replace none, some or all of the cards. They discard this many cards from their poker hand. The marker is removed from the remainder of the deck and a card is burned from the top. Each player is dealt the same number of cards that they discarded so that they once again have five cards. The player must discard the unwanted cards prior to drawing new cards.
The Second Betting Round:
After the draw has been completed, a second betting round begins.
The Showdown:
If more than one player remains after the second betting round the betting is followed by a showdown where the players still contention for the pot compete with their best hands.
Common rules:
Many casinos rule that a player may not draw five consecutive cards. In the situation where a player wishes to replace all five cards, they are dealt four consecutive cards. The fifth and final card is dealt after fellow players are dealt their cards. If four cards are dealt and no subsequent player takes a card, a burn card will be dealt prior to giving the drawing player their fifth and final card.
It is a common house rule that players may not replace more than three cards in the draw. The exception to this rule is that they may draw four cards whilst keeping an ace or other wild card. This rule is common in social, low limit games where many players might stay in the draw and deplete the deck of remaining cards.
Sometimes there is a house rule that a replacement card can never be the bottom card of the deck, avoiding the possibility that this card might have been seen by any of the players, and removing any advantage they might gain from this situation.
If before all players have received their replacement cards. the deck becomes depleted, the remaining players will often receive cards randomly pulled from the cards discarded by the previous players.
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