5 Card Draw is one of the traditional poker games before the Texas Holdem boom swept it away. It is probably one of the easier poker variations to learn and should give you a basic foundation which will serve you well when you move on to other forms of poker.
Although 5-card draw poker has mostly departed from the modern casino-poker and cardroom-poker scene, it can still be found in many home games, and-because of its important place in early poker history-in most of the movies which feature poker or poker scenes.
After all, who can forget Paul Newman turning over four Jacks in The Sting, when his opponent held four Nines (and had thought he had cheated by giving Newman four Threes, only to find he'd been out-stung)?
Most of the poker games in old Westerns also featured 5-card draw, in part because the game was indeed played much more often then, but primarily because the movie watcher probably knew very little about poker so could see a player's entire hand at once.
With games like Hold 'em and 7-card stud, the mechanics of showing viewers hole cards and up cards produced too great a challenge, especially when the movie really wasn't about poker, but about good guys and bad guys, winning and losing, and the post-game gunfight. As with all games, the hand ranks remain the same, a flush beats a straight, etc.
In casino play the first betting round begins with the player to the left of the big blind , and the following rounds begin with the player to the dealer's left. Home games typically use an ante, the 1st betting round begins with the player to the dealer's left, and the 2nd round starts with the player who opened the 1st round.
The dealer deals five cards to each player, ALL are dealt face down. In draw, no one sees any of anyone else's cards until the hand is over and it's time to see who has won. As a result, there is much less visual information available to the players about who holds what kind of hand. Although more subtle clues like the size of the bet, the nervousness of the player, and how many cards he drew becomes more important, as does bluffing.
The cards are deal one at a time, all face down. The remaining deck is placed aside, often protected by placing a chip or other marker on it. Players pick up the cards and hold them in their hands, being careful to keep them concealed from the other players, then a round of betting occurs.
After the initial round of betting, the players remaining in the hand have an option to replace cards. Each player specifies how many of his cards he wishes to replace, and discards them. The deck is retrieved, and after a burn card is dealt each player is dealt in turn from the deck the same number of cards he discarded so that each player again has five cards. It is important that each player discards the cards he wishes to replace before he takes any replacements, and that he takes the same number of replacements as he discarded.
A second "after the draw" betting round occurs beginning with the player to the dealer's left or else beginning with the player who opened the first round (the latter is common when antes are used instead of blinds). This is followed by a showdown if more than one player remains, in which the player with the best hand wins the pot. If one player has bet or raised, and is not called by anyone else, he wins the pot and does not have to show his hand to anyone else.
The rules governing how many cards a player can draw vary. In some games, a player can draw five completely new cards, although it's impossible to imagine a situation where this would be a smart play. In some games a player can draw four new cards if the lone card he retains is an Ace. This isn't a good play, either, for two reasons. First, to draw the four cards, the player must show everyone that he has an Ace, which is giving a lot of information away.
A standard house rule in some places is that a player may not replace more than three cards, unless he draws four cards while keeping an ace. This rule is only needed for low-stakes fun games where many players will stay for the draw, and will help avoid depletion of the deck. In more serious games such as those played in casinos it is unnecessary and generally not used. A rule that is used by many casinos is that a player is not allowed to draw five consecutive cards from the deck. In this case, if a player wishes to replace all five of his cards, he is given four of them in turn, the other players are given their draws, and then the dealer returns to that player to give him his fifth replacement; if no other player draws it is necessary to deal a burn card first.
Most of the time, then, players will draw three, two, one, or no cards. A player who draws no cards is said to be pat. This creates the impression that he has a strong hand like a straight, a flush, or a full house.
Sometimes in an effort to be tricky or create the impression of strength, a player who holds two pair or three of a kind will draw no cards. This player is giving up a potentially very useful and important chance to improve his hand, in return for creating the appearance of even more strength than he actually has.
For similar reasons, sometimes a player holding a completely worthless hand will draw no cards, and hope that this appearance of strength, combined with strong betting and raising, will win the pot by making everyone else fold. Usually such a play can only work in a no-limit game, where the player can bet everything he has, and is for reasons that should hopefully be obvious, very risky. Beginning players should avoid these extremely risky bluffing plays and try to focus on drawing to good hands.