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GUIDE TO POKER 5-CARD DRAW

Introduction to Simple Poker

The simplest common form of poker is the five card draw.  During the early 1800’s this type of poker has been the type played by most gamblers.  The cards you need are dealt to you all at one time.  In other poker games, the cards are dealt partially so that you won’t know what’s coming to you.  Other games too are played longer than the five card draw because there are more rounds of betting than in this case.  Ideally, player numbers could be anywhere between 2-8 over a deck of 52 cards and stack of chips for betting.

Playing the Game

The first poker game rule for five card draw is to have all players put in the same amount of bets to have pot money before any cards are dealt.  This is known in poker circles as ante and is not considered as betting.  Instead, the intent of ante is to get the pot money started so that everyone gets to feel their own money at stake and they would each one want to get the entire pot to themselves towards the end of the game.

Game action starts when each player are dealt five cards face down starting from the player to the left of the dealer then moving clockwise until all players are dealt their own cards.  The players will then get a chance to examine their cards and decide for themselves if they want to stand pat with their lot or trade some of the cards.  But we’re going ahead of the game.

The first round of betting after the players get their first five cards without showing any of it or at least showing no indication of what they got to opponents with quirky movements or expressions.  During this round, you can see all types of betting occur.  You got someone calling or raising the bet.  You’ll see probably see very few trying to bluff this early.  The real action won’t really happen during this round but on the next round of betting.

Those players who aren’t as happy with their first five cards may want to trade 1-3 of them.  A player is allowed to trade 4 of the 5 cards if he’s got an ace and show it to the others before he can trade them.  If you’re good with your hand, there would be no need to trade them.  Betting starts again with the player from the dealer’s left.  After this, everyone shows what they got and the best hand wins the entire pot.