Poker developed throughout the years by individual players, moving across the U.S on riverboats, adding their own variations and incites to the game. As a result poker is one of the most diverse and widely spread card games. In this series of articles we will try to get you familiar with the most popular forms of poker, one at a time. As there are dozens of different variations, many of them are mostly regional, we will review only the most popular and well known and those you can find in any casino. The most renowned form of poker, the one you most likely see in a poker movie, is the five card draw. Though it's considered as the standard poker variation, it isn't played that much anymore. In most casinos and tournaments you won't see people playing five card draw.
In Five Card Draw poker the dealer deals five cards to each player. The dealing is followed by a betting round. After the bet takes place every player can exchange any number of cards he wants. Exchanging the cards means the player discards as many cards as he wants and receives new cards from the dealer. Though technically you can change any number of cards, it will be strategically unwise to deal more than three cards, usually even two. After the players finish drawing cards another betting round takes place. Afterwards there's the showdown. The player with the best hand wins the hand. If you want to learn what's the rank of the hands please refer to our "Poker Hands Ranking" article.
Ronald Taylor, Editor.
September 21, 2005