rules
Five cards, one chance to swap.
Five card draw is the game most people mean when they say they played poker as a child. Everyone gets five cards face down, there is a round of betting, you throw away what you do not want and take replacements, there is a second round of betting, and the best hand wins. Nobody shares a card with anybody.
one hand from start to finish
Everyone antes, or posts a small and a big blind depending on the house. Five cards go to each player, face down, and the first betting round runs. Then comes the draw: in turn, each player says how many cards he wants to throw away and gets that many back from the deck. The second betting round follows, and after that the remaining players show their hands.
Two betting rounds is the fewest of any common poker game. It makes draw fast and it makes the second round heavy: everything you learn in a whole hand happens at one moment, when the cards are swapped. The ranking that decides it at the end is the standard order from royal flush down to high card, exactly as in Hold'em.
Most games let you throw away anything from nothing to all five. Some houses cap it, so that six players and their replacements do not empty a 52 card deck; when it does run out, the discards are shuffled and dealt again. Throwing away nothing is called standing pat, and it says you already have a hand you are happy with, whether or not that is true.
what the draw is actually worth
| You keep | Draw | Improves | Breakdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| One pair | 3 | 28.7% | Two pair 16.0, three of a kind 11.4, full house 1.0, quads 0.3 |
| One pair, ace kicker | 2 | 25.9% | You improve less often, but win more of the pots where nobody improves |
| Two pair | 1 | 8.5% | Four cards fill the house, out of 47 you have not seen |
| Three of a kind | 2 | 10.4% | Full house 6.1, four of a kind 4.3 |
| Four to a flush | 1 | 19.1% | Nine cards of your suit are left among 47 |
| Open ended straight | 1 | 17.0% | Eight cards fill it, four at each end |
| Inside straight | 1 | 8.5% | Only the sevens work, so half as many as an open ended draw |
Every row is a complete count over the 47 cards you have not seen. Not 50: you have looked at all five of your own cards, and the ones you threw away are as known to you as the ones you kept. That is the difference between a number you can use and a number that is nearly right, and it is the same care that goes into the outs and pot odds on the cheat sheet.
the number of cards is the information
There is no board, so the draw is the only thing you see.
Three cards means a pair. Two means a pair with a kicker, or three of a kind. One means two pair, or a draw to a straight or a flush. None means a made hand, or a player who would like you to believe he has one. That short list is the whole read, and it arrives for free, once, in the middle of the hand.
It cuts both ways, which is why keeping a kicker exists at all. Holding a pair with an ace and drawing two improves only 25.9 percent of the time against 28.7 percent for drawing three, so on the raw numbers it is worse. What it buys is a hand that beats another unimproved pair, and a draw that looks like three of a kind. Whether that is worth a few points of improvement depends on the table, which is the kind of judgement that carries over from the Hold'em game most players learn first.
Draw has relatives worth naming. Deuce to seven triple draw and badugi are both lowball draw games with three draws instead of one, and badugi uses four cards and a ranking of its own. Jacks or better is the old home game version of five card draw, where you need at least a pair of jacks to open the betting.
next
The oldest variant, and the same four rules underneath.
Draw predates every game on this site and still runs on the same foundations: the ranking, the betting round, the table stakes rule. The rules hub sets out what holds everywhere, and what each variant adds on top.
draw questions
How do you play five card draw?
Everyone puts in an ante or posts blinds and is dealt five cards face down. There is a betting round, then each player still in may discard cards and be dealt replacements, then a second betting round, then the showdown. Best five card hand wins, using the standard ranking.
How many cards can you draw?
Most games let you discard anything from none to all five. Some houses cap it at three or four so that the deck lasts longer at a full table. Discarding nothing is called standing pat, and it is as much a statement as a bet.
How many betting rounds does five card draw have?
Two: one before the draw and one after it. That is the fewest of any common poker game, which is why draw pots are smaller than Hold'em pots at the same stakes and why the second round carries so much weight.
What are the odds of improving a pair in five card draw?
Holding one pair and drawing three, you end up with better than a pair 28.7 percent of the time: two pair 16.0 percent, three of a kind 11.4 percent, a full house 1.0 percent and four of a kind 0.3 percent. Counted over every possible draw from the 47 cards you have not seen.
Is it better to keep a kicker with your pair?
It improves less often. Keeping a pair with an ace and drawing two improves 25.9 percent of the time against 28.7 percent when you draw three. The ace earns its place in the pots where neither player improves, and in what your draw tells the table, not in the raw improvement number.
How many players can play five card draw?
Six is the practical maximum. Six players taking five cards each uses 30, and the replacements can take the deck past 52, so the discards are shuffled and reused when it runs out. Many home games sit five or fewer for that reason.
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