5 Card Draw

We are introducing «5 Card Draw» - one of the simplest and easiest-to-understand poker game variants. While this game type shares many similarities with Texas Hold’em poker, such as the hand rankings and the supported betting formats, there are several key differences

Players can join a “5 Card Draw” tournament or cash game from the respective Tournament/Cash view of our clients. The players can easily locate the new game by using the newly added “5 Card Draw” game type filter in the Tournaments and Cash views.

In the Web client, there is a new dedicated 5 Card Draw cash game view, where the players can easily find and join a 5 Card Draw cash game:

Important: The 5 Card Draw game supports Fixed Limit, Pot Limit, and No Limit betting formats, which function in the same way as for the other game types, and doesn't support Twisters.

The game starts when all players are dealt 5 face-down hole cards. The first betting round, also known as the Pre-Draw round, follows. In it, the player to the left of Big Blind must act first, followed by each player in turn (going in a clockwise direction)

In the Pre-Draw round, the players can already start selecting the cards for discarding: Once all players at the table have acted, the pre-draw round ends and the Draw phase begins.

During the Draw phase, all players at the table have a chance to discard their cards and receive new ones. The first player to act is the active one to the left of the Dealer button. Each player can either decide to keep their initially dealt hole cards by selecting the Stand Pat button or discard some or all of their cards via the Discard X Cards button, where X is the number of the cards selected to be discarded.

When the player selects the Discard X Cards button, the player will immediately be dealt the new replacement cards without waiting for other players to discard.

Important: Keep in mind that during the Draw phase, the players can also act before their turn comes. To do so, the players should mark the cards they want to replace (if any) and mark the pre-action button so that they don’t have to wait for their turn to come (the client will automatically perform the action marked via the pre-action button). The pre-action button behaves in the same way as the Stand Pat/Discard X Cards button described above.

Once all players used their chance to replace their cards, the Draw phase ends and the second betting round begins.

The second betting round is carried out in the same manner as the first betting round, with the difference that the players no longer have a chance to mark cards to be discarded.

If no winner is determined by the end of the betting round, a Showdown phase begins. During the Showdown, the cards of all remaining players are revealed and a winner is determined.

The hand rankings in 5 Card Draw poker are the same as in Texas Hold’em, with suits being irrelevant. If two or more players have the same hand at showdown, the pot is split.

General rules:

• A minimum of 2 and a maximum of 8 players per table
• Standard 52-card deck
• No burn cards or wild cards/jokers, and no antes in cash games
• Players can stick to their initial hole cards or discard a maximum of 5 cards

To ensure fair play and prevent players from receiving back the cards they discarded, when the deck runs out of cards, the already discarded cards will be shuffled (except the ones discarded by the current player). The remaining players will receive their replacement cards from the new reshuffled deck.

Apart from the unique rules and gameplay specifics, the game behaves similarly to all other supported game types.

Rakeback

The method for collecting rake varies based on whether the player is participating in a 5 Card Draw cash game or tournament:

• For cash tables, the rake gets charged from each pot, except when the hand ends before the draw phase
• For tournaments, the rake is collected as an entry fee

The new “5 Card Draw” game type is supported in the Download Desktop, Native Mobile, and Web clients.