How to play
Five Card Draw is the poker most people learn first: no community cards, just your own five cards and one chance to replace some of them. Here you sit at a fixed-limit cash table with one to five computer opponents. Everyone starts with 1,000 chips, the blinds are 5 and 10, and a fresh 52-card deck is shuffled for every hand.
- Blinds and cards. The dealer button (D) moves one seat each hand; the two players to its left post the small blind (5) and the big blind (10). Everyone gets five cards face down.
- First betting round, starting left of the big blind: fold, call, or raise.
- The draw. Everyone still in the hand, in turn from the left of the button, chooses which cards to throw away and gets the same number of new cards. Tap the cards you want to replace and press Draw, or keep all five with Stand pat. Everyone can see how many cards each player took, but not which ones.
- Second betting round, starting left of the button.
- Showdown. The best five-card poker hand wins.
Fixed limit. Every bet and raise has one size: 10 before the draw and 20 after it, with at most four bets per round (the big blind counts as the first). The buttons always show the amount.
Running out of cards. With many players drawing many cards, the deck can run out; the discards and the folded hands are then shuffled and used, as at a real table.
Side pots, the uncalled bet and split pots work as in Texas Hold’em. When an opponent runs out of chips, a new player takes the seat with 1,000 chips; if you run out, you can get 1,000 free credits at a new table. Your table is saved between visits.
Strategy
Know what to keep. Keep a made straight, flush or full house and stand pat. With a pair, draw three; with two pair, draw one; with three of a kind, draw two. With four cards to a flush or an open-ended straight, draw one.
Watch the draw counts. A player who stands pat probably has a straight or better, or is bluffing. A player who takes three cards usually holds one pair. Taking one card means two pair or a draw.
Pairs are weak without improvement. A small pair often loses after the draw. Jacks or better are decent hands before the draw; aces are strong.
Use position. Acting last after the draw, you see how many cards everyone took and whether they bet before you decide.
More poker. For lowball draw, try 2-7 Triple Draw or Badugi. For community-card poker, play Texas Hold’em.
If you enjoy Five Card Draw, try Five-Card Omaha or Fixed Seven Baccarat next.
