The rulebook

How to play Five Card Draw

Five cards, one draw, and two rounds of betting decide who takes the pot.

Step 1

The deal

Every seat is dealt five cards face-down and starts on 200 chips. Before anyone looks at their hand, every seat posts the 10-chip ante — into the pot, win or lose, so a table that folds every hand still pays to play.

Step 2

First round of betting

Starting left of the dealer, each player in turn may check (pass, only while nobody has bet), bet 20, call a bet already on the table, raise it by the same amount again, or fold. The round closes once everyone still in has matched the largest bet, and caps at 4 raises.

Step 3

The draw

Everyone still in the hand may discard up to 3 cards and draw the same number back from the deck, or keep all five as dealt (“standing pat”). This is the one moment anything is hidden: the table watches how many cards you drew, never which ones.

Step 4

Second round of betting

Same actions as the first round, this time at 40 — fixed-limit doubles after the draw.

Step 5

Showdown

Two or more players still in once the betting closes means the best five-card hand wins the pot — the quick-reference drawer at the table has the full ranking, high card up to straight flush. If everyone else has folded, the last player left takes the pot without needing to show their hand at all. Only a contested showdown reveals hands here — a hand nobody called stays face-down forever.

Step 6

Winning the match

Chips carry from hand to hand. A seat that runs out sits out further hands but keeps its place at the table; play continues until one seat holds every chip, or — on the rare table that runs very long — 1000 hands are reached and the largest stack takes it.

Step 7

What this table fixes

Betting is fixed-limit: a bet or a raise is always the table's own set amount (20 before the draw, 40 after), and a betting round caps at 4 raises, so it can never run away. No-limit betting is a real way to play this game — it just isn't offered here.