Five Card Draw
Forced Money
The game is played with a button and blinds.
Dealing Procedure
Each player is dealt five cards face down, followed by a round of betting at the small bet limit.
Each player in turn discards zero to five cards from their hand. Once all of the discards have been announced, the dealer will deal each player an appropriate number of replacement cards. This is followed by a round of betting at the big bet limit. This is followed by a showdown.
There are no restrictions on what the minimum qualifying hand is to open for a raise. This is often called “Guts To Open”, as opposed to “Jacks or Better”, where the opener must have at least a pair of jacks to open.
Draw is played with a joker/bug. The joker can only be used as an ace or to complete a straight or flush.
Evaluating the Showdown
The best high five-card hand wins the pot. NOTE: This game was most commonly played as a limit game, although although big-bet formats in either pot-limit or no-limit existed. It is sometimes played without the joker/bug.