Poker - Five Card Draw

Players and equipment

Two to eight players, a standard 52-card deck and chips. The classic kitchen-table poker: everything is private, and the only information is the betting and how many cards people take. SquareScores is a chip ledger for the game: it keeps every stack, bet and pot, and it deals nothing and never sees a card.

The deal

Everybody antes an agreed amount into the pot before any card is dealt. Five cards each, face down. Some tables post blinds instead, as at Hold'em, but the ante is the older and more usual arrangement here — everybody pays to see a hand, so nobody can sit and fold for free.

Play

A first round of betting, starting left of the dealer. Any hand may open: the first player may bet on a pair of twos or on nothing at all, or check and let the next player decide. To check is to pass when nobody has bet; to bet is to put chips in first; to call is to match the bet in front of you; to raise is to match it and add more; to fold is to give up your cards and any claim on the pot. If everybody checks, the hand goes to the draw with only the antes in the pot.

Then the draw: each player in turn may discard up to three cards — commonly four with an ace shown — and is dealt replacements. A few home tables allow all five to be changed; agree it before the first deal. A second round of betting follows, starting with the first player still in to the dealer's left, and then the showdown.

Scoring

Standard poker rankings decide the showdown — straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card, best first, exactly as on the Poker page. Kickers settle hands of the same rank, suits never do, and identical hands split the pot.

What beats what

Best first:

Straight flush

A♠ K♠ Q♠ J♠ 10♠

Five in sequence, all one suit

Four of a kind

9♣ 9♦ 9♥ 9♠ K♦

Four cards of one rank

Full house

Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ 4♣ 4♠

Three of one rank and two of another

Flush

K♥ J♥ 8♥ 6♥ 3♥

Five of one suit, out of sequence

Straight

9♦ 8♠ 7♥ 6♣ 5♦

Five in sequence, mixed suits

Three of a kind

7♠ 7♥ 7♦ K♣ 4♠

Three cards of one rank

Two pair

J♣ J♠ 5♥ 5♦ 9♠

Two of one rank and two of another

One pair

10♥ 10♣ A♠ 8♦ 3♣

Two cards of one rank

High card

A♦ Q♠ 9♥ 5♣ 2♥

None of the above

The draw is the tell: taking one card advertises two pair or a flush or straight try, taking three admits a bare pair. Standing pat — drawing nothing — is either a made hand or theatre.

A worked hand

Four players, an ante of 5 each. Dan deals, so Alice speaks first.

The ante

Pot 20

Four players put in 5 each

Before the draw

Pot 110

Alice bets 10; Ben calls; Cara raises to 30; Dan folds; Alice and Ben call

The draw

Pot 110

Alice takes three, Ben takes one, Cara stands pat

After the draw

Pot 350

Alice checks; Ben bets 40; Cara raises to 120; Alice folds; Ben calls

Showdown

Cara takes 350

Cara's flush beats Ben's two pair

Alice opened on a pair of eights, which any hand may do here, took three cards and did not improve. Ben took one to two pair, hoping for a full house, and missed. Cara stood pat with a flush already made, and the raise after the draw said so. Cara put 155 in and takes 350, so she is up 195; Ben is down 155, Alice 35 and Dan his ante of 5, and the four numbers cancel out, because every chip in the pot came from somebody at the table.

Ending

Best hand at the showdown takes the pot, or the last player left when everybody else folds.

What to draw to

Draw to what you have, not to what you hope for. With a pair, take three cards and keep the pair: you improve about one time in three, usually to two pair or three of a kind. Keeping a high card beside the pair and drawing two disguises the hand but makes it worse, and the disguise is rarely worth what it costs. With two pair, take one: a full house comes about one time in twelve. With three of a kind, take two. With four cards to a flush, take one and make it about one time in five; with four to a straight open at both ends, one time in six. Four to a straight that needs one exact card in the middle makes it one time in twelve, which is a fold to any real bet.

The number of cards drawn is a tell

At Hold'em you read the board; here you read the draw, because it is the only card information there is. Three cards means a pair. Two cards is usually three of a kind, or a pair with a kicker held for show. One card is two pair, or four to a flush or straight — a hand that is either strong or nothing after the draw, which is why a player who took one and then bets big has usually made it. Standing pat is a made hand, a straight or better, or a bluff that started before the draw and has to be carried through. Remember your own draw is read the same way: taking three and then raising after it says you hit, and the table knows the odds of that.

Position

The dealer acts last in both rounds, and that is worth more here than in most games, because the last player to draw also sees every draw before choosing their own. From an early seat, open only with a hand that can stand a raise behind it: a high pair or better. Late, a small pair or a good draw is worth a call to see the draw cheaply, and any pot nobody has opened is worth a bet on almost anything, because a table full of players who could not open is a table full of players who will fold.

Betting after the draw

The second round is where the money goes in, and it is the simpler one. If you improved and were the last to raise before the draw, bet: the players who called you were drawing, and most draws miss. If you drew and missed, check, and fold to a bet unless you are sure the bettor was drawing too. If you stood pat and are bet into, raise, because a player who draws and then bets into a pat hand has either made a monster or is bluffing at the one hand that cannot fold. Bluff after the draw only where your draw told the right story: a player who took one card can represent the flush, a player who took three cannot.

The ante and the fold

Every hand costs an ante, so folding is never free, and a table that folds everything but aces slowly hands its chips to whoever plays. Even so, most hands should be folded to a bet before the draw. The ante is small, the bets are not, and the player who calls a raise with a pair of fives to see three new cards is paying six times the ante for a one-in-three chance of improving to a hand that may still be second best. Take the cheap hands in late position and give up the rest.

How many cards can you draw in five card draw?

Up to three at most tables. Many allow four if the card you keep is an ace and you show it, and a few home games allow all five. Agree the rule before the first deal, because a player who wants five cards will ask at the worst possible moment. You may also draw none at all, which is called standing pat.

What is jacks or better?

The most popular form of the game: you may not open the betting unless you hold a pair of jacks or a better hand. Once somebody has opened, everybody else may call or raise with anything. An opener who is called must show the pair at the end, even in a hand they lost, so nobody can open on nothing. It is often just called jackpots.

What happens if nobody can open?

The deal is dead. Everybody throws their cards in, everybody antes again, and the pot carries over to the next deal, so the second hand starts with twice the money in the middle. Two or three dead deals in a row build a pot worth fighting for before anybody has bet a chip, which is the whole flavour of the game. In the plain form, where anything opens, this never happens: the first player may bet on a pair of twos or on nothing.

Does a flush beat a straight?

Yes. A flush, five cards of one suit, beats a straight, five in a run of mixed suits, because it is harder to make. From the top: straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. The same order holds at every poker game on these pages.

Do you have to show your cards at the end?

Only to claim the pot, or to prove you could open under jacks or better. If everybody else folds, the last player left takes the pot and may throw their cards away unseen. At a showdown the last bettor shows first, and anybody who cannot beat it may fold face down.

How is five card draw different from Texas Hold'em?

There are no shared cards. Every card is private, so there is no board to read; you read the betting and how many cards people took. There are two rounds of betting rather than four, an ante rather than blinds at most tables, and one chance to change your hand. It is the older game, and the one most people learned first at home.

How many people can play five card draw?

Two to eight. With eight players and everybody drawing three, the deck can run out: the discards are shuffled and dealt again, or the last players draw from what is left. Five or six is the comfortable number, and jacks or better wants four at least, because at three the deal is dead more often than it is played.