Five Card Draw is perhaps the easiest online poker game you can play. Players will get five hole cards, followed by a betting round. Any player can choose to discard any card and draw to complete his hand back to five. After the last betting round, players evaluate their hands and choose who will claim the pot. The only time I'd draw 5 would be if I had a super trash hand with no flush draw, OESD, A, K, or Q. For example, a hand like J 9 8 5 2 rainbow I'd just dump it all. Obviously this is only if it were limped to me; I know Caro suggests raising and drawing 5.
This article showcases the three limit varieties of five card draw (5CD) played online. It is important to check the details about the table you are about to enter to prepare your strategy accordingly.
This is the most common kind of 5CD, in which the betting is restricted to the limits of the table. In this case, if you decide to raise, you can only add another bet to the current amount, to a limit of 3 raises. For example, in a 1 / 2 Fixed Limit game, the minimal bet is 1. If you raise, you get it to 2 chips. If another player decides to re-raise, he can add one more, to a total of 3. A following player can up that to 4 chips, which is the maximum (3 raises on the initial bet). As usual, after the draw phase, the betting limits double, starting at 2 and following as 4, 6 and 8 total.
This type of 5 card draw don’t limit your raises to one bet, but to the current pot size. This means that, in a 1 / 2 game, you could raise a previous 1 chip bet to anything between 2 chips and the pot size (the number of chips currently in the pot). Sometimes the pot grows to such a size that you are able to raise ALL-IN, meaning that you can raise with all your chips. These type of 5CD should be played with a little more caution, as explained below.
If you play Texas Hold’em Poker you are probably familiar with the “No Limit” version of the game. In the No Limit 5CD, the only real limit to your bet is your current amount of chips. When you are all-in, you are guaranteed until the end of the hand, even if someone raises the hand even further. These games are more wild, and should be played with caution if you are a beginner. In 5 card draw you may think you have the best possible hand, and be wrong, so take care while playing this variety.
Some tables may show the blind bets, instead of the pre-draw and post-draw bets, as shown above. In this case, a 1 / 2 table would mean 1 for the small blind and 2 for the big blind. After the draw, the minimum bet would be 4. Be sure to watch the game you are about to enter, to avoid confusion and loss of money.
Since you don’t have community cards in five card draw, we suggest that you play the fixed limit games, to avoid a lot of variation on your bankroll. The exception to this would be if you find a soft table of no limit 5CD, where you could use your skill to dominate the game and win a lot of money.