What is draw poker?

Draw poker is a family of poker games where each player is dealt a full hand before the first round of betting takes place. In the following rounds each player will then have the chance to develop their hand by replacing cards they hold with cards from the deck.

Five card draw is considered the most popular, although it does find itself confined to home games or online games rather than at a table within a casino. The popularity of Texas Hold’Em is likely to be the main reason why.

Five card draw is played with a hand being dealt to each player to begin with. Each player has the chance to look at their hand before the first betting round, If the player wishes to remain in the hand they will place bets, in a clockwise direction either from the dealer or from the big blind, depending on if it is a home or casino variant. After the betting any players who still want to be in the hand will draw cards, they can replace up to 3 cards, unless they hold an ace, in which case the 4 other cards can be exchanged, in an attempt to obtain the winning hand. Following this draw there will be the second round of betting and if anybody remains after this then it goes to a showdown.

There are also lot of variants of draw poker that are local to a specific region, for example, Gardena jackpots was a very popular game in California between the 1930’s and 1970’s. The introduction of stud based and community card based poker games however saw a decline in the draw poker variant.

If you are looking to experience for yourself what draw poker is all about then head on over to OCK where you can have a go and learn some neat tips along the way.