How to Play 5 Card Draw (Rules + the 2-Player Version)

In five card draw you can usually only throw away three cards unless you show the table an ace and then you can throw away four. And that one house rule starts more arguments than anything else in the game because the second you flip that ace over everybody knows exactly what you're holding. It's the classic kitchen table game, the one a lot of us learned from a dad or a grandpa before anybody played hold'em and it's still the fastest poker game to teach. And under the biggest five card draw videos one of the most liked comments is someone saying their dad doesn't know poker yet so they're making him watch before they play. Other people ask when you show your cards how many rounds there are and how many people can play. So let's answer all of it starting at the deal. Everyone puts in an ante first, a small amount like 25 cents, so there's a pot before anyone looks at a card. The dealer gives everybody five cards face down one at a time starting on their left. There's no board and nothing face up so your five cards are your whole hand and nobody sees them until the end. Some groups use blinds instead like hold'em and that works too, but antes are the classic home game way. Then the first betting round starts with the player on the dealer's left. You can check or bet and once someone bets everyone after has to call, raise, or fold. If your hold'em game is 25 cent 50 cent, play 50 cent bets before the draw and $1 after it. Then comes the draw. Starting on the dealer's left each player still in throws away the cards they don't want face down and gets the same number of new ones. You can take one, two, three, or none which is called standing pat and the dealer draws last and that's the whole structure, two betting rounds with one draw in between. But how many cards you can throw away is the rule nobody agrees on. The most common home rule is three at most or four if the card you keep is an ace and you have to show the ace to prove it. Plenty of card rooms let you draw all five so it really is a house rule and you decide it before the first deal. And [music] one comment asked the right question, doesn't showing the ace tell everyone you've got an ace? It does because the moment you flip it the whole table knows you're drawing to one card and nothing else. >> [music] >> After the draw comes the second betting round starting again with the first player are in on the dealer's left. Then if more than one person is left, it's the showdown. The last person who better raise shows first, and if everybody checked, the player on the dealer's left shows first. And the card speaks, so if someone reads their hand wrong, the table reads it for them. So, let's play one with four friends, and Jen is dealing. Mike picks up two queens with an eight, a five, and a deuce. Sarah has four hearts, the nine, eight, seven, and four with the king of clubs. Tony has nothing but an ace and a king. And Jen has two pair, sevens and fours with a jack. Mike is on the dealer's left, so he bets 50 cents with his queens. Sarah calls because four hearts is worth drawing to. Tony calls because he's planning to use the ace rule, and Jen raises to a dollar with her two pair, and all three of them call. Now the draw. Mike keeps his queens and takes three, and he catches the queen of clubs, so now he has three queens. Sarah throws the king, draws one, and it's the deuce of hearts, so she just made a flush. Tony flips his ace of clubs face up, draws four, and catches the ace of diamonds for a pair of aces. And Jen keeps her two pair, draws one, and gets the king of hearts, so she still has sevens and fours. Now look at what everyone else saw. Mike drew three, so he probably started with a pair. Tony showed his ace, so everybody knows he started with almost nothing. But Sarah and Jen both drew one card, and from across the table, those look exactly the same because one card could be two pair or a flush that just hit. Mike bets a dollar, Sarah raises to two, Tony and Jen fold, and Mike calls. Sarah made the last raise, so she shows first, and her flush beats his three queens. And that's the skill in this game because you never see a single card, so the number someone draws is the only card they ever show you. And the house rule a lot of tables add is jacks or better. You need at least a pair of jacks to make the first bet, and once somebody opens, anyone can call with anything. If nobody can open, everybody antes again, and the cards get dealt again. So, the pot keeps growing, and with [music] four players, that happens about four deals in 10. The opener has to prove it at the end, so if you open with two jacks and throw one away chasing a flush, you keep that jack to the side and show it. In our hand, Mike's queens were enough to open, so it plays exactly the same. And five card draw is one of the best games for just two people because you only use 10 cards, so the deck never runs out and a lot of tables let you draw as many as you want. The player who isn't dealing acts first in both rounds and the deal switches every hand. But, the big change is what a good hand is because with two players one pair wins a lot of pots and jacks or better doesn't work because about six deals in 10 nobody could open. So, how many people can play? About six is comfortable. With seven everybody drawing three can use up the deck, so the dealer shuffles the discards and keeps dealing, but never the cards the player being served just threw away. More than that and it's time for seven card stud, which is the other video in this series. So, if you're hosting draw tonight, say the house rules out loud before the first deal, how many cards you can draw, whether you show an ace, and whether it's jacks or better. Keep the ante small, so a few past hands don't eat anybody's stack, and if you're keeping track of who bought in and who rebought, that's what HG Poker does, the app I built for our home game. It takes no bets, holds no money, and moves no money. It just keeps track of the night. So, tell me in the comments, how many cards does your table let you draw? Three, four with an ace, or all five? And when Sarah and Jen both drew one, which one would you have put on the flush? Remember, two betting rounds, one draw, and the number of cards someone takes is the only card they ever show you. >> [music]