Five-Card Draw

What you are trying to do

You are building the best possible five-card hand and betting on it twice. Nothing is shared, so the rankings apply directly: the five cards in your hand are your hand, with no selection to make at the end.

The draw is the only moment where your hand can change, and the number of cards you take is public. That number is a piece of information you hand to every opponent, and it works the other way too.

Order of play

1. Post the ante or the blindsHome games usually use an ante from every player. Card rooms more often use a small blind and a big blind, exactly as in Hold’em.
2. Deal five cards face down to each playerCards are dealt one at a time, clockwise. Nobody sees anybody else’s cards at any point before the showdown.
3. First betting roundStarting left of the big blind, or left of the dealer in an ante game, each player folds, calls or raises.
4. The drawIn turn, each remaining player discards any number of cards and receives the same number back from the deck. Standing pat — taking none — is allowed.
5. Second betting roundAnother round of betting, beginning with the first active player left of the dealer button.
6. ShowdownRemaining players turn over their five cards. The best hand under the standard rankings takes the pot.

How many cards to draw

The draw is decided by what you are keeping, not by what you are hoping for. The table below gives the standard exchanges and what each one tells the rest of the table about your hand.

Odds worth knowing

These are the figures that come up in almost every hand. They assume a full deck and ignore the cards other players have taken, which in a short game is a reasonable simplification.

• Drawing three cards to one pair makes three of a kind or better roughly one time in four.
• Drawing one card to four of a flush completes it about nineteen per cent of the time.
• Drawing one card to an open-ended straight completes it about seventeen per cent of the time.
• Drawing one card to an inside straight completes it about eight and a half per cent of the time — which is where the advice against it comes from.
• Being dealt two pair or better before the draw happens about one hand in thirteen.

Comparing those numbers to the price of a call is the subject of Pot Odds and Outs.

Rules that catch people out

• Discarding before your turn. The draw moves in order like any other action. Wait to be asked.
• Announcing the number. Say how many cards you are taking and put that many face down on the table. Do not hand them to the dealer one at a time.
• Keeping the discards. Once released, discarded cards are dead. Reaching back for them is not allowed, even a second later.
• Running out of cards. With six players drawing heavily the deck can empty. The discards are then shuffled and reused, excluding the current hands.
• Jacks or better. Some home games require a pair of jacks or better to open the betting. Agree on this before the first deal, not during it.

Terminology

The draw

The single exchange of cards that gives the game its name.

Stand pat

To take no cards at the draw.

Snow

To stand pat with a worthless hand as a bluff.

Kicker

An unpaired card kept alongside a pair, used to break ties.

Jacks or better

A house rule requiring at least a pair of jacks to open the first betting round.

Lowball

A draw variant in which the worst hand wins the pot.

The full list is in the Card Game Glossary.