Five Card Draw Rules
Five Card Draw used to be a very popular poker game before Texas Hold’em took the main spot. Regardless, it is still a fun game to play and it’s very easy to learn. In five card draw, each player plays their own hand. There’s no community cards, and no exposed cards. You get the opportunity to dump unwanted cards from your hand and replace them with new random cards. The best hand wins.
How to Play Five Card Draw
Like Texas Holdem, there is a requirement to post a small blind and the big blind which are forced bets. The person next to the dealer is in the small blaind position, and the following person is in the big blind position (clockwise). The dealer deals eahc player 5 cards (1 card per person clockwise 5 time). All crads are dealt face down.
Betting in Five Card Draw
Once the initial 5 cards are dealt, the first round of betting takes place. The player to the left of the big blind is first to act and they have the option to fold, call the current bet, or raise by at least the amount of the current bet. If no one has bet anything yet, then the current bet amount is equivalent to the value of the big blind as this represents the minimum bet amount.
When the betting is done, those who are still in the hand get the opportunity to trade in any number of cards from their hands. They discard 0 to 5 cards from the hand and are immediately dealt replacement cards. A player who is happy with his current 5 cards does not have to trade any of them.
After the exchange phase, a second round takes place and it works exactly like the first betting round. If a player makes everyone else fold, he or she wins the hand and they don’t have to show their cards, but they can if they want to. If two or more players remain after the betting is complete, there is a showdown. At the showdown the player with the best hand takes down the pot.
Using Wild Cards
In some poker rooms, the Joker cards may be used as a wild card. Sometimes, the wildcards only counts for certain values or situations. In essence, they will be partial wild cards. The house rules regarding wild cards would be indicated clearly by the poker room. As an example, Carbon Poker will allow jokers to be used only as an ace OR to complete a straight, a flush, or a straight flush. If the joker is used to make a flush, it will count as the highest card of the flush. When using Jokers, five aces is the best possible hand (four aces and joker) and it beats a Royal Flush.
Five Card Draw Limits
5 Card Draw can be played using the three standard limit rules (No Limit, Limit, and Pot Limit).
Betting Rules for No Limit: The minimum bet amount is the value of the current bet. When there are not bets in play, the bet amount is the value of the big blind. For example, in a 5/10 table, where the small blind is $5 and the big blind is $10, you must raise to at least $20, assuming there were no other bets. There is no maximum raise amount, and you can bet your entire stack of chips, which is called going “all in”. Here is an example: Blinds are 10/20. Player 1 calls $20. Player 2 raises to $60. If someone else wants to raise, they must raise to at least $120 as the current bet is now $60. Calling means you put in a total of $60 so the big blind that already has $20 invested would need to add an additional $40 to call and stay in the hand. Folding means that he would lose the $20 already invested. Finally, anyone can go all in at anytime, even if they can’t cover the current bet. For instance, if the current bet is $400 and I only have $300 left, I can still call and be “all in”, but I can’t win more than $300 per player involved in the hand. For more information on how to deal with this situation, see this article on poker side pots.
Betting Rules for Limit: In Limit 5 card draw, a maximum of four bets is allowed per betting round. Typically, this includes an initial bet, a raise, a re-raise, and a cap (final raise), but that could vary in certain poker rooms. Once the maximum number of raises is attained, each remaining player must call or fold, but can no longer raise. In limit, betting amounts are fixed, and are based on the big blind. So in a 10-20 limit game, the value of the big blind is actually $10 and not $20. So the small blind is $5, the big blind is $10.
Betting Rules for Pot Limit: This works exactly as no limit, except that the maximum bet is caped. The cap is based on the total value of the pot, after you would call the bet. So for example in a $10/$20 pot limit game, after the blinds are posted, the first player can fold, call the $20, or raise to $50 which represents the total pot value had they called the bet. (small blind + big blind + call = 10+20+20). The next player can now fold, call $50, or raise up to $130 (small blind + big blind + the raise + call = 10+20+50+50). Now the next player can do the same and raise up to $340! (small blind + big blind + the raise + reraise +call = 10+20+50+130+130). You can go “all in” when your total chip count does not exceed the maximum raise allowed. So in the last example where $340 was the maximum raise, someone with $300 could go “all in”. Remember that you don’t necessarily have to raise up to the maximum amount if you don’t want to, but you must raise by as much as the current bet at least. While these amounts may be tricky to track, the software in poker rooms will let you know what the maximum betting amount is so you don’t have to worry about all the calculations.
