I Love Casinos: Game

Five-card draw is quite easy to learn and one of the older poker games.

Back in the early days of poker, in the days of riverboat gamblers and Wild West gunslingers, five-card draw was the biggest game in town. This granddaddy of poker came into its present form during the American Civil War. It continued to be the most popular poker game up until the early twentieth century, when it was surpassed by stud poker. Though it is rarely played in casinos or tournaments today, five-card draw remains a very popular choice for recreational home games. It is an excellent game for beginning poker players because it is simpler than the other poker variants, while still including much of the same strategies and concepts.

To play five-card draw, each player first pays a small fee, called the ante, which is placed in the pot at the center of the table. Then, everyone is dealt five cards, one at a time, face down. Next there is a round of betting, starting with the player to the dealer's left. This player can place a bet, pass or fold his hand. Betting continues clockwise around the table. Players can pass as long as no one before them has opened the betting. If someone has placed a bet, then the other players must either call the bet or fold their hand. Or they can choose to raise the bet. Betting continues around to the dealer. The betting round is complete after all players have either called any outstanding bets and raises or folded their hand. If everyone passed or folded without betting, then the hands are thrown away, and a new hand is dealt. The antes remain in the pot for the next hand.

After the first round of betting is completed, any players remaining in the hand can discard any or all of their cards and draw replacement cards to try to improve their hand. The player closest to the dealer's left discards first, continuing clockwise around the table until all players left in the hand have had the opportunity to discard their unwanted cards. The dealer then deals each player their replacement cards, face down, starting on the left and continuing clockwise around the table. At this point, all players should again have five cards in their hand.

Next, there is a second round of betting. The betting procedure is the same as in the first round. If only one player remains at the end of the betting round, that player wins the pot without having to show his or her cards. If more than one player remains at the end, then there is a showdown. The players who think their hands are best flip their cards face up, and the best hand wins the pot.

To determine the winning hand, draw poker uses the same ranking of poker hands as most other poker games. When using a 52-card standard deck with no joker or wild cards, the poker hands are ranked as follows, highest to lowest:

- Royal flush, which is A-K-Q-J-10 of the same suit

- Straight flush, which is any five consecutive cards of the same suit

- Four-of-a-kind, which is four cards of the same rank

- Full house, which is three-of-a-kind and a pair

- Flush, which is any five cards of the same suit

- Straight, which is any five consecutive cards, not of the same suit

- Three-of-a-kind, which is three cards of the same rank

- Two pair, which is two different pairs

- Pair, which is two cards of the same rank

- No pair or high card, which is a hand that doesn't fit into any of the above categories; the hand is valued by its highest card

If two players remain for the showdown and both have the same type of hand, the hand made up of the highest cards wins. For example, a pair of kings beats a pair of queens, an ace-high flush beats a king-high flush, and so on. If two players have the same pair -- for example, they both have a pair of aces -- then the player with the higher kicker wins the pot. The kicker is the highest card in a player's hand that is not part of the pair. For example, if Johnny has a pair of aces with a king, jack and four and Kathy has a pair of aces with a queen, nine and eight, then Johnny wins because his king kicker is higher than Kathy's queen kicker. If both players show the exact same hand, the pot is split between them.

A popular variant of five-card draw requires that a player have at least a pair of jacks in order to open the betting. Some games also may limit the number of cards a player can draw. Often times, five-card draw is played with a joker, or bug, in the deck. A bug is not the same thing as a wild card because it can only be used as an ace or to complete a straight or flush. Rule variations like these will have an impact on your strategy, but basically, five-card draw strategy can be broken down into two key elements - betting and carding.

The most important decision you will make in a poker hand is whether to bet, raise, pass or fold. To determine whether you should bet a hand, you'll need to consider several factors. First, how good is your hand compared to everyone else's? A good rule to remember is that the player with the best hand before the draw is most likely still going to have the best hand after the draw. Suppose you are dealt a pair of kings. In any given hand, the probability that someone was dealt a pair of aces or better is 13 percent, assuming you are playing with a joker in the deck. That means if there are eight people playing, odds are good that someone has aces or better. So, if you are the first or second person to act, the odds are good that someone who has not acted yet has a better hand than you do. If you bet your kings and then end up folding when the player with the aces raises the pot, you lose that money. However, if you are the last person to act in the betting round and no one has opened the betting, chances are good that your kings are best. Therefore, it would be safe to bet them. So, your position at the table plays a big role in what hands you will bet. In early position, only bet a pair of aces or better. Don't bet two pair unless one of the pair is aces. Two small pair is not a strong hand because the odds are low that you will improve it on the draw. In late position, you can loosen up and bet weaker hands, like a pair of jacks, queens or kings and two small pair. These are general guidelines. You will need to adjust your play depending on how loose or tight your opponents are and how deceptive they are likely to be. Are they passing on their pair of aces in order to trap you into betting so they can then raise you?

Another factor to consider is pot odds. Pot odds is the amount money you hope to win versus the amount of money you have to put into the pot to play. For example, suppose you are dealt four hearts and one spade. Several players in front of you have called. Should you play your hand and try to make the flush? Calculating pot odds will help you answer this question. If you draw one card, you have a 19 percent chance that it will be a heart to complete your flush. Let's say that the bet is $20 and there is already $70 in the pot from the previous callers and the antes. The $20 you would need to put into the pot to play the hand is equal to 22 percent of the money in the pot you hope to win ($90 after you put in your $20 bet). This means that you would have to make your hand 22 percent of the time to make it worthwhile to play. However, the odds of making the flush is only 19 percent. Thus you do not have the pot odds to call. You should fold the hand. If there had been $110 in the pot instead of $90, then the $20 bet would have represented 18 percent of the money in the pot, and you would have sufficient pot odds to call the bet. You can use pot odds to consider when to raise as well.

The other key element of the game is carding. Knowing what cards to throw away in various situations is what separates the strong player from the weaker ones. In general, you want to always draw to your best hand. This means if you have a pair, you throw the other three cards away in hopes of improving your hand to two pair, three-of-a-kind, a full house or four-of-a-kind. If you have three-of-a-kind, you would replace the remaining two cards in hopes of getting a full house or four-of-a-kind. If you have four cards to a flush or a straight, then you would draw one card in hopes of making your hand.

However, sometimes it is to your advantage not to draw the obvious number of cards. For example, you may want to make your opponent think you are drawing to a flush or straight when you are really drawing to three-of-a-kind. So instead of drawing the normal two cards, you draw only one. Or you might want your opponent to think you have a made hand prior to the draw, so you stand pat, not drawing any cards at all! In another instance, it may be to your advantage to hold a kicker. For example, suppose you are fairly confident that your opponent has a pair of aces. Perhaps he opened in early position, and you know that he is a tight player who would only open with aces. Let's suppose that you also have a pair of aces. Assuming there are only four aces in the deck - you aren't playing with a joker - then neither one of you will be able to improve to three-of-a-kind. In this case, it would be to your advantage to hold onto a king kicker if you had one because it improves your odds of making a higher two-pair than your opponent is likely to make.

Because so much of your strategic edge is in carding, it's important to draw cards after your opponent does. That way you can gather as much information as possible about your opponent's hand prior to drawing your cards. Therefore, play hands in late position to give you the advantage of drawing last, and throw away hands in early position unless they are very strong.

In general, five-card draw is a game of aces, so be very selective about what hands you play. Use table position to your advantage, consider pot odds when making your decisions, and watch out for deceptive betting and carding. Remember to keep your opponents guessing by not always making the obvious play. A lot of draw players are not very good, so by following this strateey, you should come out a winner.