Draw Poker is the basic form of Poker and the place to start when introducing new players to the game. It's fairly uncommon these days in the casinos, but it is the form from which all other Poker games are derived.

The essence of Draw Poker is that the player builds a hand from 5 cards. After the initial round of betting the player may discard some or all of their cards and receive replacements. The players cards should never be revealed until the final Showdown, and are only then if absolutely necessary (more on that later). During the game, all cards are dealt and discarded face down.

There are two main things to learn when it comes to Draw Poker. The first is Poker's 5-card hands and their ranking. The second is the course of play including when and how to bet.

Poker Hands

A poker hand is made from the best arrangement of five cards and are ranked as follows, highest first:

• Royal Flush: A-K-Q-J-10, all same suit
• Straight Flush: any five consecutive cards, all same suit
• Four-of-a-Kind: four cards, same value (eg. four 7's)
• Full House: Three-of-a-Kind and a Pair
• Flush: any five cards of the same suit
• Straight: any five consecutive cards
• Three-of-a-Kind: three cards, same value
• Two Pair
• Pair
• No Pair: five dissimilar cards, mixed suit

There are no wild cards in Draw Poker. All suits are ranked equally.

The Course of Play

A round of Poker begins with determining the Dealer. The Deal usually rotates around the table from the right: if you've just dealt then the person on your left deals next.

The Ante

Once assigned, the Dealer receives the deck and shuffles. Each player pays the "ante" which is a small, flat fee you pay to purchase the right to play that round. If you don't ante it means you are "sitting out". These monies and all others in the game go into the center of the table in a pile called "the pot". Once the antes are in, the Dealer deals one card at a time, face down, to each player around the table, beginning on the Dealer's left. Then the second card is dealt to each player, and so on until each player has 5 cards, all face down.

Pass, Bet or Fold

Players pick up their cards and assess their hand. The player to the Dealer's left opens the betting round by either placing a Bet, indicating a Pass by placing no bet, or Folding by discarding their hand.

Call and Raise

The next player to the left now has the opportunity to Bet. Or they can Fold. If the previous players Passed then they can Pass too or place a Bet of their own. If other players have Bet and they wish to stay in the round they must Call by matching any outstanding bets. They can then Raise by placing a bet of their own.

The betting then moves to the next player on the left, then the next, and so on back to and including the Dealer.

Once the Dealer has placed their bet, the other players must Call any outstanding bets or Fold. Generally speaking, no Raises are permitted once the betting has passed around to the Dealer.

Discarding

Players may now Discard any or all of their cards based on their hopes of building a better hand. Cards are discarded face down and collected by the Dealer.

Replacements

The Dealer now deals each player, starting on the left, their replacement cards, face down.

As before the Player on the Dealer's left begins the betting and the betting proceeds around the table.

Again, the Dealer gets the final Raise. Then everyone else must Call or Fold. Finally, the remaining players are ready for the Showdown.

If at any time there is only one player left in the game they take the pot. This player is encouraged to keep their cards hidden and muck them to the Dealer.

Showdown

After the final betting round, and all the necessary Calls, the players still in the game have reached the Showdown. The player's hands are revealed. The best hand wins and the winner takes the pot.

If there are tied winning hands then the rank of the individual cards determines the winner. For instance Full House of Aces over Jacks beats a Full House of Kings over Jacks. If it's still a tie and there are no kickers (spare cards not used to build the final hand) then the pot is split.

If the rank of the individual cards doesn't determine the winner, then the kicker(s) of higher rank determines the winner. If it's still a tie, the pot is split.

If there are no "name" hands (all players have No Pair), then the highest ranking single card is declared the winning hand. If it comes to a dead tie (no clear winner, all cards same rank) then the pot is split.

Suit is never used to determine a winner in Poker.

Conclusion

While hands and betting are the basic rules, there is much, much more to being a successful Poker player. Poker is not about having the highest ranking hand, it's about winning the biggest pots. How you do that, short of cheating, is your business and that is what makes Poker the beloved game that it is.

When it comes to Poker strategy, there are a few things to get straight right off the top. You could call these the Golden Rules of Poker 'cause they apply to pretty much any Poker game you're likely to play:

• Don't play cash poor: as a general rule you should start with 40-50 times the table limit.
• If you've got nothing in your hand, get out.
• If you've got a cinch hand, make them pay to see it.
• If they've got you beat, fold.
• The goal is to beat the other players, not have the highest hand. If everyone else folds, you take the pot.
• Don't try to beat a better player: if you're lucky, you'll win small; if you're not, you'll lose big.
• There's an even chance that you won't better your opening hand.

When it comes to Draw Poker Strategy we begin by considering the rank of the winning hands. In the Rules of Draw Poker, we introduced the 5-card hands and their ranking. Here's some idea of the odds on receiving those hands on the opening deal:

Based on these chances of receiving an opening hand, there are a few things you can immediately conclude:

• the more players at the table, the greater the chance that one or more players has a Pair, for example. In other words...
• the more players at the table, the lower the relative value of the lesser ranked hands.
• if you haven't got a Pair or better, or four cards to a Flush or Straight, Fold immediately.

Perhaps this last bit of advice needs some elaboration. What it comes down to is this: if you hold nothing in the opener your chances of improving and beating the other players are too slim. Of course this means that you'll fold most of your opening hands. Welcome to Draw Poker.

So let's assume you've got a little something to build on. Every beginning player wants to know whether they should hold a kicker and a Pair, or just the Pair. Same with Trips. As you'll see in the following, the odds almost always favor tossing the kicker:

Needless to say, the better your opener, the better your chances of improving it. But forget about trying to build something out of a three card Flush or Straight: your odds are 1 in 23 and 1 in 150 respectively. It's highly unlikely that the pot would ever justify that kind of risk.

On the upside, observe the following chances if you hold four cards to build on:

In the end, it's these odds that must advise you on your Poker betting decisions. If you've got a four-card Flush and it'll cost you $20 to stay in, the question is "yes or no"?

First question: what are your chances of completion on the draw? 1 in 4.5 So if you're going to stay in, that pot better pay you $90 or better (4.5 x $20), after you deduct your ante and bets thus far. Anything else is blind faith in beating the odds and the sidelines are full of players who tried that as their betting policy. Look where it got them.

Of course, Poker wouldn't be Poker if that was all there was to it. Bluffing, intimidation, body language and all the rest of it come into the game if you're playing your opponents across a table instead of across cyberspace. If that's your game I suggest you do some serious reading.

There are many, many books on the Poker subject and your first tough choice will be picking one. But remember, Poker has been around a long time. Anyone that tries to sell you a "hot new strategy" is beating you at the book counter, not the Poker table. Go with the pros.