5-Card Draw: the old fashioned poker game

Poker has by far been the most sought after table games of all times and people adore this game like anything. With an avid fan following and ever growing popularity, it will be safe to dub poker as the “king of table games”. The sheer exhilaration and brain stimulation that this game of poker provides is enough to pump your adrenaline.

There are many variations in poker like the stud poker, draw poker and community card poker that includes Texas hold’em and Omaha hold’em. All the variations however follow the standard rule of playing with a standard deck of 52 cards and the universal ranking system starting from ace followed by King, Queen, Jack, 10 and so on and henceforth.

One of the oldest and the most played forms of draw poker is the 5-card draw poker. The draw poker too has variations like the 3 card draw poker, 5 card draw poker and 7 card draw poker etc. The 5 card draw poker is the most famous of all variations. The game is best played with three to six players in numbers. It is played with five cards and the dealer deals the cards to each player face down after each player placing the minimum ante for the game.

Dealer can decide the no. of cards to be discarded with minimum being three. The game starts after the dealer declares the no. of cards to be discarded. After the successful dealing, the player first from the left of the dealer gets to play first and he or she may place a bet, fold or check. The normal clockwise betting is followed.

After each player has either bet, folded or checked, the game gives a unique opportunity to the players to discard three cards and draw fresh cards from the deck as per the starting decision. Drawing and discarding in this manner results in each player always having five cards only.

After successfully completing the drawing and discarding process, the second round of betting is initiated. The player to the left of the dealer again starts the course of betting and it continues in a clockwise manner as before.
After the completion of the second round of betting, players show their hands and the player with the best hand takes the pot money. Draw poker although easy to understand, requires great expertise to play and win on a consistent basis.

Poker is largely a psychological game that requires great skill and proficiency. A good hand, smart moves and slight favor of luck are the major disparities between winning and losing a game. The odds of winning improve tremendously if a player is able to gauge the kind of cards other players have. This can be done by minutely analyzing the opponents’ moves and studying their body language that may give away some hints to the type of cards he is holding. However good the strategies may be but in the end, it all boils down to one factor that is LUCK.

Not many online poker rooms have 5 card draw tables, and those who have lack in players. The only place where you can find many opponents for 5 Card Draw is Poker Stars, but here you will find a lot of action.