How to Play Five Card Draw Poker
Five Card Draw poker is pretty simple to learn, but – as with any card game – your skill level will become better with experience and lots of practice. Five Card Draw is a classic form of poker and was once the norm for most card games. During the Wild West days, this was just about the only game you’d find in a saloon. However, the advent of Texas Hold’em Poker has now overshadowed this once immensely popular game.
The poker rules for Five Card Draw – as with any poker game – is to get the best hand and win the pot. Before the dealing begins, all players must ante up. This is an amount of money placed in the center of the table by all of the players. The first ante is usually small. The dealer will deal clockwise and lay the cards face down. The dealer will deal out five cards to each player, and should deal to himself last.
Now the betting begins. The player on the dealer’s left will start. If the player checks, the next player has the opportunity to place a bet. If no one places a bet, the cards are gathered up and the hand is over. If a player bets, the other players now have the option to call (match it), raise the bet, or fold their hand. Once the round is finished, the players will have the opportunity to draw additional cards.
Once the players have drawn all the cards they want, the process will start again with the player to the dealer’s left. The player can keep his hand or discard up to three cards. To discard, the player will lay his discards face down on the table and the dealer will give the same amount of cards – face down – back to the player.
Now another round of betting ensues. Once completed, there are different hand rankings with which to win the game. A royal flush is the best hand you can get and it is the combination of an ace, king, queen, jack, and ten all of the same suit. A straight flush is any other five cards, in order, of the same suit. Four and three of a kind are four and three of the same cards, respectively. A full house is three of a kind, plus another pair. A straight is five cards in consecutive order, but not of the same suit. Two pairs are another ranked hand, as well as one pair. The lowest ranking goes to the hand with only a high card.
Whoever has the highest ranking hand wins the pot. It should be noted that because of the difficulty in getting a top-ranked hand, three of a kind and high pairs are considered good hands.
This game was once the only game allowed in Nevada because it was considered a game of skill. However, in the 1930s, Nevada passed legislation to allow gambling of all types throughout the state. Nowadays, you can find almost every variation of poker played in one casino or another. Texas Hold’em poker is still one of the most popular, but the second most popular is Five Card Draw.
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