5 Card Draw Rules

A Beginners’ Guide to Five Card Draw
Five Card Draw is one of the first games which a lot of new players learn, due to its simple poker rules and popularity at home games. There are two betting rounds, one before the draw and one after the draw. The following guide describes the poker rules for a Fixed Limit Five Card Stud hand.

Pre-Draw
The size of the blinds is determined by the table’s betting limits – the small blind is equal to half the lower bet amount, and the big blind is equal to the lower bet amount. For example – in a $2/$4 Fixed Limit Five Card Draw game, the small blind (SB) would be $1 and the big blind (BB) would be $2. At the start of a hand, the player to the left of the dealer button posts the small blind, and the player to his left posts the big blind. Then, starting with the small blind, five cards are dealt face down to each player, and the action begins with the player to the left of the big blind, who is referred to as being “under the gun”. He may fold (muck his hand and take no further action in the pot), call (put in an amount equal to the big blind) or raise (put in an amount twice the big blind).
Play continues in this manner around the table until all players have matched the current bet amount or folded. The blinds posted at the start of the hand are considered live and contribute to the players’ bet – if no one raises before action gets round to the big blind, he has the option of checking and proceeding to the draw phase, or raising and re-opening the betting. Normal fixed limit poker rules dictate there is a maximum of 3 raises on any betting round.

The Draw
Once all betting is complete, the draw phase begins. Starting from the left of the button, each player selects however many cards he wishes to replace and discards them face down. Each player is then in turn dealt the same number of cards they discarded. Players can draw any number of cards from 0 to 5, and it is important that players discard their cards before they are dealt their replacements.

Post-Draw
After all players have drawn cards, a second round of betting ensues. Bets at this stage are of the higher betting limit (so $4 in the same $2/$4 game), and betting begins with the player to the left of the button whose upcards show the highest hand. Play continues in a clockwise direction until all players have matched the required bet or folded.

Showdown
All players still left in the hand at this stage now turn their cards over. Each player uses all five cards in their hand to form their final five card hand using standard poker rules. The best hand at the showdown wins the pot, and if there are two or more hands of the same value, then the pot is split up into equal parts.

No Limit/Pot Limit Five Card Draw Poker Rules If No Limit or Pot Limit Five Card Draw is being played, the game plays in the same way with the following poker rules exceptions:

Bets can be of any size above the amount of the big blind (up to the current pot size in a PL game)

Raises can be of any size above the size of the previous (up to the current pot size in a PL game)

There is no limit to the number of raises permitted.

The table stakes ($0.25/$0.50, $3/$6 etc.) represent the size of the blinds, not bet sizes.