Poker 5 Hand Rules

Five Card Draw is one of the oldest variants of poker, and it also is the first poker game taught to most players. The game is very simple to learn and play, and as a result of this most casinos and online poker sites don't offer Five Card Draw at their tables. The game is more commonly played in home games, but if you're set on playing online 5 Card Draw we recommend a few poker sites later down the page.

Objective of Five Card Draw

In Five Card Draw, players attempt to win the pot (the money in the middle of the table) by having the best hand at the end, or betting enough to scare the other players out of the pot. Good players are able to maximize the amount of money in the pot when they have a solid hand, and to protect their chips when they don't have a great hand. After we teach you the rules of 5 Card Draw, we'll recommend a few strategy tips to help you win more money.

Five Card Draw Structure

For anyone that didn’t know how to play poker, the simplicity of the rules made it an easy variation of the game to start with. It is one of the earliest forms of poker on record. In addition, it is one of the most famous as any movie that poker was a part of in the pre-poker boom era most likely featured Five Card Draw. A brief background. If you’re a beginner who’s looking to get into poker for the first time, then Five Card Draw is the perfect game for you. Its rules and mechanics are not only easy to learn, they also serve as the foundation for those of practically every other five-card variety of poker – including the widely popular Texas Holdem – you’ll ever come across.

Five Card Draw is typically played with a maximum of six players because the deck can't support many more than that, as each player receives at least five cards. Most games are of the Fixed Limit betting variety, but a few online games also have Pot Limit stakes. The game starts with two players posting blinds, which are forced bets that create pre-draw action.

Also, tables are referred to based on their blind sizes - A $1/$2 Pot Limit game would have $1 and $2 blinds, while a $1/$2 Fixed Limit game would have $0.50 and $1 blinds. If you're wondering why the blinds are different for each game, read the 'Shuffle Up and Deal' section.

5 Card Draw Rules

We'll start by explaining the rules of Five Card Draw, then we'll explain the differences between Fixed and Pot limit later on down the page, as well as recommending the best 5 Card Draw poker sites.

Shuffle Up and Deal

Like I mentioned before, the game starts with two forced bets, called 'blinds'. There is a small blind and a big blind, and the big blind is typically twice as large as the small blind. The small blind is posted by the player directly to the left of the dealer, and the big blind is posted by the player directly to the left of the small blind (2 seats to the left of the dealer).

Every time a hand ends, the dealer button as well as each blind move one player clockwise. One difference to note between Fixed Limit and Pot Limit is the blind size in relation to the table stakes. In a Pot Limit game, the blinds are the same as the betting stakes - a $2/$4 Pot Limit table would have a small blind of $2 and a big blind of $4. However, a $2/$4 Fixed Limit table would have a small blind of $1 and a big blind of $2. It's a small difference, but it's important to note. Here's a drawing showing the table setup and where the blinds are located:

Once the blinds are posted, the next step is to deal the cards. Starting with the small blind, each player receives five cards total. The dealer deals one card at a time in a clockwise rotation. Once each player has their five cards, the first betting round begins.

First Betting Round

The first round starts with the player directly to the left of the big blind. This player can either fold, call the big blind, or raise. 'Calling' means that the player matches the big blind, and 'raising' means that the player puts at least double the big blind into the pot. After the first player acts, play continues around the table clockwise until every player has either folded or called the largest bet. After the first betting round is complete, the hand moves to the 'draw'.

The Draw

The Draw is the most exciting part of a Five Card Draw hand. Each player gets a chance to exchange any number of their hole cards for fresh ones from the deck. The first player to the left of the dealer starts the draw, and they can either draw 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 0 cards, which is called 'standing pat'. After they receive their new cards, the next player to the left gets to draw, and so on until each player has received their new cards.

Second Betting Round

After the draw is completed, there is another betting round. This one starts with the first player to the left of the dealer who is still in the hand, and continues clockwise around the table. Each player can either check (if no one has bet), bet (if no one has bet), call (if someone has bet), raise (if someone has bet), or fold (if someone has bet). After each player has either called the largest bet or folded, the round ends and any remaining players go to a showdown.

The Showdown

If two or more players make it all the way to the end of the second betting round, the players flip their cards over and have a showdown. This is pretty simple - the player with the best hand takes the pot. Five Card Draw uses standard poker hand rankings, as shown below:

Fixed Limit vs. Pot Limit

Although Fixed Limit and Pot Limit have the same game structure, the betting structure is quite different. In Fixed Limit, there is a rigid betting structure that determines when and how much you can bet. In Pot Limit, the betting is only capped at the pot size, and there aren't really any other restrictions.

Fixed Limit Five Card Draw poker allows a maximum of four bets in each round - a bet, a raise, a re-raise and a cap. After the cap (the third raise in a betting round), no more betting is allowed. In Pot Limit games, there can be an unlimited number of bets and raises.

Where to Play 5 Card Draw?

Not many online poker sites offer 5 Card Draw for real money, but we looked really hard and were able to come up with a couple sites that have five card draw tables, and actually have real money games running. Check out 888Poker.com if you'd like to play at our #1 rated site, or read about more 5 card draw poker sites.

If your a USA player, check this page for a list of US friendly poker rooms with Five Card Draw

Variations of Five Card Draw

5 Card Stud

Cards are dealt in streets, with a round of betting following each deal.

5 Card Draw

A complete hand is dealt face down to each player at the table. Each player then has a chance to improve his hand by discarding the cards he does not want and getting new ones dealt to him.

Community Stud

This is a variation of stud. The deal is an incomplete hand of face-down cards and a number of face up community cards that are dealt to the center of the table. These cards make up the board. These can be combined to make a five-card hand. Texas Hold'em and Omaha are two examples of the community poker game family.

History of 5 Card Draw

Five Card Draw's history is not entirely known, but to get a good summary check out this Five Card Draw history page.

Other Poker Games:

The rules of poker cover a wide range of unusual situations, including some that even experienced poker players may not have encountered or paid much attention to before.

Here are five poker rules from a variety of different poker games that not everyone may know about, even though in some cases they should.

1. Do You Have to Bet the Nuts on the River?

Those who watch a lot of televised tournament poker might be aware of this rule, as will most experienced tournament players. However even those who play a lot might not have personally faced this particular situation and so might not be aware of the rule requiring you to bet when holding the best possible hand when last to act on the final betting round.

The rule is enforced in tournaments at the World Series of Poker and elsewhere (though not everywhere). To give an example, a player holds and watches as an opponent checks the river with the board showing . The player checks back and shows down the ace-high flush — an unbeatable hand on that board. That player would then incur a penalty and be made to sit out a hand or more (at the tournament director's discretion).

The reason for the rule is to prevent collusion or 'soft play' between players, although in most cases a player checking back the nuts often does so without realizing he or she has an unbeatable hand. In the above example, for instance, the player might have missed the backdoor flush having arrived and simply checked back only thinking about the vulnerable-seeming flopped pair of nines.

The rule is generally only part of tournament poker, where any form of soft play (intentional or otherwise) affects all players, even those not in the hand.

Poker 5 Hand Rules Dice Game

Incidentally, the rule also applies when a player fails to raise with the nuts when facing a bet. Just calling isn't allowed, as that, too, could be interpreted as a kind of soft play. Meanwhile a player holding the nuts who is acting first on the last betting round can of course check in the hopes of check-raising — the rule only applies to a player acting last.

2. Do Suit Rankings Ever Matter in Poker?

In nearly all poker games and situations, zero distinction is made between the four suits — spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds — when it comes to hand value.

For example, if two players happen to make flushes in a game of seven-card stud using different suits, the suits are of no consequence. It's not as though 'spades beat hearts' or the like. Rather, whoever has the highest-ranking cards will have the better hand. Take a hand in which one player has () / / () and another one has () / / () — the one with the heart flush barely wins with A-K-T-9-3 versus A-Q-T-9-3.

However, if you don't play stud games a lot you may not realize that the suits do matter sometimes when it comes to determining which player must start the action in a hand by paying the 'bring-in.'

In seven-card stud, the player with the lowest-ranked card showing to start must pay the bring-in (a forced bet). However when two players tie for the lowest-ranked 'door card,' suits are used to break the tie. Suits are ranked as follows: spades (highest), hearts, diamonds, and clubs (lowest). Thus between two players showing a deuce, one the and another the , the one showing the pays the bring-in.

By the way, the same rule is used in seven-card stud hi-lo, in which the player with the lowest door card showing pays the bring-in. Meanwhile in razz the player with the highest door card showing pays the bring-in, which means in the case of a tie the higher suit loses — e.g., if one player shows and another , the latter one has to pay the bring-in since spades are ranked higher than hearts.

Actually, there's another situation where suits can matter in poker... keep reading...

3. It's a Split Pot... Who Gets the Odd Chip?

Split pots aren't that uncommon in poker, especially in 'split pot' games where half of the pot goes to the best high hand and half goes to the best low hand. What happens when the pot doesn't add up to an even number, though? Who gets the extra?

The situation only applies after a pot is split as evenly as possible down to the lowest denomination chip in play, but still isn't exactly even. For example, say in a tournament the lowest chip in play is the 25 and the total pot is 3,925 — the best the dealer can do is to make one stack 1,975 and the other 1,950.

The rule about the awarding of odd chips depends on what sort of game is being played. Both the WSOP and the Poker Tournament Directors Association follow the same guidelines on this one, so let's go through their identical explanations of how to hand the odd chip.

• In board games with two or more high or low hands, the odd chip goes to the first seat left of the button.
• In stud and razz, and if there are two or more high or low hands in stud hi-lo, the odd chip goes to the high card by suit in the best five-card hand.
• In hi-lo games, the odd chip goes to the winner of the high hand.
• In hi-lo games, if identical hands win both the high and the low, the pot will be split as evenly as possible.

As you can see, in that last (rare) situation there is no specific guideline covering who gets the odd chip when, say, two players both make wheels (5-4-3-2-A) to win the low hand with their 5-high straights also tying for the best high hands.

4. Who Shows First?

You've probably been there — you're in a multi-way no-limit hold'em hand, the action checks around on the river, then everyone hesitates, looking at each other and waiting for someone to show a hand.

Even experienced poker players are occasionally unsure who is supposed to show their cards first. Meanwhile most players are mindful of the fact that they shouldn't show hands unnecessarily, adding still further incentive to hestiate before flipping over one's hole cards.

Rules For 5 Hand Poker

But what's the rule?

If it checks around on the last betting round, then the showdown simply goes in the same order in which the players checked — that is, starting with the small blind, whoever was first to check would be the first to show a hand, with the action proceeding clockwise around the table from there. If a player in later position sees that he or she is beaten, that player can fold face down.

If there is betting on the last street, then the last player to take an 'aggressive action' — that is, betting or raising — is the one who must show a hand first at showdown. After that, the action (again) proceeds clockwise around the table, with the next player to the aggressor's left having to show next and so on.

So if Player A (acting first) leads with a bet on the river, Player B raises, and Player A calls, Player B would show first. If Player B just called that leading bet, then Player A would show first.

Read more about this rule in 'The Showdown: Rules, Procedures, and Etiquette.'

5. What If We Run Out of Cards?

Finally, let's go back to stud games for another not-so-well-known rule about a how to handle an exceedingly rare situation.

Most stud games — in both live games and when playing poker online — are played eight-handed. If you think about it, in a game in which players are ultimately each dealt seven cards (like seven-card stud and razz), if all eight players somehow managed to stick around to the end, a 52-card deck wouldn't be adequate since players would need 56 cards to complete their hands. And that doesn't even take into account the burn cards (one per each round from fourth through seventh street)!

5 Hand Poker Rules

What does the dealer do if there aren't enough cards left in the deck to deal everyone seventh street?

If there are enough cards left in the deck plus the burn cards to provide each player a final card (dealt face down), the burn cards are collected and reshuffled with the remaining cards, and everyone gets a final card. If in that instance there aren't enough cards to allow the dealer to burn one before dealing seventh street, there will be no burn card.

However, if there aren't enough total cards left (including the burn cards) to make it possible for everyone get a final card, a single card is dealt in the center of the table as a 'community card' that each remaining player can use when making a five-card poker hand.

It's a strange situation — a community card in a stud game — but it happens from time to time.