How To Play Five Card Draw

Each player antes up by placing their ante in the middle of the table.

Choose a dealer. One way to do this is to deal cards around the table face-up. The player to get the highest card is the dealer.

The dealer deals the cards face-down around the table, starting with the player to his or her left and continuing clockwise. Cards are dealt one at a time until each player has five cards.

Each player assesses his or her cards, and the first player to the left of the dealer opens the betting. That player may also say ‘Check,’ which passes the option to open the betting to the next player. Checking means that you don’t want to start the betting but want to see what happens without quitting.

When a bet is made, each player has three choices: fold, call, or raise.

If 1 player remains after every player has had the chance to call, raise, or fold, they are the winner. Otherwise, the dealer asks if you want new cards. Each player selects up to 3 cards to discard and places them face-down on the table. The dealer will then deal new cards face-down to bring each hand back to a total of five cards.

Once each players has had a chance to discard, there is a final round of betting, after which the remaining players show their hands.

The player with the highest five-card poker hand wins the pot.